Luna's new sweater

Have I officially introduced our little lady?  No??  

Allow me to present our crazy, Boston Terrier,

Luna!

Isn't she precious!

She is 6 months old, weighs 7 lbs, and has oodles of personality

 (ie, she's nuts, like certifiable, don't let the doe eyes fool you).

She joined our family 4 months ago and she is a perfect fit. 

We have never been dog people,

but she stole our hearts and makes us do crazy things like buy/make her clothes...

Being a little bitty thing, she gets really cold, she has a coat and jammies, but needed a sweater.

So to test out my novice sewing skills, I decided to make her one.

Don't laugh.

Ok, you can laugh a bit. I'll wait.........

Ok, on to the tutorial.

I bought this child's sweater for $3 during one of my Goodwill trips. 

It's hard to make out in this pic, but it has red metallic thread in it, very festive.

  

I had already pre-measured Luna, so I knew the length and width I needed to fit her. 

I turned the sweater inside out, transferred the measurements on to the sweater, and got prepared to sew a new seam from the top of the turtle neck straight to the bottom of the sweater.  

Luna checked my measurements.  Isn't she thoughtful?

Once I wrestled the sweater away from her, I was able to hit the sewing machine.   You can see the sparkles and the new back seam I created.   Cut away the excess fabric



Then I tried it on her, for fun.

Tee hee.

Yes, I need to do more measuring.

I planned for her legs to come out of the one remaining arm sleeve opening.  So I removed the sleeve at the seam.  I also cut the bottom of the sweater to length.  Set both of these pieces aside,

as you will need the hem of each to finish the sweater.



     

Luna was happily removing items from the bedroom trash can, dragging them under my bed and ripping them to shreds while I was completing the above.

I extracted both her and the trash for an other trial fitting and measurement.

Much better, just a few tweaks. 

Like shortening the length a bit more and adding the hems.

... and getting a new tape measurer.

I took about 3 inches off the end of the sweater to shorten it a bit

and to compensate for the hem. 

I used the previously cut bottom hem, cut it to fit and reattached to the

new bottom hem of the sweater.

I also cut the hem from one of the arms to attached to the arm hem, same as above.

****When attaching the hem YOU MUST turn the sweater right side out, then pin on the hem, right side to right side and sew.  ****

Believe me, it sucks having to undo an incorrect hem....twice. 

I told you I was a new to this sewing thing.

Notice the hem is pinned WRONG.  Big old fail for me.

Here is the sweater after I pulled out the incorrect hem, repinned and resewed the correct way.

Here is Luna modeling her new sweater!

and Jaime's legs.

I realized I forgot to add an opening for her harness so I opened up about 1 inch of  the back seam

and just sewed the edges open.

Again, newbie here.

She loves being all toasty warm in her sweater and I think

she looks adorable and stylish. :)

Jaime says this looks like her Senior Portrait. 

Do you have a faithful friend that needs a bit of warm style? 

If I can do this, you can too.

Try it!

You'll like it!