Keeping Pete Warm

As all of you know who read my blog, we're heading to Moab, Utah for a few days. This is not exactly a pleasure trip but rather a necessity. We've been keeping an eye on the weather and all it says is COLD! It's 20 to 30 degrees colder there and we think it's cold here at home. On top of all that, they're expecting snow/rain showers on Saturday when we're holding Josh's outdoor memorial in the old town park. All I can say is I hope they can build a big, big bonfire.

We've been talking about the clothes we need to take. I've been encouraging David to take long underwear, but he refuses to wear it. He says he'll be fine. I'm taking extra. I just don't want this situation to be any harder just because I'm cold.

Then it dawned on me - what about Pete? He needs to stay warm too. He's so used to being in the house that he will really suffer, but I don't want to leave him home either. This morning I decided to get creative and try to make something - fast!

I found this old sweatshirt that I hadn't worn for awhile.

Then I cut the sleeve off at the seam.

I measured about how long I wanted the neckline to be and cut a slit through both thicknesses of material.

I cut a slit big enough to fit Pete's leg through

I rounded the bottom corners which will be under his tummy.

I repeated with the second sleeve so now I have two. I made the neck a little longer on the second one by moving the leg holes further back. I stitched around the raw edges with my sewing machine, but you wouldn't have to do this if you didn't want to. I saved myself some money this way too. The price of these runs about $10 at Walmart. A person could do this with an old sweater too, but you would definitely want to stitch the edges.

Now I still had the sweatshirt left, so I cut the 

sleeves at a slant to the neckline and stitched it closed.

I just used a simple zigzag stitch.

I cut the neck down to match the "sweater" I had just finished.

Here the neck is sewn smaller.

Now I have a "cape" that I can put over his head and still keep the rest of him warm.

And this is how it turned out. Looks good don't it?