Improvised pattern, using a rectangle of polar fleece. The polar fleece section is the “saddle blanket” part (on which I appliqued our company logo - the dog is our office mascot). Knitting is used for the collar, the chest section, and a ribbed finish along the back edge just before the tail. The yarn is a durable, acrylic The whole thing can be tossed in the washer and dryer.

I measured Target Dog and cut a rectangle of polar fleece equal to his back length from neck to his tail, minus about an inch; and wide enough to flop over his back, ending just where his legs meet his body. For this small Havanese, 1/4 yard of polar fleece was more than enough. I could probably make two more sweaters from the remnant. I used less than a whole skein of yarn, left over from a previous project - probably about 100 yards or so.

I edged the fleece rectangle with blanket stitch (embroidery stitch) using my knitting yarn threaded through a tapestry needle.

Then using my knitting needles and working off from the embroidered blanket stitch, I picked up knit stitches on the neck end, adding some extra width using half-hitch cast on, and knit a very stretchy K2P2 rib collar.

After the collar was done, I began working the chest part. I picked up stitches along the half-hitch cast on previously done, and working in the other direction, began working K2P2 ribbing, picking up a stitch at the beginning of every row from the sides of the polar fleece rectangle, and working that stitch along with the first stitch of the next row. This attached my new strip of knitting to the sides of the polar fleece.

While I was doing that, I made regularly spaced increases in the chest area, broadening it out so that it would fit the target dog. I made these increases in pattern, in the middle of purl columns, so that the new width was introduced as additional ribs.

When about an inch or so of the chest had been attached to the sides of the rectangle, I “worked free for about 3 inches, continuing in my K2P2 rib, but not attaching the new work to the sides of the polar fleece. This made the holes for the dog’s front legs. When I had large enough leg holes, I resumed attaching the knitting to the sides of the polar fleece, continuing on for another two inches before ending off.

Last was adding a bit of ribbing to the tail end of the piece. This cupped the back end of the jacket a bit, and made it fit better.