Penny's bag

Our boxer Penny loves the beach. But living in Florida is HOT! We take a cooler with a 32 oz bladder filled with cold water in addition to a 16oz bottle of water that gets refilled from the bladder as we walk. Up until today, we have had to backtrack on our walk in order to refill her bottle. Not only is it inconvenient, imagine a 5 year old kid that thinks we're leaving ever time we turn around for refills and that's Penny..."are we going home already?"... she's been known to park her fanny and look at the 2 of us as if to say "I'm not ready yet!".
So I thought I would put my birthday present to good use. My wonderful husband (and Penny) bought me an embroidery machine. I found it on Craigslist. If we had not run into a great guy named James I would have never been able to have one of these...
Here's how I made Penny's bag:
I used 2 small terry cloth towels, some insul-brite batting, a crab embroidery pattern and the comic sans font. I've been doing a lot of reading and video watching (thank goodness for YouTube 😀) because the first time I tried the embroidery part I didn't realize that the thread would sink into the fabric without the proper stabilizer. I found a website www.sewplicity.blogspot.com that used Glad brand press'n seal  as an inexpensive alternative to water soluble. And it works!
Now we have an insulated cover for Penny's water bladder we can use without having to turn around on the beach...and it even has a handle that makes it easy to hold.

Change up your dog collar!

I made a collar for Penny a while back that looked like this

The hardware and instructions came from Country Brook Design. They carry everything you need to make collars, leashes, etc. 

My daughter suggested trying to make an inter-changeable collar. After giving it lots of thought, I bought some 1" black webbing and 2 rolls of 7/8" ribbon. I made the collar base using the instructions from Country Brook but added velcro in 3 spots on the collar, one on either end and one in the middle. I sewed 2 pieces of velcro at either end and one in the middle. I cut the ribbon to the length adding about 1/2" to each end to turn under and add the velcro. The one attached to the collar in the photo below matches her new coat ;)

Here's a photo of the first two "covers" that I've made. I also have a purple tiger print for football season too! Making the collar this way will not only save me money but will also allow Penny to have "party collars" just like I have my "party glasses". (I have a glass for almost every occasion and love them!)

These are incredibly easy to make and will save a TON of money!

A huge "thank you" to my daughter for the idea!

Penny's coat

The weather here in Florida is normally warm. Once in a while we catch up with some of the other Southern states with cold temps. When we adopted Penny we realized that she didn't like the cold. I HATE being cold...so does Penny. So I started looking for a coat pattern. I lucked into the instructions for measurements on Pinterest here http://www.sewdoggystyle.com/2012/09/diy-pet-coat-pattern.html. The worst part of this whole process was trying to get a 65lb boxer to stand up still while I measured and tried to fit the coat as I sewed. I used some flannel with some thin batting in between so the coat wasn't too hot but would be enough to keep her happy outside. (And yes, she has a matching collar!)

This is also the first time I tried free motion quilting. Man...I need to practice that one a LOT more! But over all the coat turned out well. I quilted around each heart and used velcro for closures so if she happens to catch the coat on something, it will come off fairly easily without hurting her.

Here's a couple of close ups of the stitching.

And I did figure out a way to make interchangeable collar covers. I made one collar with the hardware and so far we have 3 covers. One that matches this coat and 2 for football season! Pics soon to come!