Baby Coat Pattern

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Baby Coat Pattern

Materials

Worn sweat pants or sweat shirts
Scissors
Ruler

Lay out sweats and cut off both legs or arms about 14 to 16 inches from the bottom (It is best to have them too big/long than too short). We also like to have different sizes of sweats as there are different sizes of babies. We suggest you use Large to 3X. Note: when using sweat shirts, save the shirt part to use on adult animals that need to be warmed up.

Smooth out the leg/arms with the seam at the top. Mark a dot about 4-5 inches in from elastic (elastic is the neck – ribbed ones work also but elastic is easier). Cut out shape below so the coat doesn’t get wet on the bucks; i.e. make sure that you cut the bottom from the 4” mark so it is open (We found that the seam at the top stays together better than the seam at the short side – don’t know why just does)

We cut both leg holes at once then smooth them out. Mark about 4-5 inches from neck and 1 ½ up from bottom and make a dot. (None of these are precise measurements. I just grab and cut but I am trying to give you a reference point.) Grab around the dot and take the scissors and cut a hunk through both sides. Using that hole for a starting point smooth out the cut so you have large leg holes at least 21/2 to 31/2 inches in diameter. Be sure not to cut too close to the bottom. You now have something that looks like this

The coat may be too small for this stuffed goat; but it will be
perfect for your new born kids

You can trim it even if you wish, but basically you are done and can make the second one. These "coats" wash and dry for many years of use.

How we use these baby coats:

As soon as baby is born we clean off face and de-slime with a towel, dip cord and put on a coat and lay in basket to wait for sibling. If it needs rubbing then that is done prior to putting on coat.

When all are born we change to dry coats and put in a crate.

Before feeding colostrum we change coat if wet if not, after feeding as inside will be damp.

By second feeding they are usually all dry and warm so we sometimes take the coat off entirely (No need for the coat if you are using a heat lamp at this time). Do whatever works for you!

When the litter starts getting up and moving around you may want to take the coat off before one of the littermates urinates on the coat; you could end up with a chilled wet baby.

We have used these for a litter of pups that had to go to the vet. (They got a big kick out of the baby sweatshirts in multi colors). They work great for all small dogs as "Sweat Dog Coats".

We have used them on chilled lambs also and mother didn’t have a problem with them but we watched closely.

The friend that created these coats used them on baby pigs also that she was raising that were very tiny.

Hope these are useful for you. We asked everyone I knew to cut off the bottoms of worn sweats and they were glad to bring them to me. This way you get different sizes. We haven’t tried it yet but we thought that the children’s sweats would work for Nigerian babies.

The original idea for these sweat coats come to us from Sandi Staples