Dog vest

[Spunt Drag]

Avery Boaters Parka for me. The fit is the most important part and none of em will come wit the exact fit for your dog. Here's some help to get you started. My apologies to Rick Hall.


Tailoring a Dog Vest

Getting an off-the-shelf vest that actually fits your dog correctly (snug everywhere, but not tight anywhere) would be a remarkable fluke. Even with a design like Cabela's wide Velcro fastener that affords an inch or two of adjustability zippers don't, the vest won't be fully functional without tailoring.

The drill is to buy the correct chest size and break out a marking pen, straight edge, scissors and a can of "neoprene cement," like Block Surf (not Aquaseal or Goop or any other substitute), and go to work.

With the vest on the dog, pinch out the excess material and mark both sides where the pinched material meets and the tip of the triangle the pinch creates.

Take the vest off the dog, and using the straightedge, draw lines from each "pinch" mark to the "tip" mark, which will create the triangular "dart" that needs removed with your scissors.

Having removed the darts of excess material, you're ready to close the gaps they created. This is where using neoprene cement, which melts the neoprene edges and essentially welds them together quickly enough that it's no strain to hold them together while it works pays off. Other types of adhesives will require stitching to hold the new seam edges together while they dry and perhaps even for support. I have never had an unstitched neoprene cement seam separate.

You'll also likely need to remove some material that will otherwise chaff Pup's arm pits and an opening around a male dog's penis. Don't worry about cutting beyond the bar tacking on a vest's stitched seams, as on a properly made vest the stitching is really just eyewash for buyers, rather than necessary.

May sound complicated, but it took me longer to type that than it would have to properly tailor a vest.