This is, hands down, the simplest and fastest Sewing Saturday post I've done. It's also very useful if you, like me, are in denial about liking to dress your pet up in human clothes (I mean, a bandana doesn't count, right?).
The idea came from a vet in St. Louis last Christmas - Neil and I had dropped Bloom off for a weekend while we visited some friends, and we asked them to give her a bath. She came out looking especially clean and scruffy and wearing a paisley bandana they had tied around her neck. It made her look adorable! I examined the bandana and surprisingly, it was a really simple triangle of fabric that had been cut with pinking shears - no sewing involved.
So, I decided to borrow their idea. The quickest, simplest outfit you can make for your dog or cat (or rabbit or bird maybe?). What you need for the project.. pinking shears, a scrap of fabric (depending on your pet's size.. Bloom is a twelve pound terrier and she needed less than 1/4 of a yard), some fabric chalk, a ruler, and measuring tape. I decided to make a template for the scarf for future use, so if you decide to make one as well, you'll need kraft paper or muslin (or pattern paper), a pencil, and some pattern weights.
First step - measure your pet's neck. Whatever their neck measurement is, double that for the length of the scarf. If you're making a template or pattern for the scarf, you'll need to bring out the pattern paper and keep it flat, then draw a straight line with your ruler that is twice the length of your pet's neck. Bloom's neck measured ten inches around, so I drew the scarf at twenty inches long. If you aren't making a pattern piece, simply mark the line directly on the fabric using chalk.
Once you have the length line, find the central point and draw a vertical line from that point upwards roughly half of the length of the scarf, but not quite - I marked seven inches from that point. This will be the center point and tip of the triangle. Use your ruler to measure a diagonal line from the ends of the length line to the topmost center point, then trace. You have your triangle! Cut out your new pattern piece.
I used my new pattern to trace the triangle onto the fabric (using leftover plaid wool from those tap shorts I made a couple weeks back) with white chalk. Once it was drawn, I cut the scarf out using pinking shears to prevent fraying. If you have a crazy dog like ours, it will fray no matter what - but at least it'll last a bit longer. And that's it! Tie your new bandana around your pet's neck. If you decide to make one, please please send me a photo! Bloom has grown to love wearing hers, partly because whenever she wears a bandana, it generally means we're having visitors over and she gets to meet someone new.
Hope you had a great weekend! Thank you for the kind words about our house hunting process, we actually didn't get the first house we made an offer on so we're back to the search (no 1940s stucco cottage for us, sadly). Most of our initial fears have worn off and now we're mostly just excited to have a place of our own - to be able to plant our own garden, build a brick oven for pizzas, and paint our walls whatever colors we want. And oh man do I want a sewing room. We'll see what happens!
Vintage fall lookbook coming soon!
