Dog Coat – Butterick B4885

This is the sweet face I wake up to every morning!

I’ve been sporadically working on this project for a few weeks, in between the Sew For Victory Challenge and the Mad Men Challenge. I figured since it’s spring I should make Guinness a raincoat considering he hates going potty and getting wet. I had leftover vinyl from my Harley Quinn costume and thought that would be perfect.

Everything I used for this project was from my stash – so it worked out perfectly! For the inside lining I used the white with black polka dot fabric that I had previously used for the Mad Men Challenge. I had some leftover ribbon from who knows where (I didn’t have enough to put it around the whole coat like the instructions suggested). I used some snaps and buttons that I had and found some old velcro laying around.

I made view A from the pattern. I kept debating on view B because it has a hood and being a raincoat that would make 100% sense, but Guinness said no – he had to draw the line somewhere! This winter I’ll be making view C, I have some leftover faux fur and have an idea of a totally cheesy, but awesome, pimp coat 😉

While making this I followed the directions about 90% of the time. They were easy to follow, the only part I had issues with was the neck hole. It’s not that it’s really hard to understand, it’s just awkward having the wrong sides together and folding in the seam to understitch it. Maybe I followed directions wrong though… that happens! I also found that the neck hole was way bigger than it should have been. I had to add snaps around the front to tighten things up a bit, can’t have Guinness tripping over the front panel! I also added a button on the opposite side of the snaps – so it looks a bit better.

I had problems with the sizing part. The pattern is a one size fits all, which is great, but the sizing chart said he should be a size small. When I remake this I think I’ll do an extra small but make it longer. Guinness is a Yorkshire Terrier but he’s a BIG Yorkie! He’s not fat at all, he’s just very tall and long. So the length of the size small fit him well but the belt was loose around his tummy. To fix that I added longer velcro the belt and it worked like a charm!

Length:

I recommend this pattern for sure. It was fairly quick, you could finish it in about 4-8 hours… depending how much detail you do and your skill level. Guinness didn’t seem to mind wearing it, so that’s a huge plus! He wore it in the house, ran up the stairs without tripping, went outside ran around and even went potty with no issues. It’s supposed to rain here in the next few days, so I want to see how well it will work out. Here’s an action shot:

Throughout this entire project Guinness was such a trooper. I would call him down for model fittings and he would come over looking a bit worried but stand still for measurements and test fittings. When I told him it was time to go model he was psyched! Then again that may of had something to do with me getting about 10 treats out of the jar… LOL. But I swear he knew what I was trying to do and he kept giving me the cutest model faces 😉

If you want to buy the pattern: Butterick.com – B4885. Since it’s just a coat you won’t be needing yards and yards of fabric, which is nice and cheap 🙂

I know of a few other sewists that are ridiculously obsessed with their dogs – and I LOVE IT! Do any of you make clothes for their pets? I know it’s kind of crazy but he’s my baby <3 On that note... here is a funny shot ... he was jumping up to get his treat! Boy oh boy he loves those dog biscuits! HAHA!

He’s going to be so pissed at me for putting this one up!