Knitting - Dog coats

Yes dog coats or sweaters, whatever you want to call them.  My youngest daughter has a friend who has 2 dachshunds, Daphne and Winston, they are feeling the cold, aren't we all.  So I offered to knock them up some coats.

I went online and printed off an assortment of free patterns, but plumped for the Easy Dog Sweaters from Talking Tails.  Its a simple pattern which you can make your own, adjusting the sizing easily. I also added 6 rows of rib to the start of the under panel to prevent rolling.

First off is Daphne's, she is the smaller of the 2 dogs and her measurements were more or less the same as the pattern.  I used Caron Simply Soft Paints which is an aran weight yarn. I used our ceramic Jack Russell as the model for these photos.

Next Winstons' he is longer and broader around the chest, so I added a few extra stitches to the back and under panel - I think now finished I could have left the under panel as the pattern as its slightly bigger than I wanted.  The main yarn I think was possibly from Lion Brand though I have lost the label, for the stripes I used 2 strands of DK worked together. The colour of the main yarn is greener in natural light, looks blue here.

These sweaters take about 4.5 hours to knit, so easily done in an evening.  Daphne's took 65 grams of yarn and Winston's 80 grams, so a good use of oddment stash yarn. The thorny question of what to charge came up.  I said £6 for each, that covers the yarn, if I added my time even at minimum wage then we would be looking at around £35 each, crazy, no one would pay it.  How do you charge or work out a fair price?

My next project will be a couple of simple cardigans for Jess, she starts nursery in the next week so needs something for messy play that won't matter if it gets spoiled........