Gone to the dogs…collars.

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Well if it hasn’t been a year then it might be two years….

Hubs bought me the supplies to make my own dog collars. We have a real hard time finding ones that fit our mini doxies. Our biggest doxie weighs about 12 pounds. So typical collars are way to big and bulky and we are usually stuck with the basic boring nylon ones. The really nice fabric ones are always so heavy, they are weighed down with heavy cotton webbing meant for big dogs, resulting in the collars weighing almost as much as my weenie dogs. LOL.

Well hubs must have had a talk with the baby puppy Moxie who kept trying to take his nylon collar off by the tab (by himself). When he couldn’t chew on his, he would chew on his brothers. My eldest dog, Bayley has had very bad food allergies and we always struggled with his diet until we found the right balance and he finally gained some weight…his collar no longer fit. So we took the one good collar and used it on the puppy. The puppy likes to go under fences. Suffice it to say, I’ve had anxiety about the dogs getting loose with no collars on or an emergency evacuation from our house. I am a worry wart.

Today I had to take the boys to the vet and what do you know… I had one good collar. I’ve had it on this weeks to do list, but with an hour to spare, crunch time, I made all three this morning before their vet appointment.

My goal was to create a good-looking collar that is light weight, not adjustable (adds to scratching and unnecessary weight), and would fit their name tags which slide on to their collars rather than hanging down to their knees. It isn’t easy being Itty Bitty. I used a designer weight black and white paisley fabric, grosgrain ribbon to back the collar, plastic clips, metal D rings, and their slide name plate.

To complete this project you’ll need to create a single sided bias tape out of the fabric, slide the name plate on, place the grosgrain ribbon over the back side of the bias tape, fold the edges through the plastic clips, slide on the d ring and then stitch away! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!! Not really. I made quite a few mistakes because the fabric is a high quality but also very thin, so I should have adjusted the tension a bit more.

Not sure that I want to add them to my shop but I love trying new things and I love being able to say I can do something new! Very fun project. Hope you enjoy the pics too. I love my dachshunds more than chocolate. And my boys are loving their new collars.

Bayley 10, Tucker 8, Moxie 10 months

My best, Jen

Tags: Patterns