Hooking on Hump Day – Halloween Costumes for Millie & Walter

Hi everyone it’s Cindy here. I know it’s been a couple weeks since my last post so I thought I would start with a little health update. If you missed out on what is going on you can check out my previous post to learn about my surgery. I am recovering well and had my stitches out this past Monday. I’m now cleared to drive although the nerve discomfort (from the surgery) makes walking painful so I have only ventured out when absolutely necessary. I see the neurologist this coming Monday and expect to get the results from my biopsy. Please keep all the Power of the Paw and Good Thoughts coming so that hopefully I can get some relief soon.

Okay now on to the reason for this post. If you remember I crocheted Millie & Walter costumes for this past Halloween.

Walter & Millie as
Stan Marsh & Wendy Testaburger

Of course they were thrilled with their sweaters and hats as you can see above (really what dog is?) but they indulged me enough to get a picture. When I set out to make the sweaters I searched the internet for a pattern but couldn’t find one that was exactly what I wanted. I finally decided to use this dog sweater pattern I found on the Lion Brand site as a guide and started out creating my pieces. I used the pattern to determine the dimensions of the back piece and the chest piece and just used single crochet.

Walter’s Sweater
Large back piece on right and chest piece on left

I decided to add buttons to the pattern instead of trying to squeeze their legs into the holes if I had sewn the sweater completely closed. Millie & Walter are both very good about not fidgeting and let me put them on and button them up easily. My two pups both weigh 50 pounds but are built slightly differently. Walter has a larger chest and after sewing together the back and chest pieces as described in the pattern it didn’t fit. I made the chest piece bigger and it still didn’t fit across Walter’s chest so I added a few rows at the neck line to give him some more room. You can see the extra rows, that go crosswise in the picture below, at the top of the triangle where the leg hole is.

Chest piece with button eyelets

I liked the idea of these fairly simple costumes for this year since I was really just creating basic sweaters. Neither Millie or Walter have had the need for a sweater to keep warm while outside but this way we will have them if needed.

Millie’s sweater

For the neck I made a ribbed collar by using a technique I learned from making baby booties. To complete the sweaters I covered buttons to match the sweaters.

Covered buttons

I found a few patterns for covered buttons online and improvised from them based on the weight of the yarn I was using and the size of my buttons. I have a large collection of buttons and figured instead of buying buttons to match the yarn I would just cover what I had and use them. I was able to pull out of my button stash enough buttons of the same size for both sweaters. To close the sweaters I created chain stitch eyelets.

Walter’s Stan Marsh hat

The hats were also a bit of improvisation. For Walter’s hat I started with the pattern from the Stan Marsh Amigurumi I made. When it got to the ear holes I just created the holes with some chain stitches. I fit the spacing for the holes by marking them to where Walter’s ears actually fit on the hat.

Ear hole and chin strap on Stan Marsh hat

I added an elastic strap to hold it on. Even though the elastic is a little thick you can’t really see it when it is on. It is just tight enough to keep the hat on his head without pulling the hat down too much.

A cute pink beret with a covered button on top

Millie’s hat was also improvised. I started with the same pattern for Walter’s hat but then had to figure out how to make the beret shape. I again found a few patterns on the internet and used them as a guide for the shaping. I’m really pleased with how it came out and hope she will let me put it on her again some time. I topped the hat off with another covered button.

Chin strap and ear holes for Millie’s hat

To get the hat to stay on this time I used thinner elastic that I hand sewed it as seen above.

As always I had fun creating these outfits for the pups. I used worsted weight yarn and an “I-9” (5.5mm) hook for all the pieces.