Homemade Sheep Covers

After seeing how tight the size C Rocky Mountain sheep covers were on my Shetland ewe lambs, I made three more coats out of some white canvas fabric that I had on hand. I hope they hold up during use.

In the back of the photo above is size C tan Rocky Mountain Sheep cover. In the center is a homemade version just a little larger and the one in the foreground is larger yet. I made another that was even larger, but was surprised to find that it wasn't long enough to fit 4 year old Hattie. Back to the drawing board for my yearling and adult ewes.

I put the smallest homemade coat on my moorit ewe lamb.  It's kind of big, but I think it will work. The black ewe lamb in the photo above is wearing a nylon coat of a different brand. A little too small.

As I was sewing these, I thought to myself that the Rocky Mountain coats would probably fit if only the front was a bit wider. So I extended the front of one and tried it out on my Ag grey ewe lamb, shown on the right in the photo below.

 It seems to have worked. I'll probably extend the other two C's like that too. Hansel (on the left in the photo) is wearing a D which fits him well for now.

Instead of elastic for the legs, I used an orange fabric strap from a rachet tie-down system I found on clearance while looking for 1" elastic.

I'll try to get better photos in the daylight.  I found it easy to get the coats on the sheep while they were eating.  They get so focused on their food, I can just go up and slip the coat over their heads and then fiddle with the legs while they're chowing down.