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Recyled Dog Collar Tutorial

It's easy to make a new dog collar from your old one! Whenever Lila needs a new collar I just make her a new one reusing the hardware from her old one. Once you've done it a time or two it only takes about 15 minutes to make a new one. 

A fabric collar is much more fun and probably more comfortable for your dog than those thick nylon ones. However, I would NOT recommend using this collar as a leash attachment unless your dog is fairly well behaved on the leash. This collar is more for style (and the fun of recyling) and a harness would be more secure in case of any sudden squirrel lunging or cat chasing attempts.   

These instructions are for a custom fit--i.e. the collar will no longer be adjustable. Since Lila's neck size never changes I stopped making it adjustable. If you want to make your collar adjustable take a good photo of your dog's current collar before you cut off the hardware so you'll have a reference for how it fits together. You'll also need to measure how long you'll need to make the fabric piece to have room to adjust it.

1. Unclip collar from dog and take a good look at how it is put together. You'll see it's a fairly simple construction. Do not make any adjustments to the size once it comes off your dog. 

3. Lay the collar out flat and measure from one end of the buckle to the other (see arrows in photo below). 

4. Take your measurement and add 4". This is the length your fabric piece will need to be.  Jot the number down somewhere.

5. Cut hardware pieces from old collar. If you have a nylon collar some of the bigger ones can be difficult to cut through. Go slow, be careful and don't use your favorite pair of scissors.

Below are the pieces you'll need to reuse for the new collar. The adjustable buckle can be used for some other fun project--make yourself an apron with an adjustable neck or something.

 

6. On either buckle piece measure the space between the arrows as shown in the photo below.  Most buckles are 0.50" (S), 0.75" (M), 1.00" (L).  Multiply this number by 4 and write the number down with your length measurement. This is how wide your fabric piece will need to be.

    

6.  Cut one fabric piece the length and width you determined above. Cut one piece of iron-on interfacing just slightly smaller than your fabric piece. 

7. Apply iron-on interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric following the interfacing manufacturer's instructions.

8. Fold your fabric piece in half lengthwise and press to make a crease down the center.

   

9. Open up fabric and press one side in toward the center crease. Repeat on other side.

 

10. Fold fabric piece in half again and pin or clip in place.

11. Topstitch around edges of fabric piece.  Zigzag across ends if you like.

12. Attach male end of buckle.  Hold buckle so it's face up and insert fabric piece through slot furthest from the prong side. The fabric will come from underneath the buckle and go over the plastic bar and back down out the backside through the slot closest to the prong end.  Pull about 1.5" of fabric out the back. 

13. Sew across fabric piece as close to end as you can and then again as close to the buckle as you can.

14. Slip D-ring onto fabric piece via the unfinished end.  Slide it down the the end with the male buckle to keep it out of the way for the moment.

15. Insert unfinished end into female buckle part. Hold buckle so it is face up and insert fabric through the top of the slot and out the back side.

16. Now it's time to adjust the length you need to fit your dog's neck. Just fiddle with the fabric piece until you have the  length between the buckles the same measurement you made in step 3 above and some fabric left over on the back side to attach your d-ring.

17. Sew female buckle in place by stitching as close to the buckle as your machine will allow.  You may want to put the collar on your dog now to make sure your collar fits and make any necessary adjustments by removing the stitching and resewing.

   

18. Slide d-ring back to the female end and up to where you stitched.

   

19. Sew across fabric encasing the d-ring on the side that is not sewn (see dotted lines in photo below).

20. Trim any stray threads and put the collar back on your dog!

   

The Stamp Knows No Borders

A conversation in the etsy forums yesterday reminded me of this fascinating book bought at Powells Books a few months ago.  In college I first ran across some Hundertwasser prints while writing a gallery review--I was journalism major with a Fine Art minor so I wrote about art a lot.   

Since then I've also seen examples of Hundertwasser’s stamps online so this eloquent (if a bit over personified) quote about stamps stood out to me:

“The stamp is an important object. Although very small in format, it carries a message. Stamps are a measure of the culture of a country. This tiny, rectangular piece of paper links the hearts of the sender and receiver. It is a bridge between peoples and nations. The stamp knows no borders. It reaches us even in prisons, asylums, and hospitals, and wherever we may be on earth. Stamps should be ambassadors of art and life and not simply soulless proofs of postage paid. The stamp must experience its destiny. The stamp must once again fulfil its purpose, which means it must serve on letters. A true stamp must feel the tongue of the sender moistening its gum. A stamp must be stuck on a letter. A stamp must experience the dark depths of the post box. A stamp must suffer franking. A stamp must sense the hand of the postman handing the letter to the addressee....The stamp is the only work of art that everyone can own, young and old, rich and poor, healthy and sick, educated and ignorant, free or robbed of freedom..." 2-14-1990 Hundertwasser

I couldn’t get a good photo of the stamps (darn glossy black pages!) but they can be found here.

Topstitching in Tight Places

Another question someone asked a while back was how to keep the topstitching neat on the Box Wallet.  For those of you with the pattern you'll know this is a tricky step and that as you come around the back side of the wallet you end up in a blind spot. 

I ran across this tip in a sewing magazine and it works great: place a piece of tape on your presser foot indicating where to line the fabric up to continue topstitching at the same length. 

My First Quilt

I just bought this pattern by Denyse Schmidt and am pretty excited about making it for my bed!  A few days ago I ran across the pattern and couldn't stop thinking about it.

I have a couple great vintage quilts but they are not big enough for my modern day queen size bed, so it will be great to have a quilt that actually fits my bed.

If you aren't familiar with Denyse Schmidt's wonderful quilts designs visit her site.  They are amazing and the perfect blend of modern and traditional. 

Liberty of London!

I'm so excited about this clutch!  It is made from one of the Liberty of London prints I bought at Bolt a few weeks back when they had a sale.  Liberty of London has been printing their wonderful fabric for more than 200 years. It is really, really lovely fabric and so tightly woven it feels very silky.

Getting Rid of Bulk in Your Corners

One question a customer recently asked me how to get the corners just perfect on the Box Wallet. It might be impossible to get them perfectly flat but one thing that can help with any corner is to trim notches out of the interfacing.

Just cut a square out of each corner of your interfacing before you iron it to your fabric. You want it to extend beyond where your seam allowance would be to ease the bulk from the corner.

For a standard corner (i.e. NOT boxed) I generally use a 0.50" square since most of my seam allowances are right around 0.25".  For the Box Wallet you'll want to cut the interfacing away past where you would box it, so a 0.75"-1" square should help get those corners as flat as possible.

Sewing Great Darts

Darts are a nice way to give bags depth so I use them a lot.  Here is the method I've come up with to make sure they are the same size and match up well. 

1. Use a fabric pen or chalk to draw your darts. 

2. Stick a pin in one side of a dart and out the other coming out right in your dart line on the back side.  Then flatten it and pin in place for sewing.

3. After sewing both darts on one side compare them to each other. Are they the same size at the bottom?  Are they the same length at the top? If not go back and make adjustments until they are pretty much the same size.

4. After sewing all four darts on your two pieces make sure they all line up pretty nicely. Sometimes on one side the darts are off and lay outside the darts on the other bag side. If you need to make adjustments make sure you do it to both sides at this point. Adjusting just one dart now might leave you with a lopsided bag and it is hard to notice until you are finished with the bag and it's too late to go back! Just sew both darts on the side that needs adjusting a little bit bigger until they all line up. 

5. Align the two sides matching the darts closely but not perfectly--I find it works best if the top dart of the first dart set you will sew across is just slightly in front of the bottom dart. As you sew around to the dart the fabric gets thicker and the presser foot will roll the top dart right up on the lower dart.  If you line them up perfectly it seems like the top dart gets pushed off the lower dart and ends up slightly misaligned behind the lower dart when you are finished sewing.

 

Sewing Tips

As I sell more patterns I want to be able to be able to offer extra sewing tips, more detailed explanations of some steps for those new to sewing and some fun and easy pattern modifications.

This first tip is so simple but will help give you really nice results:

Use binder clips instead of pins when working with multiple layers of fabric and interfacing.

 

The clips hold the layers in place without bunching it up like pins and they are really easy to remove as you go along.  I find them really useful for making sure pockets stay lined up on the Business Card Wallet, Checkbook Wallet and for making purse straps. Binder clips can be found at any office supply store.   

Happy Sewing!

New Stuff

I've been steadily adding items to my shop and now have more than 100 things for sale!  I used to hover right around 30 items at most times, so it's kind of amazing to me I have that many items available now. 

Last week I made a new clutch pattern, so I've been really concentrating on these and have them in two sizes.  Both are small/medium and today I'm going to make a tiny, tiny one with a wristlet strap.  Here are two new ones:

 

I also finished another pattern for a Business Card Wallet.  This is a really easy item to make and can also be used as a small wallet.

   

fabricoftheday.com

Today is the first post on Fabric of the Day!  There are so many great fabrics available these days and lots of independent textile designers so I'll be showing them off on my new blog.  Please stop by and check it out!

Here's a hint about which fabric is being highlighted today...

Click here for clutch details.