Old Sweater, New Dog Coat

(Pittsburgh, Pa)

We are tight on money right now and fall/winter will be coming soon so I decided to make a coat for my 6 month old puppy, Little Bear. I chose to use an old sweater because it seemed like the easiest thing I could use to make the coat. Basically all I did was sew patches of the sweater together until it was done.

1st I cut out a piece of the sweater that would cover his back,
2nd I cut out the elastic like cuff that was on the pocket to use for the neck lining of the coat(sewed it on),
3rd I cut out another elastic-like piece of fabric to cover the front of the chest(sewed that on & added buttons),
4th I cut out another elastic-like piece of fabric to wrap around the belly (sewed it on & added buttons),
5th I cut out a piece of fabric to attach to the chest cover and the belly cover (so it would cover the whole chest/belly area),
6th I cut out the very tip of the hood of the sweater to make a little doggy hood (sewed it on). Done.
All together this took about 2 days but I didn't have a sewing machine so it could have gone much quicker.


Editor's note: Love your creativity - thank you for the detailed instructions and photos for making this homemade dog coat!