Dog Coats - Refashioned from Human Coats

I'M BACK! I know it has been forever since I posted - I apologize but I was having too much fun recovering from surgery (ok, recovering yes, fun no...). Now I am back and thought I better post some things I have been working on.

Dudley's Coat

Since Alberta is pretty much the coldest place I have ever been I figured my dogs think so too (you'd think they'd be used to it..), so I made them both doggy coats! I made Dudley's coat first because well, he basically sits outside and shivers all winter - and Sam would rather lay in a snow bank instead of her bed.
I have bought countless coats for Dudley and they never quite fit right and when the dogs play the cheaply made coats don't stand up long - at 40-90$ a coat I can't afford to keep replacing them!
I took one of my old coats and an old fleece zip sweater, fitted it to Dudley (I didn't want it to gape and have him pee on it...), then used the fleece for the bottom and the winter jacket on the top.

 Under the chest, nice and snug.

 I even made leg covers so he is as covered up as can be without limiting his movement (wouldn't want to hinder his squirrel chasing abilities....). I couldn't make a belly strap because boy dog anatomy makes it difficult and I didn't want the back of the coat flying up - the solution was leg straps that velcro together on the inside of the thighs. Voila!

 I put his name on it in case he gets lost (not likely, but its cute..).

Ok, this last one is mainly because he is so darn adorable, but you can see I used velcro on the neck to keep the zipper from slipping down.

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Samantha's Coat

With Sam's coat I didn't need to make it super warm, just needed more of a wind breaker/water repeller. It was important I make Sam's coat more of a "working" coat, we are going to put Sam in training for Search and Rescue (hopefully) and we wanted her to have something functional.

 I bought a adult large sized rain coat from Value Village (cost a whole 3$ !) and refashioned it to fit Sam. I sewed up the original arm holes (they were in the wrong spot...) and made new ones, they are large because Sam runs like lightning and I had to put function first. I used black bias binding to finish the arm holes off. I was able to use the original zipper and snaps and just had to make a rear cut out for her back legs, I also was able to include the original pockets and hide-able hood (rolls in to the collar).

 I took a cheap reflective vest I had on hand and used some pieces of reflective tape on the back.

 (isn't she beautiful?????)

 To correct the angle and have a nice finish I took a scrap of the orange vest and appliqued it on.

 It honestly fits so great! I was very happy with how it turned out. Don't worry, now that I have an embroidery machine I will be putting her name on the coat too, when I will do I will make another post.

The reflective tape is awesome, you can litaraly see it reflect an extreme distance from a light source - I am considering putting some on Dudley's coat too for when I take him running... we will see. 

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Happy Sewing and Repurposing! 

-Courtney Soleil