New Family Pet

Let me introduce you to the latest member to our family our "Sausage Dog".  He's house trained, doesn't eat much and will not have to go to puppy training school so he's a great fit for our little family.  Whenever my kids play with our friends dog they are always asking me (hounding me, ha ha) to get a dog.  It's not something that this little family can manage given that dogs are a lot of work, cost a lots and usually end up with vet fees not to mention the food bill.  Here's our little sausage dog out in the backyard.

When we were kids we grew up with cats, budgies, finches, ducks, a cockatoo and gold fish but no dog.  That's why I was happy to get chickens because they are relatively easy to look after and they give you fresh eggs in return.  Unfortunately our two chickens died over the extreme heat we had in Brisbane during the January school holidays and will be getting some more chickens to replace them during the Easter holidays but for now we have a Sausage Dog.

I saw this little Doggie pattern on Pinterest  from Retromama when I was looking at making Sienna something for her birthday and the other day I came across it again and decided that since I've caught the sewing bug again after a 10 year absence from my machine that I wanted to make it for her since she would love a dog.  Whilst James would also love a dog, I didn't think giving him a stuffed sausage dog would do anything for him however I knew Sienna would love it.  James got a can of orange sunkist this afternoon instead (which is very rare for this family as it was left over party drinks from Sienna's birthday last weekend so he was equally happy with his gift).

I downloaded the pattern which cost $8.00 on Wednesday and yesterday afternoon popped into the local patchwork shop and bought the fabric.  I was really pleased with the fabrics and couldn't wait to get started on sewing the doggie today.   The instructions were pretty easy and I did read them all before I started which is usually a good tip but not always done.  It was a just a matter of cutting out the fabric, sewing the ears together, then sewing the ears onto the body, then the nose and eyes go onto the body and then last is the sewing around the whole doggie leaving 2-3 inches below the doggie tail to put your stuffing in.  I used the end of a wooden spoon to put the stuffing in, first into the nose and working your way back towards the tail of the dog.  I bought a bag of 500 gms stuffing and she says her dog weighs 6.8 oz (192 gms) at the end just so you can work out how much stuffing is enough.  I ended up stuffing mine with more than that, however it is solid and very cuddly because of the shape.

The sausage dog doesn't stand up by itself because he only has 2 legs and in all reality there are not many 2 legged dogs around but none the less a beautiful addition to our family.  Sienna has called him "Sausage Dog" which is very appropriate and she loves him and is already carrying it everywhere this afternoon. NOTE:  The pattern says to use a stitch on your machine which is 3 stitches together of which I didn't know you could do this.  I did find it on my machine and used this stitch which is basically making sure the whole thing is reinforced and won't split open once you start stuffing your dog.  This totally works well and you learn something new about your machine every day.  She has this note in her detailed instructions however I thought it was worth while mentioning it here.  Here's a few photos of the process. 

I downloaded the pattern first which I printed at home.

Cutting the ears I used the light grey material as the top of the ears and the solid block plain brown colour underneath the ears.  I used a contrast for the ears but it's not necessary as you could just use the one fabric.

This is the last stage of the sewing with the opening towards the end of the dog to allow for stuffing.

Here is the dog turned inside out and ironed flat.

And a close up of his face.  She uses black thread to sew the eye lashes on however I just used the same thread as I was sewing with and didn't mind showing the stitches on the eye lashes.  The felt I used for his nose was a stick on felt so the nose was sewn into the seams but I also peeled off the backing and the nose stuck to the fabric so I didn't bother sewing around the nose except into the seams.

Here he is our proud little doggie.

Another view of him up on the table leaning against my little Ikea pot plant.

And a close up of his face and the fabric.  The stars are not white or creams but they have a hint of blue in them which is why I loved the fabric for the ears.  It's a little hard to see in these photos the colours of the stars.

And the proud owner of our latest pet.

And that was today's sewing adventures and I loved making it.  I finished it about 10 minutes before I had to pick her up from school so I could give it to her today.  Now next week I'll have to get back to the housework as James Quilt and the Sausage Dog took up my time this week.  I'm sure I'll have time to cut out the little dresses but that will be towards the end of the week.  I've had so much fun sewing the Quilts and this little doggie.  If you are looking for a baby gift or even a little toddler gift I highly recommend this cute little Sausage Dog.  There is a dog bone pattern as well you can make up but I decided it wasn't necessary however it's there if you want to sew one yourself.