The Eclectic Otter: Dog Bandana

It has been a great weekend for Gil. I had the day off Friday and we went for a walk at the park with my parents. After his excitement on Wednesday, he was pleased to meet some well-behaved dogs out walking with their own people as well. Made him feel better about life in general, restored his faith in dogmanity or something like that. Then I spent the afternoon making him a bandana.

DIY Dog Bandana

Materials:

1/2 yard cotton fabric
Matching thread
Paper for template

Step One: Make a template

I actually used a template that I found on this blog. The instructions said to enlarge it 200% but when I did it looked much too big, so I made another at 150%. All you need to do is make a triangle as long as you want the bandana from top to point plus a few inches on top to make a pocket. The length needs to be big enough to fit around your dog's neck.

The red line shows the pattern I made at 200% the blue 150%

Step Two: Cut fabric

I actually made my bandana slightly different than the previous tutorial suggested. The template is made to be placed on a fold, both along the side and one top so that it makes it's own lining. I cut it with a fold only on the side.

Step Three: Sew Edges

Fold each edge over a quarter inch and iron, then fold over again. Stitch all the way around the edges.

Step Four: Fold Over and Sew Pocket

Fold the top section in down and sew it in place.

Even with the template being made smaller it still turned out a little big on Gil. I'm not sure what happened. I think maybe it got enlarged some already when I first printed it. But since I didn't have it made for Easter this year and Gil is still growing, I didn't want it to look to small and silly next year.

I really think this fabric is cute. The dog in bunny ears is my favorite and I like the fact that you can find the dog that stepped in the dye and made all the footprints.

I also worked a daytime shift on Saturday (usually I work the evening/closing shift) so Gil didn't have to be kenneled while my husband went to his game night. We had a very nice evening hanging out in the backyard, enjoying the nice weather.

Then yesterday, we grilled for the first time since we adopted Gil. He had a lot of fun hanging out with us both outside and smelling meat. We didn't share this time because we were having steaks but maybe next time. He did get to have a special treat of Dogsters ice-cream. He LOVED it!