Last Updated on May 4, 2022 by Marco C.
Dog sweaters are cute and incredibly useful but also quite overpriced. So, here’s how to make a dog sweater out of an old sweatshirt quick and easy. Not a fan of sewing? Want to keep your pooch warm in the winter? As it turns out, there are plenty of no sewing ways to make a dog sweater out of old human clothing without ever touching a needle or the yarn ball.
How To Make A Dog Sweater Out Of An Old Sweatshirt?
Making a DIY dog sweater is one of those things that sounds complicated at first but is surprisingly simple and quick once you sit down to do it. All you need is any tubical piece of fabric that’d fit your dog’s torso nicely and snuggly. These can include an old sweater’s sleeve, old sweatpants’ leg, or a whole sweater if your dog is big enough. For smaller dogs, old baby clothes are a fantastic basis for dog clothes.
Once you’ve got the core piece of clothing you’re going to work with – say an old sweatshirt, the rest is just a matter of cutting it to fit your dog’s paws.
So, if you’re using the sweatshirt’s sleeve for a small dog’s sweater, just cut the sleeve so that its length is just right. Then put it beside your dog and mark the spots where the front leg holes must be. Cut the two holes with a pair of scissors and that’s it. If you have a sewing kit you might want to tighten the back of the sleeve/sweater to fit on your dog’s torso a bit better.
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If you’re using the whole sweater for a larger dog or a whole baby/child’s sweater for a small dog, then you can just use its own sleeves as holes for your dog’s front legs. All you need to do is cut the sleeves however long you want and that’s it.
If the sleeve holes don’t fit perfectly, you can cut and sew the front of the sweater (where your dog’s chest is going to be) to move the location of the sleeve holes to fit your dog better. Finding a proper fit is all that really matters as the goal is a sweater that offers good insulation and keeps your dog warm and safe from health issues in cold weather.
How To Make A Dog Sweater Out Of Sweatpants?
You don’t necessarily need to use an old sweater too – sweatpants work just as well. In fact, they are excellent for a lot of medium-sized dogs that are too big for a sweater’s sleeve but not big enough for a sweater’s torso.
As with the sleeve example above, all you need to do is cut the pants’ leg as long as it needs to be to fit your dog’s torso. If you’ve got a male pooch you may want to make its sweater a bit shorter so that it doesn’t pee on it.
Then, just fit the “sweater” onto your dog to see where the front leg holes need to be and cut them with a pair of scissors.
So, How To Make A Dog Sweater Out Of An Old Sweatshirt Without Sewing?
As you can see, figuring out how to make a dog sweater out of an old sweatshirt or a pants’ leg really isn’t all that complicated DIY dog sweaters are quick, easy, and cheap to make, and they can look great as long as the piece of clothing/fabric you’ve chosen looks good too. The only real reason why commercial dog sweaters cost as much as they do is that people don’t realize how easy it is to make them yourself. You can even add some extra stuff such as leash hook yourself, it’s not something that requires decades of experience as a tailor!
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FAQs
How to make a dog bed out of a sweater?
Here’s what you’d need to do to craft a dog bed out of an old sweater with a minimal amount of basic sewing:
- Sew the neck of the sweater shut. It doesn’t need to be a perfect seam or anything, it just needs to be a functional sew job to keep the neck hole closed.
- Sew the two sleeves shut at their base – between the shoulder and the armpit. Essentially, you want the torse of the sweater to be isolated and only accessible from the bottom.
- Fill the sweater with pillow stuffing your dog would enjoy sleeping on. This could be foam, fabric scraps, old linens or towels, an old couch cushion, etc.
- Fill the two sleeves with pillow stuffing too. Fill them well, you’d want them to be more voluminous than the main body of the sweater.
- Sew the two sleeves to each other, forming a hoop around the sweater.
- Sew the bottom of the sweater to keep its stuffing in and then sew the two sleeves to the sweater to keep them in place.
And that’s it – you’ve now made a fully-functioning and cool bed for your pet.
How to make a dog sweater?
Commercial dog sweaters are quite expensive which tends to put a lot of people off. They do come with a lot of bells and whistles – sometimes literally – but the basic purpose of a dog sweater is the same as that of a human sweater – to keep your dog warm and cozy. So, here’s how you can make your own dog sweater quickly, easily, and for no extra cost:
Get any old clothing you aren’t going to use any more that has a part that’d fit your dog’s torso. This can include an old sweater’s sleeve, old sweatpants' leg, an old child’s sweater or t-shirt, or even your own sweater if your dog is big enough. The important part is that it actually fits your dog’s body well.
Next, just cut holes in the fabric/sleeve/pants’ leg where your dog’s front legs would be. If you’re using a full-sized sweater or a t-shirt, this could just be its sleeves, provided that they’d fit your dog well.
Lastly, if you’re up for some sewing, you can tighten the neck and back hole of the sweater with a quick cut and seam so that it fits your dog better.
