How to Sew a Dog Coat
Hello everyone! This time I tried to sew something totally new for me and I can tell you that my Bernina L460 overlocker made it easy! I live in Haute-Savoie and it is often very cold in winter. We live in an area where it is possible to go cross-country skiing and we are often outside during the cold months. We have a very active dog who runs a lot and warms up by being active.
However, Nala is not a polar dog, and especially her belly is quite bare and very exposed to snow and ice, especially when she runs in deep snow. And especially when she has to be kept on a leash or we take a break, there is no way for her to warm up enough. The solution to this problem was quite simple: Sew a dog coat! Many dog coats on the market only cover the back, but we wanted a coat that also covers the dog's belly, without preventing her from moving.
When choosing the fabric, I opted for a softshell with fleece inside. This way, the coat has an extra warm layer on the inside and a smooth surface on the outside, preventing wind, snow and rain from penetrating. This material is not too expensive, has a bit of flexibility and is very easy to sew. However, softshell and fleece attract a lot of dog hair - I'm sorry for all the dog hair in my pictures - I couldn't remove them all with a photoshop! =D
All I needed was some velcro (I used 2cm wide velcro as that's what I had, but wider velcro might be even better! You could also just use velcro, but I find it's easier to adjust the dog's coat with the added straps.
Indeed, I knew exactly what I wanted to do - and every dog is so different that standard patterns require a lot of adjustments anyway. To start, I measured my dog from neck to back, to calculate the length of the coat. Then I measured my dog's belly to calculate the length of the flaps around her belly, and her neck to get an idea of the length of the straps around her neck. To this end, I cut out a rough pattern from paper, similar to the shape below:
dog coat | Capy™
The reason I chose this shape is simple: To avoid unnecessary seams that could irritate our dog when he wears the coat, I wanted to make everything in one piece. Then I pinned the pattern around my dog, checking the fit. The alterations can vary greatly, but I had to, for example, widen the curve around his back legs so he could run properly and I had to make the flaps around his neck less curved because I had some excess fabric around the outer curve. Make sure the flaps around the neck and belly overlap enough!
Once I had the shapes cut out of my real fabric, I did one last try on my dog to make sure everything was right. The softshell doesn’t fray—but who wants completely raw edges? I could have edged the edges with bias tape, but this has two drawbacks: first, it can be difficult to get around the curves without getting in the way, and second, it adds bulk to the edges, which may irritate your dog. My Bernina L 460 overlocker made this easy: I simply topstitched the entire coat, starting and stopping at one of the belly flaps. This way, I got very clean edges and a professional finish without adding any extra bulk. Don’t topstitched edges look great?
dog coat | Capy™
Now all that's left is to add the straps and velcro so that the coat can be adjusted and fastened easily. I tried on the coat and placed pins where I wanted the different parts of the velcro to start and end. To prevent the velcro from opening, even when our dog is running in the snow, I chose to sew fairly long strips of velcro. I chose to sew the "hard" part of the velcro to the neck flap that is hidden under the other. This way, I knew that the hard part of the velcro would never touch the dog's skin, even if the two parts of the velcro did not completely overlap. For the belly flaps, I chose to sew the soft part of the velcro to the inside flap and the hard part of the velcro to the straps. The velcro part of the straps will always be totally hidden, while the soft part may be partially visible when the dog is wearing the coat, as I have sewn longer velcro straps to make it easier to adjust the coat if needed.
First, I sewed the velcro to the strap, then I attached all of the velcro straps and the strap to the softshell fabric itself. After attaching all of the velcro straps and the strap to the softshell fabric, I made sure to sew along the edge of the velcro, going back and forth in the corners to reinforce the seams. Additionally, I chose to sew twice around the strap to make sure the seams would hold well.
Our dog doesn't seem to mind wearing it at all, which is a good sign. The velcro holds the coat well and Sara shivers less when we're outside for hours at a time. I definitely recommend this sewing project, especially since it's quick to make, much cheaper than a store-bought version, and may be a better fit for your dog than a standard version.
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