The Puppy Dog Carrier Pattern is Here!

Yesterday I introduced you to the puppies, and today I'm going to introduce you to their brand new carrier!  I've improved the design since I last showed you, and I like it so much better!

The pattern is meant to be used with pre-quilted fabric, although you could certainly use your own. 

Are you familiar with pre-quilted fabric? It is basically two pieces of fabric quilted with batting in between them.  It comes in plain colors or in designs (Usually the designed fabric is made of two coordinating pieces of fabric.) You can buy it online or in a fabric store.  The door is made of black specialty mesh so that the puppies can see out.  The black specialty mesh (usually made of Nylon) is cheap and can found at many fabric stores.  It is sometimes located with the utility fabrics.

I feel like these carriers could be personalized in so many ways...even use an old quilt.  Remember how I embellished my first carrier with cute little fabric "stamps," inspired by Nana Company. There are so many possibilities!

The carrier is completely lined, with no ugly seams in the inside at all.  The door attaches to the outside, and closes with a velcro closure at the base.  Great for little fingers to manipulate!   It holds two puppies easily, but is a comfortable size for one as well. 

You can think of this pattern as basically being composed of five pieces: a base, two side pieces, a main carrier piece that goes all around, and a door that opens and closes.  Super simple.

As for the pattern itself, I'd say it's designed for the advanced beginner or beyond.  It's not a great first sewing project.  There's pinning, sewing curved seams, and working with bulky fabrics.

Prerequisite skills:

•Sewing straight and curved seams, back-stitching (and when to use) with a sewing machine.

•Ease of working with small seam allowances and sewing in small and sometimes awkward spaces.

**You’ll notice that I made my doors out of quilted fabric surrounding the mesh.  I did this purely out of convenience (And you can too, if you’d like!).  You should know though that your fabric is going to get really thick if you do use quilted fabric.  If you (or your machine) doesn’t handle going through thick layers well, I’d recommend switching the quilting fabric out for a more lightweight fabric such as home decorating fabric or duck cloth.  Something that’s still a bit heavy and durable, just not quite as thick.  The how to instructions are the same no matter which fabric you use, but I'd definitely recommend that a beginner user a more lightweight fabric for the door to make things easier. 

The pattern itself is 19 pages long, 9 of which are template pages.  There are about 40 color pictures mixed in with the instruction to help make the instructions all the more clear.  Just like the rest of my patterns, it's a digital download pattern, meaning that you can purchase it in my Craftsy or Etsy shop and download it right away as a PDF file.  You can select which pages you want to print.  The pages print to a standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, but the template pages have a ruler guide so that you can make sure that it prints out the correct size if you need another printing option. 

This pattern does require you to assemble some of the pieces to make larger template pieces.  No big deal really...just cut out the pages and assemble them by overlapping the bars as described.  The seam allowance is already added to the pattern templates as needed.

Here's what you'll need to make your own carrier:

Materials and Equipment:

•Thread

•Basic sewing machine with a regular presser foot. A walking foot (optional) might be helpful for sewing the thicker parts.

•Scissors for cutting fabric and paper

•Scotch tape for assembling the template

•1 ¼ yard quilted fabric if using the same fabric for both the interior and exterior of the carrier (or 1 yard for the exterior and 1 yard for the lining if different.)

•An 8.5 x 8.5 inch piece of black specialty mesh for the door

•Approximately 7 inches of 3/4 inch Velcro

•Approximately 6 inches of 1 inch ribbon or trim for the carrier handle.

And I think that's it!

Am I forgetting anything?  Let me know if there is something I haven't answered here.  Don't forget to tune in the rest of this week for all of the rest of the puppy related posts...and sign up for the giveaway!  

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