Getting Crafty

Remember that white Irish Knit sheet I bought a couple weeks ago?

Well since Penn has been wearing it overnight, it is now poop stained, despite several washes.

Best I could do while trying to stand back enough to get a big picture, but also hold the blanket open, haha.

Seeing as how we just can't have that, I decided to dye the blanket navy. Could I really make it any worse than it was before? Nah.

Enter RIT dye + hot water.

Navy dye in a tub!

Insert blanket. Plus funny stick that Husband widdled from a random piece of wood from the wood pile.

Stir constantly for 30-60min. What? I may not have followed that to a T. I opted for fully submerged.

Blue!! So pretty. Cold hosing the excess dye out of the blanket (See blue going down drain).

After dying and then cold hosing until the water ran clear, it was time to put the blanket in the washer with warm water and soap.

Last look at that nice blue color.

I watched it wash, and a lot of the purple in the dye came out and went down the drain... uh oh.

While not that lovely deep blue color, it is still better than poop stained white.

Next was taking care of a rip in the shoulder. I should have mended it first, but I was anxious to get it clean (no one wants to mend before washing out poop) and then I wanted to dye it so I could pick the right blue thread (which ended up not mattering).

Iron on patches and extra sewing with a machine to make sure it holds!

There was no mending the blanket with thread- the knit was coming apart and the loops had torn, so it wasn't possible to weave them back together. I sewed up the edges as best I could, then found some iron on patches and went to town!

Another side project I've been wanting to do was making a strap for Penn's head bumper. I had been using a stirrup keeper as a strap, except that's not long enough to meet the cheek rings on Penn's fancy show halter.

So much fancy.

I measured over his head, from snap to snap, last weekend and decided to make my strap while I had the machine out.

When I bought my trailer, I thought I wanted mangers for hay, so I bought Baker Crossties and Husband cut them to length. I've had these approximately 18" long pieces just hanging around for 5 years. Time to put them to use!

First I overlapped about 3" and sewed the ends together.

I did some number crunching and guessed I needed 4" of material on each end that doubles back because I needed 25" from snap ring to snap ring. I used masking tape to hold the fabric in place so I could make sure the length was right before I sewed either end closed.

All measured and ready to sew!

Sewing...

All done!

One finished sped-head.

And on to the final products, on the horse:

He's so freaking cute. 

Pretty with his sped-head!