I made several crochet gifts for various people this Christmas, but I forgot to take photos of most of them before giving them away. Whoops.
One thing I did make for Christmas, though, was an adorable little sweater vest for Milou [3], our dog. It looks like it buttons down, but the buttons are really just for decoration. I couldn't find a crochet pattern for a vest, so I modified a dog sweater pattern to make it look like one. Here's how.
I started with this striped dog sweater pattern [4] from the yarn company Bernat. You'll have to sign up if you want to use it (click here to go to the pattern on Bernat's website [5]), but there are tons of other cool, free patterns there, so it might be worth it.
[6]I didn't want to mess with making the vest striped, so I just ignored those instructions. I followed the directions to make the body of the sweater, but stopped short of following the instructions for the leg edging and leg bands.
I made another strip of ribbed crochet stitching, following the same technique as the pattern instructed for the ribbed neck band. I made the strip the same length as the chest part of the vest and sewed it on. I picked out several matching buttons and sewed them down the center of the chest.
I then made shorter and narrower strips of ribbed crochet, just long enough to fit around the vest's leg holes. I used a tapestry needle and yarn to attach them, and that was that.
The actual body of the sweater went pretty quickly, since most of it is double crochet. Once I figured out what kind of ribbing I wanted to add, that didn't take long either.
As far as sizing goes, the medium size on the pattern fit Milou, who is about 25 pounds and lanky. I made the small size for my sister's miniature Schnauzer mix, Grover, but it was way too small.
I took it apart and tried again with a bulkier yarn and a larger crochet hook. That got me closer, but I ended up using the ribbing down the front as the actual middle part of the vest, rather than sewing it on top of the existing sweater. Does that make sense? I used it as an actual spacer, sewing each side of the center to it.
I think the sweater turned out really well - exactly what I was hoping for, and not too difficult. You can't beat that!
Adorable! And I love how he's posing so well in front of the tree.
Thanks. He's such a good dog.