The Cheerful Times

Last month my sister Rochelle adopted a new dog to live with her in her new Brooklyn studio apartment. His name is Henry and he’s a terrier mix!

I had already given Rochelle an apartment-warming gift, and I obviously had to give Henry a dog-warming gift. I knew I wanted to craft him something, but there was one problem: my sister is basically the most crafty person in the world. Anything I made him, she would be able to make for him ten times better and faster.

For this reason I knew I had to keep it simple and effective.

In my internet travels I stumbled across this adorable and incredibly easy craft: “Easiest Upcycled Dog Collar Ever!” from the Sew Doggy Style blog. It was the perfect gift! My sister loves throwing parties and Henry would be such a dapper doggie host in a little collared dress shirt accessory. Plus, Rochelle is the shop owner/seamstress behind Etsy’s Brooklyn Bowtied, so he would look like such a cute little fancy man wearing a collar/bow tie combo.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Collared dress shirt(s)
• Measuring tape
• Scissors
• That’s literally it

I decided I wanted to make three different collars for Henry, so I rallied my beloved crafty companion Athena and went to the thrift store. Rochelle told me that Henry’s neck size is 13 inches. Because Athena’s dog is also teeny, we took a trip to the little boys’ section. Some little boy dress shirts are labeled S/M/L instead of by neck measurements, so I brought my measuring tape to double check sizes just in case.

Here are the shirts we picked out!

You have to make sure of two things when picking out shirts for this project: Continue reading “DIY Doggie Dress Shirt Collar” →