Upcycled Dog Sweater Tutorial

Dog sweaters are expensive and finding ones that won't rip the first time out is kinda a challenge. So, I went to a second hand store, picked out a zippered woman's sweater that I liked the look and feel of and brought it home. 

Here's my brief tutorial on how I upcycled the sweater into a step-in zipper sweater for my pup.

(Please forgive my frumpy model. He's a Standard Poodle and when he's brushed up really pretty he looks quite dapper. ... But in these pictures he's in need of a good brush and even a clip.)

 

As you can see the sweater was a bit baggy. Normally I like the baggy look, but this was too much, I think you'll agree. My trim, athletic poodle looks like he's been packing in the chips and pastries.

 

I measured the excess hanging down from his belly with my hands. I have sewed enough that I can eye things up fairly well. But, if you're new to this, I would recommend using a tape measure or ruler to see how much excess you're dealing with. 

Here's a picture of it laid out on the floor. This is a Petite Woman's Large for reference.

This sweater will zip up the back of the dog, (i.e. it's a step-in sweater) so you cut the excess off of the back of the sweater. So...fold the sweater in half, with the center back of the sweater being the fold line. You should be far away from the zipper. Don't go near that zipper. ;) 

For my pup, his belly is narrower than his head and chest, so our cut out line was diagonal. I would recommend using a more stable straight edge here, not the tape measure (I just laid that down for the picture). Measure out how much excess you need to remove. Lay down a straight edge as a cutting guide. Feel free to use anything straight that will stay put. I cut along a line of sewing pins as you can see in the picture. I'm not picky.

Now, put your scrap triangle piece aside. I'm not sure what you can use it for, but it might come in handy. If nothing else, tie it into a knot and let the pup play with it...unless he has a hard time differing between play toys and sweaters.

Now, flip your sweater inside out and line up your newly cut fabric along the raw edge. Put it together, sink some pins in it to hold it in place. (Basically, your sweater should look like the above picture, just be inside out.)

Now, stitch down the newly cut edges. I recommend stitching about an inch from the edge so you can fold the raw back and stitch them down again, but it's up to you. My sewing machine doesn't handle bulky knit sweaters, so I just handstitched it.

IF YOU HAVE A BOY...

 Sorry for the peep show (thank goodness my boy's shaggy, right?), but I wanted to show how I left some of the seam unsewn to give him clearance for pottying. I haven't done it in this step, but I will be folding the raw edges up and stitching them so they don't fray, That should give him a little more clearance than the cut currently allows.

 Here's a front picture of the finished sweater. I kinda like the baggy look, but I probably should have made the original cut go further up towards the neck. The cool thing about this is that I just have to flip the sweater inside out again and recut and restitch until I get the right fit. ... Of course, that's not assuming that I'm too lazy to go back and redo it. I let my boy run around in this a bit and he seemed comfortable, so I may just leave it like it is. I know the picture doesn't show it (my apologies), but the sweater tucks up nicely around his belly now and doesn't look like a beer belly anymore. 

I'm rather partial to the sleeves too. I'll hem them up a little so he doesn't trip over them. If you don't want long sleeves, you could measure and cut the sleeves up higher and then hem the raw edges under. Or if you don't want any sleeve at all, you could go to the armhole and use a seam ripper to rip the sleeve out. Then fold the raw edges under and stitch.

He looks so huggable. :) 

 

Here is a picture from the top, so you can see the zipper line.

And here's another picture of the zipper partially undone, so you can see how the sweater works. I just place his two paws in the sleeves, pull it up around his shoulders and zip him up. This probably won't work for a very jumpy dog.

A FEW TIPS!

• This project works so much better when you have a pup that doesn't mind trying the sweater on and off a good number of times. The old adage, measure twice, cut once, applies!
• Pick up a couple sweaters at the second-hand store so you have one or two to make mistakes on. I've got a lot of sewing experience background (and not much in the way of creating Tutorials...so sorry), so I could pull this off in one go. I've learned by trial and error...and thrown a lot of projects away...Come join the club. :)  
• Pick a sweater that fits your puppy fairly well to begin with. The above directions won't work if the sweater is overly large or obviously too small.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS! I KNOW THIS TUTORIAL IS VERY QUICK AND NOT AS EXHAUSTIVE AS IT COULD BE. QUESTIONS WILL HELP ME CLARIFY. :)