Rocketdog Bassets: DIY Rocketdog Winter Coat Instructions Page Three, Reinforcing Straps

Table of Contents

Five straps are sewn to the face, or back, of the material in your DIY Rocketdog Winter Coat: The Back Strap keeps the coat from stretching from front to back. There is a short piece of strap which supports the seam where the Bely Flap Panel is attached to the Main Panel (shown on Page Two). The Belly Straps hold the coat around the dog and the Coat is secured using buckles attached to these straps. There are two short straps sewn to the back of the materials which give a firm anchor to the neck straps which hole the neck closed. The material itself is somewhat light weight and these straps keep everything in place and take the abuse normally supported only by the plaid material itself.

Each of these straps is secured raw, meaning the ends of the straps are not singed to avoid fraying over time. Instead the ends are covered by other strapping. But you might singe the ends if you wish to do it. Follow this link to learn how.

Note: we use straight stiches to hold the strapping on and sew fairly close to the edges, this makes the thing look straight and nice, but occasionally we have used a narrow zig-sag stitch where it made sense to do it. The straight stitching works better for these reinforcing straps, but either will do the job.

The first strap you will sew will be a reinforcement of the seam holding the Belly Flap Panel to the Main Panel of the coat. The Belly flap Panel is seven inches wide from the East edge to the West. (This is just an estimate which counts the squares on the fabric surface, which are about an inch square.) Using the Belly Flap Panel as a guide, cut a piece of strapping which closely approximates the width of the Belly Flap Panel.

The seam you will cover will be held together under this piece of strapping, so lay the strap over this seam and sew it down using either a straight or zig-zag stitch close to the edge of the strap at both edges.

Next, there are two short pieces of strapping to sew to the backside of the fabric where the neck straps will be sewn in later on. These straps are two inches long and can be singed or not. Cut two straps two inches long, you can use the square pattern of the fabric for a guide by measuring two squares. The straps will be sewn under the second set of squares, counted from the north end of the neck tabs. Working with the Main Panel assembly backside up, lay the strapping over the area of the second square on the Face of material and sew it down using a straight or (zig-zag) stitch.

The Back Strap reinforces the length of the Coat and is sewn in the center of the back on the face of the material. You can measure and cut the strap prior to sewing, but this is not necessary and it can just as easily be cut at the end of your first stitch.

Find the center of the back panel by folding it over double. The center is at the top of the fold. The, mark the center using chalk or by pinching it between the thumb and fore finger and lay the material flat under the presser foot of the sewing machine to hold it in place. The center the strap over the center of the Main Panel and sew the strap at the edge using a straight or zig-zag stitch. Sew both edges down before moving on.

The last reinforcing straps are those which will hold the coat around the belly of the dog and to which the belly strap buckles will be attached. The places you will sew these straps will be one square in from the edges of the Belly Flap Panel and follow the square in a straight line to the other side of the coat. Again, as in the Back Reinforcing Strap, you can choose to measure and cut these straps prior to sewing, or do it "on the fly".