Etsy Shop: PheonixThread

I think for all of us who do not have kids out there dressing up our dogs is a good replacement.   Poor little Bubba has endured the t-shirt yarn sweater as well as other things I have created for him to wear (like his Christmas Bow Tie).  Etsy Shop PheonixThread has this down to an art.  She creates dog clothes out of upcycled garments, which makes her another one of the great recyclers out there.  I fell in love with the I Love NY dog tee, but its white so Bubba would have it a mess in less than 10 minutes, but I did request a black one if she ever comes across a black I love NY tee to upcycle.

Upcycled I Love NY Dog Tee - $19.99

I will definitely be keeping my eye on this shop and I suggest all you pet lovers do the same!

Sweet Potato Dog Bones - Bubba loves them!

I am fed up with buying rawhide, I am not sure why it costs $10 dollars or more for bones and now with 2 dogs it has gotten quite expensive and really isn't good for them, so I found a different option.  I was reading an article about how much dogs like sweet potatoes so I cut a whole sweet potato in half and then sliced it about 1/4 inch thick, placed the slices in one layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and baked them for 3 hours a 250 degrees and shut off the oven and left them in there over night.  The end result was a drier chewy slices.

Bubba went nuts for them and I didn't get to give one to Annie, but I will tonight.  They need to be refrigerated.  I bought 3 sweet potatoes for $2.47 and will probably get at least 30 treats from them, so much cheaper and healthier than rawhide!  Enjoy!

Bubba's (AKA Mr. Bubbles AKA Bubba Gump) Christmas Tuxedo

While shopping at Wal-mart last week, I saw the cutest little christmas tuxedo for dogs, it was $10 and made from the cheapest fabric, so of course I thought, why don't I make one myself for Bubba!  That was last nights project.  

To make the bow, take a 10 in x 10 in piece of fabric (I used lovely green and red plaid), fold it over in thirds, and then sew the edge.  Adjust the tube so that seam you have just sewn is in the middle and then fold it in half and sew the end.  Adjust the smaller tube so that the seam is in the middle again, now you will have a small rectangle with no raw edges or seams showing on the front side.  Take a small strip of the same fabric about an inch wide, fold over the raw edges and sew to create the strip to hold the the bow down.  Wrap the finished strip around the rectangle of fabric to compress the middle to create the bow, make adjustments as needed.  Sew the strip of fabric in the back to hold the bow together, this needs to be as tight as possible so they bow won't shift.  Trim off an extra part of the strip.  Now for the "collar" portion, I used Bubba's current collar for the size and created a  finished 1/2 inch strip of fabric about 1 inch longer than his collar.  To attach the strip to the bow, I fed it throw the strip that was used to compress the bow.  To create the labels, I took two pieces of white fabric (size depends on how big your collar needs to be) and created them the same way I created the initial rectangle for the bow.  Then with a hot iron I folded over and pressed the rectangles for the lapels, then sewed it to the plaid collar strip and it was done.  I didn't have an velcro at home last night, so I had to tape it on Bubba last night.  Forgive me for the pictures, the hardest part about working with Bubba is getting him to hold still, the pictures aren't the greatest but you get the idea.  

I will try to take pictures again once I make Annie a Christmas outfit as well and of course hers will include ruffles!