I never thought, back when I posted a picture of a chicken wearing a sweater, that I would start to get a steady stream of hits from people looking for exactly that. I’ve had people comment asking for more information, and I’ve heard through Terry that others have contacted her directly to ask for instructions.
Since Terry is always swamped, and since it is a lot more efficient if people can find it directly via googling, I’m posting Terry’s instructions from an email she forwarded.
As for the chicken sweater, I don’t have a pattern, but here’s what I do: I use a long sleeved sweater made of stretchy acrylic fabric and cut off part of a sleeve. Measure the length of the chicken’s body from the bottom of the neck to the tail and add a few extra inches to see how much of the sleeve to cut. You can always cut more off if it is too
much. Then hold the sleeve up to the chicken to see approximately where the wings sit, and cut two small holes about the size of a quarter or half dollar on each side for the wings to come out. You can then slide the sleeve over the chicken’s head, pull the wings through the holes and there’s your sweater! I usually roll the top part down like a turtle neck, and roll the back part down and sew it so that it doesn’t hang down at all and get caught in her feet. The important thing is to have really stretchy material to work with so you can pull the wings through without hurting her – you can probably find good sweaters for this at a thrift shop or something.
That’s it! Sounds pretty easy. I’m sure there are other ways it could be done, but if it were me, I’d be all over the solution that didn’t rely any more than necessary on my non-existent sewing skills! For anyone with a bit more talent, I bet you can fiddle with this basic design and come up with variations, if needed or desired.
Invisible Voices 
Cripes, is this adorable! The blue looks striking against her (his?) red comb.
Hooray! Thanks for posting this, Deb! Maybe I’ll just send the sanctuary an envelope full of my old sweater arms, hoping they know my intentions 🙂
@ kelly – isn’t it cute? i know the fact that the sweater is blue was random, but at the same time they couldn’t have picked a better color to go with her beautiful red feathers! lol.
@ haldana – that would be hilarious. I only wish I could see their face when they opened the envelope!
Hey, I found the following link on the UK Telegraph’s website
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3047259/Hen-that-lost-feathers-in-battery-farm-given-knitted-jumper.html
Another hen, rescued form the horror of the battery cage, looking just adorable in her hand-made sweater! Makes me want to take up knitting!! 🙂
awwwwwww……………….this is a very sweat thought 🙂 i own chickens, and one has plucked herself, so we need to make a sweater 😦 but hey, it outta be cute 🙂 we have names for all of them 🙂 the plucked one is midge,the heralthy ones are peepr sugar and cinnomon 🙂 good luck to every one who owns chickens 🙂
Hope you get midge nice and warm with a sweater! They really do look cute wearing sweaters…
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH! I TRIED TO MAKE ONE OUT OF A SOCK BT I DIDNT WORK LOL. NOW I KNOW WHAT I NEED FOR MY BALD CHICKEN! LOL
What kind of sweater and what size? Please comment back.
@Sky – glad it helped!
@Rio – As the title states and the pictures show, this is regarding a sweater to fit a chicken, and the size depends on how big the chicken is. Not sure I understand your question…