Snow Day Sewing

Last year we had a big snow day and inspired by Anna at Door Sixteen, I started on dog sweaters for Sophie and Shenanigan.  Because, you know, it’s natural for dogs to want to wear sweaters when it snows . . . .

I had picked out two 100% wool sweaters at Goodwill a long, long time ago.  I remember the pickins’ were suprisingly slim — I was kind of hoping for a Cosby-esque sweater for Shenanigan but those were all blends.  The reason for the 100% wool is Step #2 — I felted them.  It was simple, I just washed the two sweaters in as hot water as my washer would supply and dryed them at high heat as well.  Twice.  The result was little doll (and dog) sized sweaters.  Since they are felted, you can now cut them up without any unraveling at the edges. 

Step 3 involved butchering the sweaters and terrifying the dogs while chasing them around and trying to fit these pieces together.  I jazzed Shenenigan’s sweater up by adding a hoodie component made out of a Snuggie he had destroyed. Sophie’s has a fold-down collar/neck.    And then it was spring and there was no need for dog sweaters.

Fast forward to more than a year later and St. Louis received another brief but pretty snowfall last night.  The dogs hadn’t yet been able to wear their snow day sweaters because I had never finished them – they didn’t have belly bands or any fastening system.  (The story of all my craft projects – half baked.)  I garnered some inpiration from Young House Love’s “Dude Get On That Already” challenge and last night I whipped out the sewing machine, attached the belly band and sewed on some velcro.  Project complete.  They’re kind of a mess but I don’t really care – they’re done!  Neither does Sophie, she loves hers and Shenanigan just kind of tolerates it.  It makes him look like a hobbit, poor guy.  But he bravely wore it out into the snow.

PS – I promise this blog hasn’t gone to the dogs.  I have a few little house projects to share and JT has some guitar news as well so we’ll get around to posting those up too.  Those little furry faces are just so hard to resist . . . .