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sewing coats for alpacas i started to make our own
coats for the animals on our farm
during the first winter
that we had alpacas here
i noticed that one of our
females that happened to be our oldest female
was shivering
i wasn't prepared for this
i wasn't sure what to do
so i went online to one of the instructional website
s about alpacas
and i remember reading
that at the first sign of shivering put a coat
on the alpaca well i didn't have a coat
and so i researched further
and i found suppliers where i could purchase one
but i had a thought
that maybe i could try something
to help this animal right away
i went to a bedroom closet
and i found an old
raincoat
and I started
thinking about what i could do
i tried taking the
old raincoat
and i cut it into large sections to start out
with
and this i cut right along the seam
and i ended up
with a large portion of
fabric
i did the same thing
in another large section
and so forth
then i took
all the pieces
that i had just cut up
and i shaped them
into what would become the outside layer
of my coat
and that worked pretty well
so i kept going i found an old blanket
and i shaped this as well into a middle layer
and i found another blanket that was softer
and used that for
the layer that would be closest to the alpaca
so then i ended up with three layers
which i sewed together
but i needed something on the outside edge
of all of these layers
and this is what i ended up doing
i made a binding
to do this i cut up some more of these pieces that were still left from the old raincoat
and with the pieces i made strips
a very long strip
sewing little sections of the strips together
and this strip would be about
three inches wide
and very very long it could be up to
fifty inches in length
and then take this strip
and fold it in the middle
i folded it and also ironed it so that it would stay
into a steady fold
then each half
of this strip
i folded towards the middle
like this
and then i ended up
with three folds
that became a binding
with this binding
it worked really well to go on the whole outside edge
of the alpaca coat
and then i needed one more important thing
i needed a way
to keep it on the animal
and looking at
the picture from the suppliers
i realized that velcro would work really well
so
i made a velcro
to fasten underneath
the front of it to go underneath the neck of the animal
and then another
velcro
which would go on the side
of the coat
and then this would go under the belly
of the alpaca
and it it would be a little bit adjustable if there was a
smaller or larger one
so that first coat turned out
pretty well
but it wasn't shaped quite right
the piece that went under the
females neck was drooping a little
so i remember thinking it looked a little weird but i
kept it on it was functional and then i started to think about other animals
that might also be cold
so i went to a thrift shop
and bought more old
raincoats
and did the same thing
as i made more coats
i improved the shape
and it turned out a whole lot better
also
as the winter was ending
i prepared for spring
births because crias will need a coat
even on a warm summer day if you've got a breeze
or if it starts to rain
that newborn cria can get cold
and so i made
several cria coats
so that we would have enough for all of our birthings that summer
and the following winter i made more
now we're into our third winter
and i'm pretty well prepared for the am ount of the animals that we have in case
some of them would be
getting cold as the winter
temperature drops
i don't believe that all
alpacas need to have
a coat
if the alpaca is healthy and has lots of fleece
they're probably just fine
but i keep my eye on crias that have been born that summer and this is
their first winter
they just need that extra help that extra protection from the cold
and i also watch the pregnant
females that are using up lots of energy
and they may also just need that extra little bit of help
so it takes a little time
to do this
type of project
and it turns out really well
it is a
resourceful
way to help your animals out with colder weather
have fun with it try it
i'd be happy to share my ideas
and i hope that you might try even
making coats for your pets or alpacas linda's article about making these
coats for alpacas can be read on the following web page
http://www.strawberryhillalpacas.com/sew-coats-for-alpacas/
diy sewing coats for pets animals alpacas