[Dailydrool] More on dog suits

[Valerie]

I have now made six sets of "dog pajamas" for Bo. these are all one piece suits that zip along the spine, covering all but the dog's head, four legs, and tail. I put Poise incontinent pads in the crotch, and they are working perfectly and seem quitE comfy. It's been a trial and error process and each suit has worked better than the last.

I started out using boy's hoodie sweatshirts (size 16 for Bo, who is a fairly small Basset: 23" spine, 50 lbs. weight); but have moved on to altering women's size XXS track suit jackets. I've made one suit for Diane Emerich,s Annabelle and one for Bev Szaton,s Nigel. Annabelle's suit fit well. Nigel's was way too big and didn't fit at all. I'm giving a second try to Nigel's suit.

And I have some news to share--for the non-sewers among you, if you would like one of these suits, Jennifer Martin (Browyn the Fairy Princess) is going to streamline the design and start offering them custom-made on Etsy.com.

For the seamstresses among you, I wanted to share how to make them. Measure your dog in four places. 1. Top of shoulders to base of tail along the spine. 2. around the dog just behind the shoulders over the rib cage and under the dog up to the starting point. 3. a second girt h measurement just in front of the tail around the dog's hips then under the belly just in front of the back legs up the other side to the starting point. and, 4. last, from the middle to the dog's chest along its side to the middle of the rump.

Now go to your local discount clothing store with a tape measure. Look for sweatshirts or track jackets that zip Totally open. the length of the zipper should equal the length along the spine. 

Next check to make sure there is enough girth. Measure the width of the shirt. It should be half of your dog's girth (and will in most cases be larger, but don't worry aboUt his). buy the shirt and take it home.

to make the suit, first cut the sleeves off the jacket at the seam at the shoulder. cut outside the seam and you won't have to finish the armholes. set the sleeves aside for later use.

zip up the jacket and lay it on its side so that the zipper is at the very top and all the fabric is below it. Measure from the zipper to the "belly". this measurement at the front of the garment should should be half of measurement 2. as described above, at the front/neck of the jacket. and it should be half of measurement 3. as described above, from the bottom of the zipper to the bottom of the shirt (the back.)Believe it or not, the XXS women's jacket is exactly right for Bo. (28" front, 32" back), He is an odd shape--pot-bellied and low hanging. Many bassets will be straight across and measurements 2 and 3 will be the same. for dogs tucked in at the waist, measurement 2 will exceed measurement 3. That's why you need both measurements for a good fit.

But if your jacket is not exactly right, and this will almost certainly be the case if your basset is long and large, fold the excess fabric inside the suit at the bottom edge to get the measurements correct, front and back.Nigel needed a men's 2x jacket to get a long enough zipper, so there was way too much girth and I needed to fold in a few inches worth. Sew a seam where you have tucked in the fabric so that the girth is correct front and back. You can cut off the excess on the interior of the suit if you like. I just sewed it down. My sewing style is kind of Frankendog.

Now you are ready to do the back section. take the two sleeves that you have cut off. Make a capital "T" out of them, with the sleeves perpendicular to one another. The finished end of one sleeve meeting the middle top bar of the other. sew them together at the T bar. Yes, I know, they are both double thick. That is fine. It will give the back more heft. I sewed a square so all sides of the intersection were sewn down.

Now you are going to attach the T to the rear end of the sweatshirt (where the zipper starts). Zip up the jacket again. And lay it on its side again with the zipper running along the top edge. Pin one side of the top T-bar about 3/4 of an inch below the zipper start so that the T bar is perpendicular to the sweatshirt back edge and parallel to the zipper. Pin the other side of the Tbar to the other hip. this is going to be the rear end of the suit. Measure from chest to the middle of the T stem. this is measurement 4. Adjust the T until the suit is the right length. In my suits, only about an inch of the Tbar on each side was showing when I had the Tbar correctly positioned. sew the sides of the Tbars to the hips where pinned.

there is a lot of the T stem just hanging down at the back. zip your suit up again and lay it on its side again. Take the stem of the T and bring it straight down, curving it at the bottom to tuck into the bottom middle of the suit. Think thong. Sew it in place on the underside of the suit so that what you have created is basically a sleeveless zip-up shirt with a thong attached on the back. (Or a slightly tailored sack that zips along the spine with neck and leg holes in the front and slits towards the back for rear legs and the tail sticks out between the top of the thong and the beginning of the zipper.

To use the suit, put incontinence pads in the crotch, position dog over suit (remembering that it zips tail to neck), put dog's legs through leg holes, pull up sides and zip. 

anyone who wants to see a photo, email me. I plan to have my husband take one in the next few days. and remember--Jennifer Martin, once her foot heals, plans to make an improved version of these.

Semper fido. Val and Bo, CIC PBF and problem-child-in-chief, looking very dapper these days