Charlie is my darling... the dog bandana tutorial

Everyone should have at least one good friend who hears all their troubles, and mine is Charlie who is a rather handsome bulldog, who hears everything and says nothing... actually he fulfils this role for a number of us.  Recently, he has become quite the dandy about town sporting topical bandanas... he wore a Union Jack for the jubilee but I thought I would use one of the newly launched animal ribbons from the Jane Means collection... mind you, Charlie asked me to let Jane know he is available for modelling assignments when she realises that a bulldog would add that touch of macho doggy class to her great doggy ribbons!

So let's get started, you will need:

A dog
A fat quarter
Ribbon
Cotton
Scissors and pins or cutting mat and rotary cutter
Iron and ironing board
Matches
Fish knife


Iron the fat quarter and fold it on the diagonal to create a square, cut off the excess fabric.  If you have a smaller dog then you will need to cut out a smaller square, you could use Charlie's bandana as a tent for a Yorkie!

Now look at your dog collar and measure the width, Charlie's collar is an inch wide, so line the fold up and cut off a triangle from each side with a base of 1.5".

Open up the square, fold under a seam of 5/8" where you cut off your triangles, press with the iron and sew into place.  Pin the top ribbon .5" from the fold on the right side of your fabric,  remembering to seal the ends of the ribbon with your matches... Now pin the ribbon along one side, an inch away from the raw edge,  slip this ribbon under the ribbon running along the top so that it is not seen, repeat on the other side.  Now at the point of the triangle, you can either mitre the ribbon or cheat... keep one ribbon flat but fold the other one over to create a triangle.

Sew the ribbon in place on the inside and outside to secure it.  Fold the bandana so that right sides are facing, sew using a 5/8" seam allowance along the two sides but leaving open the seams you have sewn at the top.

Turn the bandana right sides out, having first trimmed the excess seam allowance, you can use either side of the scarf to pull it through, use the fish knife to ensure you get a nice point in the corner.  Iron the bandana from the reverse side... this will do two things, a) make sure you don't melt the ribbon and b) raise the ribbon.

Sew straight across the top of the scarf, 1.5" below the fold to create the channel for the lead's collar... I didn't do this initially but have done so since the pics were taken and it gives a much better finish and the bandana lies much flatter.  Slip the collar through the channel, whistle up your model and get out there for a walk.

I think that this has a much great chance of staying around Charlie's neck.  So there you go my first official blog as a ribbon stylist for Jane Means, hope you like it :)


Now if you have time, hop on over to Handmade Monday on Handmade Harbour... Wendy has some brilliant news, she is featured on the front page of Sewing World... isn't that fab?