craftgrrl | Dog carrier and t-shirt

I've been making more things for my puppy. Here's what I've finished in the past couple of days.

Here's the carrier I made for her. It's based on a pattern from the book "Sew Dog" that I've had for awhile. I changed a number of things though, including not making it with heavy fusible interfacing and vinyl, which they recommend to stiffen the carrier. Since I used fur fabric and fleece for the lining, I couldn't iron on interfacing. What I used was a couple of sheets of that "plastic canvas" stuff that I cut to size. The pattern also called for making some bias tape to go around the upper edge of the carrier, but that wasn't feasible with fur and fleece either, so I did the top edges differently. I also made a little pillow for Sasha to sit or lie down on in the tote, one side of the fur and the other of the fleece.

Here are a couple of pics.
First, the tote with the pillow/bed next to it:

Here's the inside of the tote:

Another view of the exterior:

And Sasha inside the tote:

Then I re-fashioned a t-shirt for her to wear, figuring it would be cheaper to do that than to buy a doggie t-shirt.

I found the "I love Mommy" transfer at JoAnn's and decided it would look cute on a pink shirt. Most of the pet stores that sell shirts for dogs carry ones that already have some sort of saying on them. I found some online but they were around $5 plus shipping.

I took a shirt that was my size and cut off the front of it, from the shoulder seams all the way down the front. Then I put it around her neck and the front half of the collar fit her just right, with enough space for a velcro fastener. I sewed what used to be the shoulder edges to make them neat and so they wouldn't stretch. Then I measured the shirt fabric from her neck to her tail and cut the excess off, machine hemming that. I put it on/around her again and marked where her legs started so I could figure out where to put the sleeve holes. I also sewed a seam from the bottom up level with the spot where the sleeves would start. Then, I cut up toward the mark through the fabric and cut a half moon shape from each side for the sleeve to go in. After making that cut, there were "flaps" that, when I tried the shirt on the puppy, hung down in front. I sewed those to the free edges, stopping where the sleeve holes began. I used a doggie outfit pattern I picked up at WalMart to cut out sleeves, using the bottom edge of the shirt so I wouldn't have to hem them. Then I made the sleeves the way you usually would for any shirt. Then I put two velcro fasteners on the open front. Last, I ironed on the decal. This is roomy enough that it should fit her for awhile.