How to Make Guinea Pig Clothes

It’s fun to make clothes for your pet guinea pig. Just imagine the laughs you’ll have showing off your pets to others if they’re wearing the little togs you’ve made them. It’s also tremendously easy, because you don’t have to create garments that are perfectly fitted or even perfectly executed.

Photo by tinfoilraccoon on Flickr

You’re just going to be doing this for fun, because—after all—you can’t have your guinea pig wearing clothing 24 hours a day 7 days a wheeeek! But a bit of fun now and then is in order.

Why Photograph Your Pet?

There are lots of fun things to do with photos of your pet.  You can upload photos to the Guinea Pig Care Facebook page.

What about posting them on your website? If you don’t have a website, you can create one quickly and for free with Google.

Use photos of your guinea pigs wearing clothing to create greeting cards. Imagine the fun if you dress your pets in special clothing for the holidays—Christmas or Halloween, for example.

Even though you don’t want to have your pet wearing the clothing for too long, your friends will get a good laugh if you film them and upload the video to YouTube.

You can even create a story of sorts using title cards and music. Use treats outside of the camera’s range to motivate your pets so that they’ll go where you need them for filming.

Choosing Your Fabric

Felt makes an ideal fabric because it won’t fray if you cut it and it’s easy to wash by hand. Fleece is another fabric that you can cut without worrying about the look of frayed edges. You can also use nylon netting. Even cutting up a t-shirt or any fabric with a tight weave works well—as long as you aren’t laundering it.

However, you can adapt any material to use without fraying when you make clothes for your guinea pig if you iron fusible web onto the back of it. Fusible web is available in all sewing goods stores. It melts when you iron it against the wrong side of your fabric. For that reason, do not put your iron directly against the web, or it will melt all over your appliance.

It’s extra work to iron this sewing product onto the back of a fabric; however, if you’re having difficulty cutting a fabric that suits your fancy, then try fusible web.

If you really like to sew, you might just prefer to choose your fabric without worrying about the fraying and apply hem stitching to the edges.

The Simplest: Begin With a Cummerbund

The easiest clothing will be a strip of material that measures about 10 cm in width and long enough to wrap around your pet. Apply Velcro or snaps on the ends that will meet under your guinea pig’s stomach so that you can fasten this makeshift cummerbund around him.

It’s how you decorate it that counts: You can make it of pink tulle, fasten it around your female pet, and tie a pink ribbon around her. If you have a fellow, choose a masculine colour and decorate it with your favourite sports team’s colours.

There are photos that show these simple pieces of fabric decorated to make your pet look like a bumblebee, an angel, a leprechaun, or a ninja warrior.

Design a Jacket

If you really want something with armholes, take a circle of fabric. The size depends on your pet; use a tape measure to get his length from the back of his ears measuring just up to his rump. You won’t want the clothing covering his rump or restricting his back legs.
Cut a hole in the middle of the circle. The diameter of the hole should be approximately 8 cm. Cut into the fabric from one side of the hole to the edge of the fabric.

You might even want to cut a pie-shaped wedge into the fabric because it will be more than enough to wrap around your pet.

You will cut tiny armholes into the fabric about 1-2 cm from the central hole. You will make these armholes on either side of the pie-shaped wedge, but hold the fabric against your guinea pig whilst you cut to get an exact idea of where his arms will hit the fabric.

Note: Do not cut the fabric as you’re holding it against your pet!

As with the cummerbund, you can apply Velcro to the edges along the wedge-shaped area so that it will fasten around him. Don’t make the clothing too tight; you should be able to insert one or two fingers between your pet’s fur and the material.

Once you’ve got the central hole around his neck, with the wedge-shaped area closed over his belly and his arms poking through the holes, you’ll get the idea. You can make multiple outfits for him so that he looks like Santa Claus, a superhero, your favourite team’s star athlete, or whatever suits your fancy.
Just remember that all Animals including Guinea Pigs are born naked. Guinea Pig Care supports comfortable fitting costumes for photos & film and that’s about all.

Your piggies are happiest without clothes.

GuineaPigCare.com.au