Swiss Lick Swissies

Collar Time

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 | Dogs

A few weeks ago, I started looking around at custom martingale and snap collars for the dogs.  There is some great stuff out there already, like the collars that the Sew Crazy Dog Lady makes, or the custom collars from Karma Charms.  But you need to realize that around this time of year, I have grandiose ideas.  Ideas that I can make stuff.

I started searching around until I found a couple of good patterns to make collars.  Then I searched around for special fabric.  Then I realized that not only do I not have a sewing machine at home, it’s been since sometime in the 80′s since I’ve sewn anything other than a hem, button or patch onto an article of clothing.

Next brilliant idea.  I email my Aunt Pat.  She is really great with everything even remotely artsy.  Far, far, far, far better than I could ever dream of being.  OK, I can dream, but it will never be reality.  And she is willing to give it a go!

Fast forward (no, really, I am really chatty today and this is fast for me) to today.  I am blessed to work in an ethnically diverse area.  Whenever I need to find some funky seasoning or spice, I can hit one of the local markets nearby and find it.  So when I arrived at the fabric store at lunch, I walked right into some beautiful brocade fabrics marketed to the women in the area who make their own saris.

After wandering around and finding all sorts of cool stuff, I end up back in the front be the brocades.  The pictures don’t really do them justice.

Here is the fabric I hope we can use for a Christmas collar for Indy.

And for Gryffin.

We’ll see what happens in a couple of weeks.

9 Comments to Collar Time

saint lover
September 9, 2008

I love them!!! I cant wait to get my swatch….

Your swissies are going to look amazing in them.

saint lover
September 9, 2008

Thank you by the way

SewCrazyDogLady
September 12, 2008

Hey There! Thanks for the linky love. If you Aunt needs help, just holler. There is no great secret to how I make collars and I’m happy to share.

Looks like some AWESOME fabric. Can it be ironed?

SwissyHugger
September 12, 2008

Thanks!

Yup, the fabric can be washed and ironed.

I’m going to check another couple of stores here early next week, then I’ll get more.

SewCrazyDogLady
September 12, 2008

Cool.. I need to find more fabric like that… it looks like it would make an amazing collar. I’m going to Joann Fabrics today. I may have to investigate… perhaps an Upscale line is in order!

Tell your Aunt that I use Craftfuse and wonderunder to make the fabric strip to sew on. I don’t usually line martingales though so I can’t help you there…. gotta work on that one. You know. in my spare time! LOL!

SwissyHugger
September 12, 2008

I sent Lora some of the remnants. If I find more like that, I’ll let you know. They have a lot of really cool stuff like that there that the ladies use to make Saris. Beautiful stuff.

I picked up something to use, but I’m not sure what it was called. If it’s not that, I’ll go back and pick some up.

Thanks for your input!

SewCrazyDogLady
September 12, 2008

Well, try what you have first.. no sense in spending the $$

I like craftfuse because it’s heavy enough for me to use the edge of to fold over but thin enough to not make things bulky.

SewCrazyDogLady
October 9, 2008

So.. how did it go?

SwissyHugger
October 9, 2008

We finally got together this past Sunday. My aunt had surgery on her finger Monday, so when she’s doing better (hopefully soon) she’ll start working on them. She’s really good, so I’m excited to see how they turn out!

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