Some Sad News

So this week has been a sad one. Our lovely gerbil, Latte, has died. She was only a few months old, but she had a stroke and passed away in the night. It’s so sad, she was a great gerbil and I will always remember her.

So on the positive side, we welcomed two new gerbils! Meet Toasty and Cookie. Apparently gerbils always need to have a friend, so we got these two girls to keep Mocha company.

Toasty

Cookie

Mocha

The three are getting along perfectly! At first we did a split cage, but today they have been getting along really well.

By the way, Valentine’s Day halters are coming!

 

Halters and Lead ropes

Hello! I’m sorry for not posting, I’ve been really busy. So yesterday I was at Michels (a craft store) and I found this string in the clearance section. It was originally 17 dollars, but I bought it for only 1! The thickness is perfect for lead ropes.

Since NaMoPaiMo is coming up, I’ve been busy crafting halters for donations. 

For the model that I’m going to paint, I’m still not completely sure... but I’m probably going to paint this mustang model. The mane and tail is really long, and it also has scratches all over it. For the color I’m thinking dun?

 

Saddle in Progress

Today I worked on a new jumping saddle. I didn't like my old pattern so I tweaked it a little bit by adding a shorter and rounder seat and longer girth.

For the girth I wanted to try and make it look more detailed so I followed the tutorial by Jennifer from Braymare Custom Saddlery. If you don't already, I really recommend taking a look at her blog, she's such a talented tackmaker and I want to be just like her when I grow up!

Here's how it came out. I think that I'm going to make another one with neater edges and stitches.

 I know I'm going off topic but I carved a pumpkin for Halloween! I did it a few days after Halloween because we went camping.

Carving the pumpkin was harder then expected but my X- acto knife skills came in handy! 

Here is the final result. This was my first jack-o-lantern and it surprised my mom and me how well it came out! Right now as I'm typing I can hear my mom cutting the pumpkin for pumpkin stew.

 

Bridle Update

    Today I made to bridles with the lace that I dyed. This was my first time attempting to create a figure eight bridle. It came out really nice! It was a challenge with all of the tiny buckles but I eventually got it on the model horse. 

This is a simple snaffle bridle that I made. 

On the snaffle bridle I added a raised browband. It took many tries but I eventually got it to look fairly good.

A while ago on Rio Rondo I saw that they sold D- rings. I of course needed some, so I added it to my list. I should have read the sizes more carefully because they were WAY bigger than I expected. Well I had an awesome idea, I can use them as bits! So now I'm glad that I have giant ( but not so giant) D- rings.

Now I just have to add some reins to my bridles. 😋

 

Saddle in Progress

    I am working on making  a new saddle pattern. My old one was just so bulky, and I wanted to fix that. I think that it was the saddle tree that I had to change. Today I made the saddle flaps with knee rolls. This time I tried to just stick knee rolls directly onto the saddle flaps. This surprisingly worked really well.

Here is one of my halter packaged and ready to be sold!

    Look at what my guinea pigs did yesterday! I gave them a box of hay, but they decided to eat the box and pee on the hay. Now they want new hay and I have to clean it all up.

 

Halters, Patterns, and a Dog Friend

    Todays post will be about just little things I did today. First I want to tell you about the tool below. It is called a mini pounce wheel and I use it ALL THE TIME! It makes little stitch marks along the edge of your tack. The mini stitch marks really bring your tack to the next level, so if you don't have this tool I recommend getting one. I bought mine off of Rio Rondo for 9.80 dollars.

    This tool helps to add the little details such as in my halter that I'm making. I know that it might be hard to see but I added a line of stitches along the sides. I will probably show a whole other tutorial on how to use this tool, so keep on the lookout! 

    The pattern for my saddle pattern was just a bit too bulky, so today I also tried tomato a new pattern from scratch. This is actually not as hard as it seems.  You just have to know the saddle parts and what a saddle looks like. I definitely looked at many reference photos make sure that it's in scale.

    So now I'm working on that, I hope that this time it comes out less bulky. Maybe I just have to skiver it better.

In case you are wondering, the dog in the background is my dog Benji. These days because I'm stuck in the house I have been working on training Benji. This has resulted in him following me all around the house.

    I love it because he makes me so happy and keeps me company. He mostly just sleeps though... but I still love him!

 

Beautiful Leather

    As you might know I have been without leather for almost a month now. Because of the corona- virus shipping has been wonky and this leather was a month late! It was taking so long the seller gave me a refund, but it came so now it's free! I was so happy, it is just the color and thickness that I wanted.

In case your wondering I bought sheepskin leather that is 0.3 mm thick. I wanted it to be super thin so that I can use it to wrap stuff and glue or sew down easily. Even though it's thin, it's surprisingly pretty strong.

I decided to make my friend, Hannah a saddle for her birthday do I did. I was so happy I finished it in only  a few hours. I know I made the flaps a bit too wide but it still links awesome. Now I just have to add the stirrups a girth and a few other details. But I am so happy I can't wait to make more stuff! Oh now I need more buckles... well I always need something. Rio Rondo here I come!

Tassels, Tassels, Tassels...

The next thing on my check list that I want to tackle is the Arabian costume. After I got this cool fabric from my musical theater I just had to try it!

I know that my appaloosa isn't really an Arabian but it will work for now! This is my bridle ( without the tacky was on the bit)...

...and this is the saddle pad/ blanket.

If you have ever seen an Arabian costume they are covered in tassels! I think that making tassles is the most time consuming.

I picked the colors of string that I wanted...

And put in into a little box with a pair of scissors to take on the go!

Hair! Part Two

Guess what came in the mail... my hair! I bought my hair from the Doll Planet Hair on Etsy. I really liked how smooth is felt! I want to thank Anne from Field Of Dolls Studio, I followed her examples of dolls so check it out!

I bought a thing of hair, 8 needles, and a tool to take out the extra hair.

Here is my doll before rerooting.

Here is her after. I only rerooted the back of her head since I'm going to glue on her helmet anyways.

Here is her about to get boiled washed! I will make sure to show you guys the results soon!

Speaking of hair because of this pandemic I can't go to the hair cutter, so my mom decided to cut my hair for me. We already had hair scissors but we had to buy this funny looking bib- like thing to catch my hair. I told my mom to cut my hair about a inch but that turned into three inches. After almost an hour of sitting I was done. 

I like how my mom cut my hair in layers but we will never be as good as a professional haircutter! 😀

More and MORE Saddle Pads!

    Now i'm sure that you guys are all wondering why I didn't post on three days! well that's because I was busy making this one saddle pad!

I know that saddle pads look easy to make ( that's what I thought too) but they are HARD.

I had to make 10 different saddle pads until I was satisfied. The trick here is to glue on the border first, and then sew it on. This makes a even edge all around.