Hi, I’m very happy you’re here 🙂
So I finally get to introduce to you the Rainbow coat.
I do actually make coats that are more expensive then the rainbow coat,
the Ice fleece of Veselka made from Qiviut is one example.
But no coat has ever got such an amazing response as the rainbow coat.
It is probably the only real knitted coat in the world. you see most knitted clothes for dogs are actually sweaters which are machine made. The rainbow coat on the other hand took months to develop and evolve its very detailed coat.
Calling a rainbow coat a sweater is a bit like calling a Rolls Royce a car, well it is technically, but we all know a Rolls Royce is not the same as a ford escort.
Originally I just wanted to make a beautiful coat to keep Marlon snug and warm in the Winter.
But after the fateful encounter with the eccentric woman of Hampstead Heath the coat evolved into a very detailed coat 🙂
first I had to solve many design issues because I wanted a complete coat for Marlon not many different layers like a separate harness and jumper.
I also wanted something very quick to put on Marlon because he is such a wiggle bum squeezing him into a typical jumper was just far to much hard work.
One of the first problems I encountered was putting a D ring to knitted wool.
No matter how much the D ring was secured to the knitted wool it would stretch and Marlon would manage to pull his way out of the coat.
The rainbow coats come in selection of colours. Pictured is pink rainbow coat with Marlon on duty as the quality control officer.
So the only way to solve this was to make a whole new inner strap harness and attach the D ring to the strap harness.
Next I had to somehow sew the strap harness with invisible stitches to the main knitted coat in such a way that didn’t damage the yarn.
With some practise I was able to attach the inner harness to the knitted wool coat and make the D ring protrude through the knitted yarn.
The next evolution of the rainbow coat was fur lining at first the fur was just a collar decoration. But later as the cold weather set in the fur not only made the coat warmer but hid the inner harness and also made it possible to add Velcro.
Now Velcro isn’t the obvious choice to close a knitted garment in fact I have never seen it used on any other dog sweater and there is a reason for this. The velcro tears and damages the wool thread. but after much testing of fabrics the fur lining became the ideal solution for the Velcro.
Now many have asked why not use buttons to close the knitted coat?
Well months of testing with Marlon showed us that buttons were less adjustable and didn’t close the coat snugly.
Buckles also didn’t work for the same reason a lot of the coat would end up coming loose.
Another factor is that the inner safety harness goes inside the coat straps and at the end of these straps is Velcro. Buttons would stretch the wool whereas Velcro wraps the inner safety harness around the dog securely.
So the final design has a hidden Velcro closure around the dogs tummy with a secondary functioning button closure but the button acts more as decoration than anything.
The very latest models even include a thin waterproof layer sandwiched between the knitted yarn and fur.
The final touch was to add a special knit pattern to create a comfort arch which makes the back of the coat curve around your dog’s rump. Without this special knit pattern the coat would stick up in the air awkwardly every time a dog sniffed the floor. The nature of making the the coat with layers also makes the coat quite firm meaning it is not loose and floppy around the dogs body. Each coat requires special crafting and shaping with a knit pattern so it fits snuggly around a dogs body when it moves. Maybe its the first tailored coat on the market shaped to a dogs body.
Yes you could use a harness and a sweater with a hole but we could also get to work in a 20 year old pick up.
I didn’t want to make do. I wanted something perfect for Marlon and a creation of unusual quality.
Don’t our dogs deserve all the special things we can give them?