You know you love to dress up your dog. Don’t deny it. We saw you loving the Pet Issue. So, we thought you might like a little DIY doggie bow-tie project for the summer to dress up your fur-babies! Because that’s what you do when you have extra free time right?
Hey so I awhile back I went through a phase of making bow ties for my fur baby, Murphy. Look at this guy. What a little model, am I right?
Hey but then we adopted his younger sister, Dany, and he couldn’t be fancy anymore because Dany would chew his bow ties off. She’s a little punk. But really, that was two years ago now, so maybe it’s time to bring back some doggie fashion. It’s an easy project anyways so there’s little risk involved.
Anyways. Here’s what you need.
- A needle. The kind you used for hand stitching.
- Thread. Just the normal kind.
- Scissors.
- Felt.
- A good sized scrap fabric from the fabric store
- Hot Glue.
- Strong, inch wide elastic.
- An iron.
Good news! Most of these things you probably already have. So, let’s jump on in, shall we?
Step 1 -Measure and cut.
It’s up to you to measure out the size of your bow. Decide on your ideal dimensions for the bow-tie. From there, double the length and add a quarter inch around the perimeter. Cut away!
Remember your ideal bow-tie dimensions? Good. Subtract a quarter inch from the perimeter and that’s the size of felt that you want to have. Cut it out.
Step 2 – Sew.
Fold the strip of fabric in half end to end and inside out. Stitch all the sides together, making sure to leave about a half inch unstitched.
Step 3 – Stuff.
Turn this pocket inside out and stuff the felt rectangle inside it. Arrange the felt to lay flat. Discretely stitch up the hole in the seam. Iron so it looks nice.
Step 4 – Pinch.
This rectangle is now your bow-tie. Pinch the bow-tie and arrange the center pinch to resemble the look you want. One pleats, two pleats, three pleats, four? It’s up to you. As you can see I like three. Stitch these pleats in place.
Step 5 – Wrap.
Cut a strip of matching fabric to hide the pleat stitch you just made. Fold the unfinished sides in. Wrap and hot-glue in place.
Step 6 – Attach to the collar.
Measure how big of an elastic loop you will need to get your bow-tie on and off your fur-baby’s collar. Don’t give it too much space, you want it to be snug. Hot-glue your elastic loop to the back of the collar and voila!
Look at that! You now have very dapper doggies. They could be in our next September Style Issue.
And this… this is why we can’t have nice things.
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@bajaelsol & @AbileneScene
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