DIY No-Sew Snood Pajamas

Traditionally, a snood is one of those old school nets that women would use to hold the back of their hair. Fugly. Nowadays, a snood is a kind of head scarf thingy, like if a knit cap and a scarf had a baby. It's not uncommon to see sighthounds wearing snoods since those breeds tend to get cold very easily. Well, guess who else is temperature sensitive. Yup, Princess Zainey and Sir Bolt. While Zainey is just a high-maintenance diva, Bolt actually has very little fur on his precious neck. They both like to be covered with blankets when they are cold - the only problem with this is that every time they get up, the blanket falls off. Problem solved - enter the DIY fleece snooded-jammies!

DIY victims 

Super easy to make (see lame instructions below), these can be as simple as you like (just cut and wear), or made fancier by adding a fringe edge, seems, or embellishments. Right now, ours are the cut and wear variety, but a quick trip to the craft store will fix that. Either way, you already get one bonus finished edge since the pant cuff is now the top of the snood.

I love it! These are lightweight enough to wear around the house and warm enough for naps. It's perfect for the dog that likes to burrow - just pull the snood up around the muzzle and voila ... instant coverage!

Materials Needed: old pajama pants, scissors, and a glass of wine. Seriously. That's it.

(Make sure the pant legs are big enough to accommodate your dog's girth and that the material has some give for comfort and is visually forgiving for a raw cut edge - fleece is best.)

(Click to enlarge)

A couple of notes: 

'I don't thinks we iz in focus'

~ Cut the body length first and fit the former pant leg/now pajama body on your dog before you decide on arm hole placement - that way you can see how much 'snood' you want coming over the head and then mark the arm holes. Even though I did this, I still managed to screw up and put the arm holes on Bolt's PJ's too close to the head hole (I apologize for using such technical terms) and now his snood is really just a super tall collar.

~ If your dog is long like Z, you can include part of the waistline elastic in your design which adds a little 'grip' to the hind end area of the material.

'WHAT?! I can't hear anything'

~ Don't expect a flawless piece. These aren't going to be perfect, but they will be FREE. The snood portion fits well on Z, but the body is a little more form fitting than I'd like. The opposite is true for little B - his snood is very loose and airy, but the body fits well, like a little nightgown.

~ Start larger and trim from there. You can always cut more, but you can't glue it back together. Keep the PJ's big and then re-cut and re-size as fittings indicate. I cut a damn arm hole too big, so I ended up doing some sewing.




~ Boy dogs have a penis! I've always had girl dogs so I forget that boys need special accommodations for their potty sticks. I wanted to leave Bolt's gown longer for more warmth, but a wet tummy area after a trip to the backyard reminded me that boy dogs can't have their tummies covered. Whooopsy...pee-peed PJ's!

~ Don't leave dogs unattended in clothing. They can twist, get limbs caught, panic and injure themselves. I forgot to take these off of them last night and woke up with Burrito-Bolt! Ha! Of course, it's only funny because I was there to fix it. (It really was cute though  - like a fleece chimichanga with ears!).

'I iz seriously so cozeeee in here'

So, there you have it! Cold weather DIY for you and your dog! Now, go grab your favorite sh*t stained pajama pants that you were gonna toss out and re-purpose them into wintertime snooded-jammies for your dog!

Voted Most Romantic - Bolt

p.s. The best part...I still have the pajama top, so now the dogs and I have matching family PJ's! Fancy!