Dog Adoption

Dog Boots I, II, III, and IV

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

Can you guess what I’ve been working on? Our sweet pup came to us 10 months ago from California. From Cali-Can Rescue Foundation. Oh, I love him. I tell people, ‘We stupid love him.’ We’re all just over the moon for this little pup, He had to acclimatize coming from California; he needs to dress warmly now he’s in Canada.

We got him a coat last year, but it was almost the end of winter and we couldn’t find dog boots anywhere. This year, there were lots of them, but they’re $50! That’s more than I paid for his coat! I started looking for patterns.

The snow came before I had anything made, so I used some left-over material and made some quick little boots just to help keep his feet dry. They didn’t help a lot, but a bit.

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Just to keep them on, I sewed on some elastic as I didn’t have any Velcro floating around. As you can see, I really just threw these together, and we lost one after a couple of walks. On the far right one, you can see holes starting already. These are from skirt material scraps  and really weren’t suited for this project. Just a hint here: you’re going to see more of this material before I’m done with it.

A dear friend, who happens to run a cat treat and toy company, saw these temporary boots and said she’d get me some boots for our pup. She gave me these boots and a matching coat. The coat is great – it has a water-proof layer and then the fashion fabric. The coat is too big though. I could move the Velcro over a bit and make it work, but she wants to get us a smaller coat, so that will be great, especially for rainy days.

Gifted-Pair

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Oh, there’s my sweet puppy baby! I just love him so. I could sit here and just look at that sweet face. See, I told you – stupid love.

Back to the doggie boots.

While I was waiting for that wonderful gift to come, I kept working on the doggie boots. I found a video on YouTube, and it looked great! I thought I’d give it a try, but without an actual pair of boots to look at, I really wasn’t sure how I was going to attach the Velcro. Here’s the video.

My pup doesn’t really like anyone to hold his paws, so measuring his paws was a bit of a hassle, until I decided to just put his paw on my fingers and use them to measure. His paws are two-and-a-half of my fingers wide, and two-knuckles long. It worked. That was what I’d used for the first red booties.

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They look cute and all. I added some faux leather to the back of them from an awesome leather score I got.

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I’d stopped in a second-hand store and saw these sitting in a box. I asked how much they were. Five dollars for the whole box. Yes! About one-quarter of this is faux leather/microfiber, which was perfect.

So these fleece booties are better for the weather, but I didn’t take into account that the material is thicker and the boots would need to be a little wider. These will go to another sweet Californian pup who came up to live with a friend of mine.

These are the last pair of boots I made this week:

forth-pair

This time instead of faux leather they have microfiber on the back. These work well enough, but I think there will be a fifth pair of booties where I take what I learned from each pair, and add a little more.

The video, which really is great, didn’t show me how to attach the Velcro. The boots my friend gifted us does allow me to see how that goes on.

The video also didn’t have a pattern – she just winged it. And all my boot parts were cut out following the video’s information.

The next pair I make, I will use a pattern that is pre-cut, so pre-shaped. That way I’ll get a more uniform shape (which clearly I can use). I will continue to add the faux leather/microfiber to the bottom to give a little more insulation to my pup’s paws. But I will change the elastic out for only Velcro – it gives a stronger hold around the boot.

Happy creating!

A Pale Yellow Flirt Skirt

~ Michelle

I definitely have my favorites when it comes to clothes I’ve made, and clothes I’ve bought. One of my habits is to go through my wardrobe twice a year. I only keep what I can wear in my closet, so if it’s Summer, you won’t find Winter clothes in there. Same goes for Winter time – no Summer clothes.

I take advantage of that twice yearly sorting to clean out anything I don’t wear. I just gave away a few cardigans I hadn’t worn all winter when I did the Spring switch-over. I don’t like to keep things around if I’m not using them.

I also notice when I love something. If I end up wearing a garment all the time, I know it’s a keeper. My denim Flirt Skirt is one of those garments.

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I found myself wearing the skirt all day, and then thinking it’s needs to be washed, so I’d go home and wash it right away so it would be ready to wear again the next day. I decided, if I’m wearing something that much, I need to make another one.

So, here’s my pale yellow denim Flirt Skirt.

skirt front

This skirt has two things I love: I really love pale yellow. The last two years I’ve been seeing more of it, and I’ve been picking up a bunch of pale yellow garments. So when I found this pale yellow denim, I scooped it up right away. The other thing I love is this pattern.

From the front it looks straight – which is something I can’t wear. I’m just too curvy for straight styles and always have been. I also find straight styles suit taller women – something else I’m not. However, this does look more straight-ish, at least to me. But the back… well, that’s just fun, and whimsical, and flirty.

The Flirty Part

There’s the flirty part of the Flirt Skirt. I love that! It acts a bit like a kick pleat but material has been added to serve the same function the kick pleat serves – it allows me to walk when wearing it! I’ve also hear it described as a fish tale. But no matter how one wants to describe that – it’s just fun. I was wearing my skirt this week, and that flirt part at the back was what was getting noticed and complimented. It is very fun and flirty.

The Flirt Skirt is a super easy pattern, and I made this up in an afternoon. I think these are quickly becoming my summer wardrobe! Both my dark denim and my pale yellow denim skirts just went to the mountains with me. That back flirt section of the skirt makes it great for walking in, whereas a straight skirt isn’t great for that. There’s lots of room for a full walking stride.

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Here I am on a rainy day. My hubby helped me out with some pictures. But he wasn’t the only one helping me out. Our rescue pup, Tiberius, came and helped out too. Anything I’m doing, and he’s right there with me. His toys are all around my sewing room! He’s with me for every project.

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Here we are showing the flirtier part of my skirt. He’s not always quite so agreeable though. I took my son to an appointment, and thought I’d read while waiting. Nope. My pup wasn’t going to let me read. Thankfully, he’s fine with my sewing!

Tiberius on my book

Happy creating!

Two Misses In A Row

~ Michelle

A few weeks ago, when my husband and I went away for our anniversary, he was sick. The week before that it was my DS1’s turn. Well, when we got back from our trip, it was my turn. Sadly, my sewing has really been affected.

The first mistake I made was last week. I was all ready to make some matching panties for my new bra. I decided to make a new pattern from some RTW panties, and everything was looking good. I traced out the pattern, and was all ready to cut out. I even thought everything looked pretty good when I finished cutting them out.

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It wasn’t until I picked up the back of the panties that I realized something really didn’t look right.

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There was no fixing that, and there isn’t enough material left for a second back to be cut. Sigh. Note to self – don’t try to sew when you don’t feel well.

I did dig out my beige cotton spandex from my stash. Nope, there wasn’t enough material there for a pair of panties either. I saved it thinking it would be great to use for making the gussets for panties. I do the same with ends or bits of Duoplex  – save them to make bridges.

So, I put all my sewing aside and rested for most of the week.

I was starting to feel better and wanted to get sewing again. So out came the cowl neck top I’d started to work on.

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I’d used my knit sloper and traced out a pattern that was ‘curvier’ than the original pattern to better fit me.

It was coming together quickly and looking wonderful. Then I sewed up the side seams and thought, ‘Hmm, that looks small.’

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Yup, it’s too small. I didn’t add in ease, or at least not enough. I am thinking too small is a nice change from too big… I don’t think I’m quite up to sewing just yet. I think I’ll give it another few days.

The one highlight of my sewing right now is my companion:

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Here’s our adopted pup, Tiberius. He often looks for a spot of sun on the carpet, but will settle for a spot under my cutting table just to be close.

Happy creating!

A New Family Member

~ Michelle

We just celebrated Valentine’s Day, and today is Family Day in Canada. So, it’s a perfect day to show you all our newest family member.

Gibson face

This is our new dog, Tiberius; Tibbers for short. Tiberius is a rescue dog. He was found wandering the streets of California and was taken to a rescue shelter there for a month. After that he made the trip up to Canada and another shelter for a few more weeks. Now he’s with us. This photo was taken while he was still in California – you can tell by the lack of snow!

What a wonderful Valentine’s day gift to our family. He came over on Saturday, so our Valentine’s celebration was all about getting to know him and him getting to know us.

Gibson

Without seeing his parents, there’s no sure way to tell exactly what breed mix he is, but the pet adoption agency thinks he’s Dachshund/Manchester Terrier mix.

We found a great adoption agency in the city near us. Calican Rescue Foundation. They specialize in adoption of small dogs, which are a lot rarer here. Everywhere else we looked were only large dogs. We just don’t have the room for a large dog. Calican bring them up from California, which has a lot of smaller dogs available. We loved what they were doing.

Something else that really impressed us with this organization was how they don’t even place the dog with you unless they think it will be a good fit. The first part of the process is a phone interview. After that, there’s a one week trial in the home. So our Tiberius has a week to get used to us and us him. I can’t see any troubles though; he is a really sweet dog.

A big inspiration for me came from Novita over at Very Purple Person. Novita blogs about caring for foster dogs, and has had a few go through her home in the few years I’ve been following her blog. That sounded wonderful to me. I thought I’d suggest it to my family. Well, there was no way my family wanted to care for a dog and then let it go. NO way! That conversation did open the door to some talks about adopting though.

He has quite the personality too. He’s very well-behaved and learning commands quickly. He loves to cuddle, and is a bit mischievous. I came home to find only one slipper at the front door when I’d left two there. He’s made off with one of my son’s socks, and pulled a stuffed toy off the shelf. After that, we bought him his own stuffed toy and he’s content to leave the other one alone.

We’re having a wonderful Family Day with our newest family member.

Michelle