Hi, I hope you missed me if you’re here 👋.
I’m Alyona, and I’ve been crafting and sewing for as long as I can remember. Last week, I was working on the llama project, and if you missed it, have a look at Last Week I was Making a Beautiful Felt Lama Plushie. As I promised in my last week article, this week turned into a shopping kind of week 🛍️.
My dog had completely run out of proper outfits. I have a fabulous pattern, and of course I can make hoodies myself ✂️. The problem is that my hoodies are lighter and more suited to summer. In Manchester, where it rains almost all the time, she needs something warmer and much more rainproof 💦.
Why I Had to Go Shopping Instead of Sewing
It is very challenging in the UK, especially in Manchester and the surrounding area, to find proper fabric that resists and repels water. That is why I couldn’t sew my own hoodie this time. I simply couldn’t find a suitable fabric, so I had no choice but to go shopping.
By the way, her name is Queeny 🐾, if you didn’t know. Finding outfits for Frenchie is always a challenge because they have a big chest and very short legs. Usually, size M is perfect for the sleeves, the feet, and the back length. That part is fantastic. The problem comes when I try to close it on the chest and neck, because most of the time it just does not work.
So what I usually do is buy size L and then start altering. This is definitely not the first time I’ve done that. After shopping this week, I found a few options, and most of my week turned into alteration projects ✂️.
The First Grey Jacket and My Lazy but Effective Fix
I bought my gorgeous little girl three different raincoats, jackets, or anoraks – whatever the correct word is in English. Sorry in advance, English is not my native language, so sometimes I call things by slightly odd names 😂.
The first one was grey and more like a jacket without sleeves. I tried the smaller size first, as usual, but we could not close it. Then I moved up a size, and on top of that the back was still very short. So, again, I ended up buying one size bigger. The chest then had a huge empty pocket of space that needed altering.
At first, I thought I would cut it in the middle, remove the leftover fabric, and stitch everything back together properly. I really did not have time for that, though, and honestly I could not be bothered 😂. It would have eaten almost a full day. So I did what you could call a very poor handmade job 🙈. I folded the excess fabric inside on the wrong side where Queeny’s body sits, and then I used a simple needle and thread to stitch both sides and block that space.
After that, I folded the excess inside and stitched it all around. I know this is not ideal, and I know this is not the proper way you would usually do it. Still, when I put it on her, it looked nice. The altered area sits underneath, around her chest and paws, so nobody can really see it. At that point, I simply did not want to waste the whole day on one coat because I had loads of other things to manage at home.
The Back Leg Elastic Trick That Changed Everything
On her previous coat or rain jacket, whenever the wind blew, especially from the back, the whole thing folded up on top of her back like a Superman cape 😂. Half of her little bum was left open, which was not exactly helpful in Manchester weather 💦.
So I decided to add attachments for the back legs as well. I had seen something like that by accident online while scrolling social media in the evening. I noticed some dog outfits had pieces around the back legs that held the back part of the coat down. That way, when the wind blows, the jacket stays where it should instead of flipping up.
Frenchies are very sensitive to wind, and they get sick very easily. I made the attachment, and I could not be happier with it. I used a thin elastic that I would normally use for underwear making. With a few stitches, I attached it as deep inside the seam as possible so you do not really see it when you turn the coat. I know nobody is inspecting the inside, but after reducing the fabric on the chest I still did not want the whole thing to look completely butchered 😂.
I tried to hide the elastic as neatly as I could inside the seam, and I think I really nailed that part on this raincoat. That was one little victory for me this week 💪.
Two More Raincoats and One Sleeve Problem
I still have two more raincoats to sort out. One of them looks a bit bulky, and I think it only needs elastic on the back legs. When I put it on Queeny, it looks a bit like a cape. It looks slightly odd, but at least the chest fits beautifully, so I do not need to redo anything there.
That one closes with the stickers at the front, and adding the elastic will probably take me five or ten minutes at most. I just could not be bothered to do it today. I will probably do it tomorrow, but because I am writing the article today, I wanted to mention it here as well.
The other one is not really a coat. It feels more like an anorak because it has a hood. I bought it first in size M, then realised at home that it was too small, so I had to return it and exchange it for a bigger size. The jacket itself is amazing. It is just amazing!!! The brand did a fantastic job with the quality 👌.
The Hood I Love and the Sleeves I Still Need to Fix
The only problem now is the sleeves. They are ridiculously long. Truly crazy long. When I put the hoodie on Queeny and she starts running, she steps on the sleeves and falls forward with her face on the carpet 🙈. So that definitely cannot stay as it is.
I still have not decided how I want to shrink the sleeves. And I need to think properly about how I want them to look in the end and how I should adjust them. I am not even sure what extra supplies I might need yet. It also has nice clips to tie up the sleeves, but because they sit too low, I still do not know whether I will cut them off or keep them 🤷♀️.
What I do love about this one is the hood. The hood has that little front peak, and because of that, when she runs with the hood up, the water does not drop on her face. That used to be a constant problem, especially on longer walks and not just a quick in and out. For me, that little detail felt like a miracle ✨.
When I went back to the shop to exchange it for a bigger size, they had already removed the collection because of the sale. Thank God one of the boys working there said, “Don’t worry, I’ll go to storage and find the one you need.” I found that absolutely fabulous, and I really appreciated what he did for me and for Queeny, obviously.
Why This Weekly Series Became an Article Too:
By the way, this series started as a newsletter. Then I realised that a newsletter is not evergreen content. If you miss the email or you are not on the list, you miss out completely. So I decided to turn this weekly newsletter into an article as well.
Now we have weekly article newsletters, which I actually love. If you want a notification every time these kinds of articles come out, you can subscribe through My Website. Just scroll down below, click the subscribe button, and every week I will send you a little notification about what I’m doing.
You can also choose what interests you most. You can pick craft, where I mostly explain how to create craft things. Also you can pick sewing, where I talk more about projects that need a sewing machine. Or, if you are interested in everything and simply want to know what I’m sewing and crafting each week, you can subscribe to both 😉.
A Little Thank You at the End
So yes, this was my very chaotic alteration week, and I’m quite happy you stayed with me through all of it. If you made it this far, I want to reward you with my Free Sewing Pattern.
With this pattern, you can get acquainted with the kind of sewing patterns I love to create. I test them myself, and I do not use any AI programs to build them. I really draft them myself, so go and have a little peek. So I hope you’ll enjoy it 🫶.
And if you already tried one of my sewing patterns, or you are about to download one and want a bit of guidance, you can also subscribe to my School Community. There, you can ask me directly about any struggle you have. We have a lovely community where you can show your projects, ask questions about the pattern, and get help if something is unclear. I check it every day myself. If I’m available, I answer straight away. If I’m a little late, people in the group who have already tried the pattern can help you too.
So yes, subscribe if you want to be inside a nice sewing community that genuinely helps each other. But for now, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed this article and the little story of what Queeny and I were doing this week. I’ll see you in the next one. Bye 👋.
