speaking of dogs and felt...

There is one thing that drives me just a little crazy. Vague online crafty tutorials that leave out vital details and include poor photos for reference. I will now apologize for this is exactly what I am about to give you.

Heidi over at Two Kitties asked if I might share how I made Ollie's felted sweater.

I shy away from patterns and measuring in general, but I will do my best here.

First, I eyed the felted sweater that I had found at my local Goodwill. I cut out the biggest piece I could then draped it over Ollie's back and made sure it would wrap all the way around him comfortably. It was perfect.

Next I started hand stitching it together so it looked like a big tube.

I then checked out where Ollie's front legs might pop through and cut small circles in those spots.

I used the cuffs of the sweater as sleeves. I fluffed the tube inside out and hand stiched the cuffs to the cut out circles. Shown here.

I cut out an arch on the underside so Ollie wouldn't get pee pee on his sweater.

The neck hole was much too big so I tapered in the neck so it wasn't too wide. I could have avoided this step if I had slowed down to do some measuring. Once I tapered it in it fit much nicer around his neck. For a nice finished edge on the collar I stitched the collar from the big sweater onto Ollie's nearly finished sweater.
Here he is looking smart in his stripes.

How did I do? Impressed? Confused? Underwhelmed?

Being that we are experiencing summer weather here in Los Angeles, this sweater hasn't had much use yet.

I promise you Ollie, we will both be bringing out our winter sweaters soon enough!