I was honored with another request from Basja’s mom.  She had more fabric laying around the house and she asked if I could make two more collars for her sweet Dane Basja… so of course I said yes.  I finished them up last night.
Click the pic for a full sized image.

What do you think? Should I start making martingales on a regular basis? I’ve had some practice now and I’m really starting to get a feel for them.

I have temporarily lost my blogging mojo.

I’m sooo tired of losing my scissors… I have three pairs (plus the rotary cutter). One for thread, one for webbing and one for fabric.  I’m not ruining my nice Fiskars on webbing.. no way.. no how.

Part of the problem is that I need these scissors at three different “stations” in my sewing room. Cutting, Ironing and Sewing.  (yes, at my ironing board, I trim edges and cut to length)

So I whipped this together tonight.. It’s not pretty.. I didn’t bother with pretty.. I wanted it to work.

It has four small pockets in front and the whole thing is one big pocket. I can stick my seam ripper in there..

since it took me 15 minutes to FIND my seamripper.. after I sewed the ties on inside out… so silly.. I guess it’s like sewing sleeves.. I always have to do one wrong!

This is Basja.. isn’t she amazingly beautiful!?

Click the pic for a full sized image.

That collar she is wearing is a custom order. Her Mom, Kendra sent me the fabric and I made it up for her.

I have to thank Kendra. I had been putting off working with martingales.. they can be kind of a pain in the neck. (no pun intended). But this was special to her.. so I gave it a shot. After making quite a few of them for practice, I made one for MY dogs to see how it worked.. then one for Lora since I had more of the Bones and Hydrants fabric than I could shake a stick at and then felt confident enough to put my rotary cutter to the little bit of this amazing fabric that Kendra was able to find.

See, it matches Basja’s pack, and Kendra had a collar made out of this same fabric, made by someone else.. but it didn’t hold up. So now, she’s matchy matchy again.. and I love it!

Silly me.. I know better.

I took it in my head to try and advertise on a site that shall remain nameless. I thought it might be fun to send one of my collars in for review.

Now, I’ve done this in the past. Teresa from the Pet Sit USA blog has reviewed one of my collars.. and Lora can’t seem to stop herself. I think I need to start a support group. LOL!

But this site was more for the froo froo dogs.. which if I had looked.. I mean really looked, I would have seen this and realized that this is just not my crowd. Fashion plate and Luxury and Fluff are not for me.

I got a very pleasant response from the site owner with the suggestion that my collars don’t fit their clientele.. and she is right.. they don’t..

After I got over my initial, well PPLLLLLLPPPPFFFFTTTT! to you to! response. I thought about it for a bit. She is definatlely right.. and I’m totally cool with that.

Her suggestion was to consider working with:
* more luxurious fabrics? and/or
* stainless/chrome hardware? and/or
* a more “corporate” storefront?

It was also suggested that most of her clientele look for handsewn items to be more luxurious than what you can find in the store.

Well, here is what I think.

I’m no princess.. and neither are my dogs. Some dogs to get all pampered and powdered but not here.. and not me.

I have mascara.. it’s 10 years old. I color my hair.. for fun. I recently went back to contact lenses so I can not worry about getting hit in the face in Karate class. My hair is as short as I can make it an still look presentable at work. Otherwise, I’d shave my head. This is me.

I have punk goth jewelry that I can only wear out once in a while. I like sneakers and work boots and flannel.. I like function over form.

This is me.. these are my dogs… this is my work. My craft.. and someone actually referred to my collars as art… I don’t get it.. but I appreciate it.

My collars are for the “every dog”..they are the button down shirt with jeans and cowboy boots. You can toss them in the wash when your dog rolls in mud. You can wear them in the practice ring, the rally ring, the obedience ring, to the vet, to your Aunt Martha’s house, to the store, in the woods, in the yard, in the pool, in the pond, etc etc.. and they look fabulous.

This is me.. these are my dogs.. these are my collars.

And I’m damn proud of it.

A while back I posted about Pumpkin Collars I made for Lora’s St. Bernards for the Pet Parade at the Pumpkin Festival.

Well, I didn’t send them off right away because I still had to make a martingale ::shudder:: for Apollo and then Targ passed away… so things got slowed down a bit… ok.. a lot.

Anyway, she got them yesterday and sent me pics already! She says the pics aren’t good.. but I think they are..
Click the pic for a full sized image of the super cuteness.

Martingales are really not my favorite to make.. but .. well.. I think I might be getting the knack of them.  They aren’t lined, which doesn’t make sight hound people happy.. maybe I can figure out how to line them…

hrrrm…

Well, my laptop has gone boom.  Poof…  non-functional.

Not fun.

I have no idea what happened.. and that scares me since I consider myself a bit of a computer nerd, but when it comes to operating systems.. I’m a total noob.

This morning, I wrote out mailing label.. BY HAND of all things..  omg. .. I almost forgot how!

Now I have to actually GO to the post office since I can’t use my Stamps.com software…

That sound you hear?  That my quiet weeping… I’m so lost without my computer!

And the Holidays will be upon us quickly!

Since I tend to get overwhelmed with orders during the holiday season, I suggest you order NOW to get your stuff on time. Especially if it’s a gift!

Some of my offerings are obviously for Christmas, but some are Seasonal in nature so your poochie can wear them all winter long! (One even has sparkles..)

I have a few more to post up but for right now, there are Five Fun Fabrics to choose from.  Click any pic for more information.

Candy Canes!

Holly Jolly!

Holiday Lights!

Sparkly Snowflakes (Lora.. do you see this one?)

Tumbling Snow Men!