It’s Time for Easter Dog Collars!

I know it’s not Easter yet but I’m so excited because I am WAY ahead of the game!  Most of the time I’m scrambling a week before the holiday hits.  I stay up late at night with a general feeling of crankiness at the amount of work I still have to get done.

That’s no good- this is supposed to be FUN!

 

If you remember from my last post, here are the fabrics I chose for Easter.

 

The part of the collar that takes the most work is turning the fabric into the long “strap” or “band”.  Adding the hardware is actually the shortest step.  Here are some of the smaller sizes of collars made into bands, already Scotch guarded and ready for the hardware.

My dogs tend to get dirty so the Scotch guard is a must!

 

 

 

I love these fabrics….so cute. 

 

 

 

Next step…assembling the finished product!

Another Custom Order

I mentioned in my last post that I recently got a request for dog leashes. This prompted me to get busy and figure out how to make them. Turns out it was an easy process once I knew where I was going with it!


I’m excited to make more leashes for my upcoming shows this year. I’m committing to doing at least one dog related show a month starting in May. I’ve got a couple on my radar but need to find others. This will be fun but I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me designing the booth and getting the necessary supplies not to mention making a LOT of collars!

The shows will mostly take place in warmer months and outside so I’ll need an overhead “tent” (don’t know what else to call these things). I’ve seen plenty of them at craft shows, now I need to figure out where I can get a reasonably priced one.
Anyone know?


Another recent special order was for a pair of greyhound collars. In addition to the buckle collars, I also make martingale collars which are great for dogs with heads smaller than their necks. The sizes I had in stock at a local store weren’t quite what these customers were looking for so I made 2” wide bands in much smaller lengths. Presto- Greyhound Collars!

Here’s what they looked like. The customers picked out the fabric.

There’s an extra collar in there, the red one with the birds was also requested by the store.

Next post, my St. Patrick’s Day collars!! They’re SOOOOOO cute!

Making Dog Leashes

As I continue to make dog collars, I’ve had requests for matching leashes.  I finally got a custom order request and decided it was time to figure this out.

I don’t have a pattern for a leash, I’m just figuring this out as I go.

This was my test fabric.  I didn’t want to mess up the custom order fabrics!! 

Here are the special snap hooks I had to order.  Turns out that 1 1/2” snap hooks are not a very common size. This is the largest size of collar I make and it happens to be the size that the special order customer requested.

I finally found a vendor in Hong Kong.  It took a few weeks to get the hooks but here they are! 

So here it is.  It was actually easier than I expected. 

In the picture below, you can see the matching collar as well.

Now, I’m onto finishing the custom requests now that I’m pretty happy with the finished product!