Tag: Sewing

Dinosaur Dog Coat

Doggy coat for warmth

My dad just got a tiny little dog thing, but I’ve been told that it’s regularly quite cold. So in order to help the creature feel more comfortable outside, I was asked to make him a little coat. I looked online for a pattern and found one from Wholefully. Apparently commenters weren’t always super happy with it, but I decided to give it a try anyway.

Since my dad and Timmy (the dog) live quite a ways away, the dog was measured by Cathelijne and then I made the coat from some other leftover fabric I still had laying around. For the outside, I used the scraps of my first dinosaur coat, in hopes that it would also provide some protection from the wind and rain. For the inside, I found some fleece for extra warmth.

I put in the measurements and drew out the pattern on some paper, then placed it on my fabric where it happened to fit perfectly on the tiny bit that I had left. As this is the third thing made from that dinosaur fabric, it’s been used more than expected. For the closures, some Velcro was attached to the front flaps and the tummy flaps. I lined the Velcro bits with some extra dinosaur to prevent it from sticking to the fleece. Lastly, a hole was added in the back for the leash to go through.

The whole thing was snail-mailed and unfortunately the tummy flaps were a little bit too short. I seem to remember that it fits when Timmy is wearing the coat by itself, but not when he’s also wearing the harness. So I’ve made some notes on the pattern so that if I were to made it again, I can add some length to the tummy flaps. Cathelijne has made a Velcro solution to make it fit now.

Dice-adjacent

Three projects based on dice.

While browsing though Pinterest a little while back, I found a paper calendar in the shape of a 12-sided die (d12). The one I found originally had weeks starting on a Sunday, which my brain can’t cope with, so I searched some more and found a calendar that started on Monday (here). I printed it out on craft cardstock, cut and scored on the relevant lines and glued it together. It now lives on my desk as an easy way to look up what day something is. I thought that would be that with dice shaped things for a while, but it turned out that it wasn’t.

The dungeon master of the Pathfinder campaign – a table top role playing game – I play in had his birthday recently. I wanted to think of a nice gift but he already has everything / my imagination was limited. So to harken back to our evenings filled with adventure, I decided to make d20 (20-sided die) pouch. I’d found a pattern from 2009 by Evil Mad Scientist (here) and got to work. I cut the 40 pieces almost entirely out of scraps and then had to add numbers to the faces. I did that by printing numbers on paper (font GoodDog Plain) and then cutting them out and painting in the holes. This worked quite well. Some interfacing was fused on and then the sewing started. There were so many mistakes, the interfacing was wrong, the sewing was inaccurate, the zipper was too close… I finished the outside and part of the lining and then gave up. It’s in the clothing scraps bin now and if I ever feel the need to make something like it, I will aim not to rush. However, this was not the end of the dice projects.

Because I then thought “wait, I can also make a d12!” It has less pieces, I can use the hexagon paper piecing that I’ve done before and I can sew it by hand to be more accurate. So I set out to do that. The original d20 pattern that I used, also listed a d12 pattern (here). I rejigged some of the pieces, found the fabric I wanted to use and chose a different fusible for stiffening. The same templates were used for the numbers, but I decided to add some ‘fun’ and made the 1 face out of a mouse fabric and the 12 face out of stars. The 12 face is the one that opens, but I only figured out a solution to keep the bag from losing dice everywhere after I’d already completed the outside and the lining. The closure was tackled by adding in a sleeve that can tighten down. The 12 face can then be buttoned on top and that should prevent accidental dice spills.

All in all, I had some fun with impromptu projects that I had not anticipated. I still have some other things that I need to finish (dinosaur coat v2, black sweater and graduation project) or start (graduation project if I can’t figure out finishing the original graduation project). So I’m not sure I should have made time for these, but well, sometimes when inspiration strikes, you need to follow its lead, right?