There is a little dog called Alfie in my neighborhood who can best be described as mighty. He may be small but has a big dog personality. He goes out for his daily walks in all weather and in the winter wears the sweetest little coats. I have been itching to make him something to wear for ages!
I have recently got to know his owner a lot better and felt more comfortable offering to make him a coat!
So I couldn’t just make him any old coat, it had to be a custom coat and that meant designing a bespoke fabric. Alfie’s favorite toy is a giraffe called Gerry with rope arms and legs and that is what I used for inspiration
I ended up designing two patterns.
One for the outside of the coat that featured Gerry the giraffe and a simpler one for the coat lining with bones. Both designs are available in my Spoonflower shop. The outer fabric featuring Gerry I had printed on a lightweight cotton twill which is a good robust fabric without the weight of denim. For the coat lining with bones I picked minky, which is a nice plush warm choice for snuggly comfort.
Then I created a sewing pattern by cloning one of his current coats. The pattern is FREE to DOWNLOAD and print out so you can make your own little dog coat!
How to sew a little dog coat
You will need.
- A fat quarter (27″ x 18″) of fabric for coat. A good thick cotton will work
- A fat quarter (27″ x 18″) of fabric for lining in something soft like fleece or minky
- A fat quarter (27″ x 18″) of iron on fusible fleece
- Printed Pattern- DOWNLOAD THE FREE DOG COAT SEWING PATTERN HERE
- 8″ Velcro cut into 4″ pieces
- Sewing thread
- Sewing machine
- Scissors
Start by cutting out your fabric and fusible fleece. You will need to cut out each pattern piece on the both the main fabric and lining but only the main body of the coat for the fusible fleece.
Iron the fusible fleece in place on the main coat fabric. I chose to do a bit of quilting to embellish the design but you can totally skip that.
Now to the main sewing, the seam allowance is 1/2″!
Start with the collar. Put right sides together and sew as shown. Snip the seam allowance down to reduce the bulk and turn right sides out and top stitch. Do the same process with each of the side straps.
Take your main coat piece and pin the collar and straps in place, right sides (or main coat fabric) together as shown.
Then line up and pin the lining, right sides together.
Sew as shown being sure to leave a small gap at the bottom. Turn the garment right sides out. Pin gap shut and top stich around the main body of the coat catching gap to sew it shut.
Sew Velcro in place and voila, you doggy coat is complete!
And now here is Mr Alfie himself modelling his new coat, isn’t he just the sweetest pup!
