Sew What?

Have you ever known EXACTLY what you were looking for in a skirt, or a t-shirt, or a .... dog cheerleading costume for an 85 pound yellow lab? O.o Yeah I know how it feels, this one is close but I wish it had a hem like that one, or that style but in this color, yadda yadda. Well, it frustrates me too and has for as long as I can remember, thus I tend to just throw up my hands and say "Fine! I'll do it myself!"

My husband, as some of you may know, coaches. I mean he COACHES -- football, waterpolo, Ragnaros fights (if you don't know what that is, you don't pay $15 a month to Blizzard Entertainment). August to December for football, January to August for waterpolo, and endlessly for electronic raids! Soooooooooooooooo, our 18-month-old white English Labrador Retriever decided she wanted to do her part to support her papa. ... Yes, SHE decided. She's quite precocious you know!

So here is what I came up with in an afternoon of mock up patterns and sewing to service her desire to cheer papa and his various teams on to victory.

I created the basic pattern using a saddle-like design in medium weight gabardine, if anyone is interested I am happy to create a pdf downloadable pattern to share. The skirt of the dress (blown up Marilyn Monroe style in the first picture) is an interval of six inch green and black squares in gabardine which I hemmed and created the box pleats out of. Edged in double-fold wide bias tape and fastened with the modern miracle which is velcro, I slapped a collegiate looking "P" on the back and made a matching hair...err, FURbow to complete the ensamble. It goes without saying of course that this Spirit Pup was a crowd pleaser.