Make Something: Dog Bow-Tie Collars (Patriotic Edition)

The Fourth of July is just around the corner and if you're anything like me your 4th is spent wearing as much patriotic garb as possible.  This year I decided that my dogs needed to join the 4th of July festivities and made them each bow-tie collars to show their American pride this week.

*Dolce probably will not be wearing his much, because you can't really see it with his fur.  Instead I made him a matching bandana that you can actually see.  Both collars took about an hour and a half to make, with the bulk of the time spent figuring out how to re-thread the collar and forcing the collar through the plastic pieces.  I gained some speed when I reassembled Dolce's because I used pliers to do most of the pulling, which made the process much much easier.

Materials:

• Dog collars, disassembled and pieces reserved (alternatively you could individually buy all of the pieces)
• Double side interfacing (which means it is sticky on both sides)
• Felt lined single sided interfacing
• Basic sewing supplies

Instructions: 

• One quick note about disassembling the collar: I left one end as it was, because it was seriously glued down and I didn't feel like trying to pry it apart.  This also had the added benefit of me not having to stitch that side down again.  Take pictures of your collar before you disassemble it.  I ended up using an extra one of Dolce's to help me put it back together.
• Cut your fabric to the length and slightly  more than twice the width of the finished collar.  Yogi's collar in an inch wide so I cut the fabric to 2.5 inches. 

• Cut the double sided interfacing to the same width as your fabric.   Carefully peel off the paper side not the wax side!  If you peel of the wax side and iron it down the paper side will not peel off.
• Lay the interfacing with the wax side facing up on the wrong side of the fabric and iron on high for 10-15 seconds.  Let cool for a minute and remove the wax paper.  If you've done it correctly the paper will remove easily, the interfacing will have adhered to the fabric, and what is left will be very sticky to the touch.

• Fold the ends of the fabric in to finish the edges.  I also recommend added an extra piece of double sided interfacing to make sure the ends adhere to the collar.

• Carefully fold the fabric over the collar.  Do this slowly so it stays even and smooth.  Once you are satisfied with the placement iron the heck out of the fabric and collar.

• The fabric will permanently bond to the collar.  It's kind of crazy because aside from the ends you can't tell it wasn't constructed like that in the first place. 

Bow Tie Creation

• To create the bow ties I used the very precise method of cutting various shapes and sizes of rectangles and holding them up to my dogs' necks until I was happy with the size.  
• Once you've determined how big you want the bow tie cut two equal size rectangles.
• Cut a piece of felt sided interfacing that is about 1/4" smaller than the fabric.  Iron this to the wrong side of one of the rectangles.  Do not skip this step.  You need the interfacing to give the bow tie some body and help it retain its shape.
• Sew both pieces of the bow tie together, right sides facing.  Leave a small section unstitched to turn right side to.  Use a pointed object (I use chopsticks) to push out the corners.  Iron flat and either stitch the opening closed or seal with some double sided interfacing (I'm lazy so I went the later route).

• Sew a small tube the width of the collar.

• Fold the finished bow tie in an accordion shape and slip the middle loop over the folds.

• Finally collar reassembling. If you start with the finished end like I did (see above) you will add the bow tie after you have finished the part of the collar that allows you to adjust the width and right before you re-attach the D-ring and the female end of the clasp.  This will keep the bow tie between the two "mechanical" pieces of the collar and pretty much dead center.
• Once the collar is reassembled sew the tail down using a heavy duty thread and needled.  Back stitch in several places to ensure it is properly tacked down.

• Sorry I don't have any pictures of the reassembling.  It's the most frustrating part of the entire process and honestly you can't tell what's going on from photos.  Keep a collar handy and you'll figure it out!

And lastly....show off your patriotic dogs!

 

Bringing Home Yogi

After Roy passed away, Jason and I knew that we would adopt another lab.  We weren’t sure as to the when and decided we would let the decision happen naturally.  Sometime after Roy’s death one of my friends alerted me to the DFW Lab Rescue Society and the arrival of a couple litters of puppies.  The puppies were not available yet, and likely wouldn’t be for several weeks.  She knew that we were still grieving over the loss of Roy, but suggested that if we were even the tiniest bit interested we should start the application process because it was fairly long.

That night Jason and I talked over the decision.  It was much sooner than we expected, but it seemed like the golden opportunity.  And even if we weren’t ready when the puppies came available, we could always decide to adopt later.

And then we took a peek at the soon to be available puppies.  Is there anything cuter than a puppy?  I’m pretty sure I melted about a dozen times looking at those darling little faces.  But Jason…he picked out one instantly.  He pointed to a picture of a fuzzy chocolate boy.  That’s the dog I want.  The sweet boy was dropped off at a local pound along with his brothers and sisters.  The shelter has a 5-day policy and the little guys were scheduled to be euthanized the day they were saved by the DFW Lab Rescue Society.  All of the puppies came down with Parvo and were patiently and loving nursed back to health by their foster family. 

So we started the application process.  It was long.  There was an extensive application, then they review your application, contact your vet, and decide whether or not you pass phase one.  Then there’s a home-study to determine whether or not your home is suitable for a lab.  Then they re-review everything and decide whether you receive approval to adopt.  And after all of that you’ll only get to adopt a lab if the foster family approves you.  The lady who did our home study kind of scared us, because she told us that the competition for puppies was always high.  The application process went fairly quickly for us and were approved to adopt a new lab about a week before the puppies became available.

We finally met the little chocolate lab on Thursday.  He ran around the corner and immediately ran up to me.  It was love at first sight.  We were both head over heels for the little guy.  His foster family had a meeting schedule for all of the puppies at a Petco on Saturday and told us she’d let us know of her decision by Sunday.  I was busting at the seams to know if they’d choose us…so I did a little puppy stalking and drove over to see him.  It was a good thing I did, because the foster mom let me know that she’d picked us to adopt him and that I could take him home later that day!  And when I got out of the car to pick him up, he came bounding up to me and buried my face in kisses.  His foster mom said she knew then that she’d made the right choice.

Poor quality, but yes, that's me laying with him in the kennel. 

 We decided to name him Yogi Berra (continuing our baseball theme and because he looks like a little bear).  He’s only been with us a couple of days, but he has integrated wonderfully into our family.  He is the calmest, sweetest, and most content puppy I have ever met.  Everyone is shocked with how well behaved he is for only 4 ½ months. 

Losing Roy was hard and always will be.  But when I look at this last picture, I know in my heart that life unfolds the ways its meant to, both the triumphs and the challenges.  We prevented Roy from dying alone in that shelter.  We made the last 6 months of his life the very best that we could.  And now we have a new little guy and have the chance to provide him the very best home that we can.  I know that Roy is smiling down and proud of us for adopting another “death row pardonee.”

Welcome Home, Yogi Berra