Today began a marathon to crank out some cozy coats for the greyhounds. All of a sudden, Nittany Greyhounds has a full house and adoptions are happening fast. My work with Nittany Greyhounds started years ago, when I was asked to make some coats for the greyhounds. The dogs arrive in Pennsylvania from around the country…and recently, even from Ireland! The group wanted to be able to offer a coat to new adopters but at that time finding a source for coats that fit the unique shape of the dogs was difficult, expensive or didn’t fit well anyway. So, I took on the challenge to make a coat that fit. Thus began my work volunteering with Nittany Greyhounds. Now, years later, we have a coat pattern that works! Let the shopping begin!
Toni and I spent a productive hour at JoAnn Fabrics to find a stack of cozy fleece.
At one point over the years we tried to make some of the small coats to look cute for the females, but because some of the females needed large coats and some of the males needed small coats, there was always a mismatch between the number of dogs and the number of coats in the right size. It was much more efficient to make coats in neutral prints and colors in both small and large sizes.
At the beginning the coats had a shorter turtle neck…called a snood. (Not sure where that name came from.)
Over the years the “snood” kept getting longer to accommodate their long necks and sensitive ears. Now this “snood” can be pulled up over their ears for warmth if needed.
Since many of the dogs wear coats inside and out, we had to do some testing to see how the coat worked when they laid down. This coat looked good when the dog was standing, but scrunched up when he laid in his bed:
I had to change my fabric to all fleece AND I had to expand the pattern across the chest area.
You can see how my pattern has had to change over the years. This iteration has worked for a while so it’s probably time to lay the pattern on some new grid paper and cut out a new one!
Time to get to work! Enjoy!
Please comment or email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.