How to Sew a Ribbon Onto a Dog's Collar

Of course, your puppy deserves the best collar, but the designer ones with pretty patterns cost so much you usually settle for a boring solid color instead. No worries. Buy the no-frills version and sew a fancy ribbon on top to turn that ho-hum collar into a dazzling one in a jiffy. It is so easy you will want to make several, and your stylish pup will soon be the talk of the neighborhood.

Open up your dog's collar and adjust it to its longest length, then measure it from the base of the male half of the buckle to the female half of the buckle on the opposite end.

Stretch out a length of ribbon and a piece of fusible seam tape and cut both to that same length plus an extra inch with scissors.

Place the ribbon right-side up over the fusible tape, then turn each end back on itself about a half-inch and temporarily pin it to itself to secure the ends from fraying.

Lay the dog collar flat on the ironing board with the outside facing up and place the ribbon and fusible seam tape on top of it from the base of one buckle half to the other, centering the tape and ribbon width-wise on the collar.

Fasten the ribbon and tape to the collar at each end with the pins you used previously -- keeping the ends tucked under -- and pin in two or three other places along the length to hold it in place until you iron it together. Note that you will need to slide the tape and ribbon beneath the D-ring on the collar.

Set the iron to the correct heat-setting for your fabric type and iron carefully along the ribbon to fuse it to the collar, removing the pins as you go and being careful not to change the position of the ribbon. Press hard to ensure good adhesion by the tape -- especially on each end and around the D-ring.

Use a sewing machine equipped with a No. 14 to 16 denim needle to stitch the ribbon to the collar using invisible nylon thread or thread matching your ribbon. Set the machine for a straight stitch with close stitch spacing and sew carefully along one side of the ribbon just to the D-ring, then turn and stitch across to the other side of the ribbon, back down and across to the beginning.

Turn the collar around and stitch from the other end to the D-ring and back as you did on the opposite end. This secures the ribbon to the collar without needing to remove any of the hardware.

Clip any loose threads and then snap the snazzy new collar on your pup.