An upcycled puppy sweater

There are some advantages to not working and not having any cash – it makes you a little more crafty. I’ve done quite a few of fun projects over the last few weeks, and one of my favourites is Flash’s new sweater. He’s just a little pup – there’s not a lot of fat or hair on him and he gets all shivery in the new cold weather he’s discovering, so I figured he needed a little clothing*.

After a bit of searching on Pinterest I found this tutorial on how to turn an old sweater into a puppy jumper – and I had just the perfect number to use. After mishap with a beautiful cashmere sweater and the washing machine a few months ago, I used this lovely Jack Wills number. {I popped the scissors in there for scale – it was super shrunken!}

I didn’t take photo’s at every stage – I always forget to take photo’s of my crafting. {Maybe it’ll be a new years resolution.} So it might be worth checking out the tutorial too!

I started by measuring Flash’s neck and belly, halving the numbers and creating a template that looked a bit like this.

It took a couple of goes to get the arm holes in the right place – I kept putting them too close together.

After cutting out the template shape from the jumper using the ribbed bit of the jumper as the bottom of his jumper, I sewed both sides of the jumper together – right sides together, {these bits I didn’t take pics of.}

And tried it on Flash. Look how rigid he is – bless him!

At this point I realised that he couldn’t wee unless I cut out a little bit round his belly.

And it looked a little bit unfinished round the neck. I knew that Flash wouldn’t like the roll neck in the tutorial, so I chopped some of the collar from the original jumper and sewed it on this jumper.

To do this I turned it back inside out, pinned the collar to the neck – I’m not quite sure how to describe it in sewing terms but basically, the collar is placed face down on the outside of the jumper and sewn from the inside. It looks like this;

Does that make sense?

I looked at adding sleeves too, as in the tutorial, but it was a bit of a struggle getting him into it at first so I didn’t want to make it any more difficult to put on and i think it’s much less restrictive like this. And now I have the template – there’s no stopping me. I’m thinking a Halloween outfit next!

And here he is in the finished number looking all dapper and handsome;

*The boy totally doesn’t agree – but what happens whilst he’s away, he can’t say no to!

11 comments

    1. Cheers. I made the cushions a while back with some fabric from a shop on sharrowvale. they don't go, but i love them too. x

  1. So cute! It looks fab on him – so much better that some shop bought ones. I bet it made you feel less sad about the jumper death as well? xo

    1. I was so sad when i pulled it out of the washing machine all teeny tiny – so this does make the loss a little easier to swallow. x

  2. Awww, that is so adorable! Looks great – much better than a shop bought one! Flash is such a cutie too 🙂

    1. Loads better than a shop bought one – and the fabric shop is my oyster now i have a template that works! I wonder what I can dress him in next? x

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