Lucy is a small dog. We think she’s a chiweenie (that’s chihuahua and dachshund). When it’s cold outside, Lucy shivers and shakes. We bought her and Fritz matching fleece-lined puffer jackets, but Lucy always manages to wiggle out of hers. Something had to be done. I’ll just sew her a sweater, I thought. Piece of cake.
I know, she’s the cutest dog in the world, and no, you can’t have her.
Recently, I checked out Betz White’s Sewing Green from the library. It’s all about using what you have, left over fabric, thrifted stuff and so on to make something new. She goes into great detail on using felted wool. I had no idea what this was before her book. Basically, felted wool is wool that has been felted, duh. Ever shrunk a wool sweater in the washer and drier? You just felted your wool.
When you agitate the wool fibers in the washer and drier they sort of mesh together creating a stronger fabric (while losing the knitted quality). This means you can cut it without unraveling the fabric. Got it?
I recently moved to the cold weather, so I don’t have any old wool sweaters lying around. The Goodwill to the rescue. Found two cute sweaters, washed them, dried them, vacuumed piles of wool fibers out of both machines, had felted wool.
And now for the Lucy sweater. Cal Patch has a nice tutorial of how to sew a dog sweater on Craft Stylish. I used it, you can too.
Here are my three sweater pieces before sewing.
Sorry! No photos of the sewing part. I spent an entire hour trying to make my machine do a simple zig zag stitch. It’s easy to do, but the machine kept messing up. I said it, the machine messed up, not I. After wrangling the thick wool through the machine, I had myself a cute dog sweater.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
She’s adorable and so is her sweater! Nicely done. I just learned about felted wool on etsy. I saw the cutest felted wool acorns and wanted to see if I could try to make them. Haven’t yet, but I’m going to try soon :).
You had me at “chiweenie”! I have never heard that before…and I do believe I will have to work that into my everyday vocabulary! ;} Love the sweater!!!
m ^..^
she is adorable!
the sweater turned out very cute too!
Aw, Lucy looks so cute in her new sweater, great job!
Lucy has a great Mommy that makes such wonderful doggie sweaters…
OMG….. She is adorable! Beautiful job on her sweater :)
rue
Wow, she’s too cute! You’ve inspired me to make my dog a sweater- she has a weird big chest, skinny waist thing going on which is extremely hard to buy clothes for.
What a great idea and the finished product is wonderful. They look really warm. Have a great Outdoor Wednesday.
oh boy is she cute! and so is the sweater…great job!
I bet Lucy can’t wiggle out of that! ;-) Good use of felted wool!
Awwww, Lucy is adorable in her sweater. You went to a lot of work sewing that sweater and it turned out great. I have never heard of felted wool. Thanks for the info about it. Our dog had a sweater made from fleece and attached with velcro. Pretty nifty. I made two of them for my grand dogs when they visited in the winter. Pretty easy, not as involved as your project. Good for you, I am impressed.
Hugs, Jeanne
SO cute (the dog AND the sweater!). She looks like she likes it. Very clever idea.
pk @ Room Remix
HEY girl.
I came across you here at Leigh’s Thrifty Thursday! It’s a SMALL world.
I LOVE Lucy’s sweater. And I see Fritz in the background. I’m so glad, glad that Lucy is in your family. You are a wonderful mommy to your furkids!!! Give her a big hug from me! You are a talented crafter.
Great idea! Lucy looks quite fetching in her sweater!
Lucy is a real cutie, so is her sweater! We are getting a little boy chiweenie in about a month……..we have been calling him a tea-cup rottweiler as that is what he looks like! His parents are only about 6-7 lbs. each so he will probably stay tiny.
so cute – pup AND sweater!
OMG ! My little chihuahua’s are freezing with all our recent snow – I am so going to make them some ! Thanks !
Kammy
Ok he is too stinkin cute in that little doggie sweater!!!
:) T
YOur dog looks a miniature of mine….well, and mine’s got longer hair. Thanks for commenting so I could find my way back to your awesome blog. :o) I added you to my every-growing blogroll.
She’s so sweet and the sweater is awesome! I just might have to give it a shot. Our dachshund, Niski, needs a sweater too! ;)
Thanks for sharing!
what a good mommy! and i never heard of chiweennie (my spell checker’s going nuts!) but that made me giggle. we adore “weenie dogs” too!
So cute! What a great idea :)
Wow! My dog looks identical to yours! I have a little boy chiweenie, Boo, who looks just like Lucy! Strangely, I came across this post looking for a pattern for a sweater because I have a bazillion felted sweaters and wanted to make one for Boo. He is not a cold weather dog at all. Thanks for posting and yay for the chiweenies – best dogs EVER. :)