This Wonderful Way: hot-dog!

As winter is approaching, it's getting chilly-willy outside, and our poor little short-haired rat terrier dog, Macie, is feeling the effects! She just shivers and shakes like a little chihuahua (sp?). So, I Pinterested around looking for something Pinteresting, and found a tutorial on how to make a doggie sweater! The tutorial just gave me inspiration, that's why I am not linking it up; I kind of did my own thing.

The first couple of pics that I took for this tutorial are missing, but it's as simple as me saying,

1. Find a sweater that is close in size OR not TOO much bigger than your dog.

2. Measure your dog. You'll need the following measurements:

around the neck
from back of neck to base of tail
from front of neck to base of front legs (this will determine where to put the arm holes)
the inside between the two front legs
around the hips

*Turns out, my sweater (size 4T) was already the perfect width measurements around the neck (half of the measurement I got for her neck. One less thing to cut and hem thank goodness!)
For you though, you'll want to take your neck measurement, divide it in half and cut that width straight across the top of the sweater!

So that takes us to step...

3. Using the front of neck to base of front legs measurement, measure from the center of the collar down and mark with a pen or marker. TIP: turn your sweater inside out to do all the measurement marks!

4. Take your between the inside of the two front legs measurement, divide it in half, and place that measurement from the ruler on the sweater and make marks on each end. For example, the distance between Macie's legs was 3 inches, so I centered my ruler at 1.5 and made marks at 0 and at the 3. This will be the inside edge of your leg holes!

5. Free hand or trace a circle that isn't too much bigger than your doggie's legs. Remember, the circles should be drawn away from the center dot.

6. Next, using your back of neck to base of tail measurement, center your ruler from the collar down. I didn't make a dark enough mark for you to see here. Then, like the leg holes, divide the hips measurement in half, center your ruler on that measurement and then make marks at each end.

7. Now, cut out the shape of your sweater using your collar measurement width and hips measurement. You'll end up chopping off the sleeves, but we will use them next. It turns out to look something like this.

8. Now, cut out your arm holes.

9. This is where it's time-saving to get a sweater that's not too much bigger than your dog. Cut the sleeve cuffs off your sweater to a length that is above the dog's knee joint. They still need to bend those knees!