Into the Sewing Room, Part 2

Mercy was repaired and Elsie Mae's quiet book pillow was done, but neither Kate nor Susie were finished sewing. Susie asked, "Can we make accessories for our horses, Grammy?"

I had no idea what she meant by "accessories," but both girls had ideas so with my help they selected some different fabrics, grabbed the scissors, and got started.

Susie first made a blanket for Poppy, but a different kind of blanket than I thought she intended.

Wearing the blue ribbon from my props stash, this foal with the "comforting gaze" whose color is "very vibrant" now has its own blanket to rest upon.

Kate knew what she wanted to make, too, and it was evident that she had been watching when I measured and drew cutting lines for the quiet book pillow. She pulled out my quilter's ruler and, like a pro, drew her own pattern and cutting lines on her fabric.

She wanted to make a bandana for Zulu to wear, but she ran into a problem with his flying mane.

Her solution? She added a velcro girth and some of Mercy's leftover stuffing, and made a bareback pad.

She machine stitched it, too, with no help from me. I think I may have a future sewist here.

Susie next made a horn protector for her unicorn, one that protected the horn from breaking as well as keeping people from getting poked.

Her final project was to make a blanket with a velcro closure but it didn't fit Poppy. So we tried it on several other models and now my vintage bay Grazing Foal is much warmer.

Kate's last project was a gift for me. Knowing how much I like El Dorado,

she made him a bandana to wear. I was so touched and I have no plans to take it off him! 

After spending the entire morning in the sewing room, I called a halt for lunch. Although the girls wanted to sew some more afterward and I was willing, we all went over to Curt and Vanessa's home

  

and played games, watched the England/France World Cup match, and hung out the rest of the day. (Uno is not one of my favorite games, but give me the giant card version of the game and I am all in!)

It was our last full day together; Camp Tecumseh was over and our Tennessee family would be leaving after church the next morning.

Stay 'tooned!

 

Everyone Has to Start Somewhere

My mother was quite the seamstress and made all our clothes when we were young.

How about those pom poms?? Leslie and I thought we were terribly fancy.

Both of my grandmothers sewed, with Grandma Martin being a real whiz at clothing and especially costuming.

My aunt and uncle ready to perform for a Red Feather Service Association fund raiser in 1950.

Grandma Honeywell did gorgeous embroidery, crochet, and other fine handwork. 

So, you might think that I had the sewing gene, too, right?

Well... maybe. It wasn't very evident at first. But everyone has to start somewhere.

I began when I was about 8 years old, making blankets for my Breyer 5 Gaiter who I'd named Sham 

 

and a cheap, nondescript plastic Quarter Horse named Apache Joe.

I took scraps from my mother's sewing basket, cut out rectangles, embroidered their names on them, and added yellow wire closures. I still have them and smile when I realize I'd inadvertently done those blankets in Breyer's company colors!

When I was 15, my best friend Shelly was already a very good sewist. 

Shelly (right) and me in high school, twinsing. We were unrelated, but shared the same last name and loved to dress alike.

We both did 4-H, but she was in Clothing Design and Construction and got to dress elegantly and model her creations onstage at the fairgrounds during Fair Week. Meanwhile, I was in Horse and Pony, wearing dusty jeans and boots, and shoveling manure in the livestock barns!

I started playing around with fabrics and my mother's old Singer sewing machine and, with advice from Shelly when I got stuck, began sewing my own clothing. I never had a sewing lesson, not from either of my grandmothers or my mother, but I learned the basics by trial, error, and practice and discovered a life long love sewing.

Shelly is a master quilter now.

She hand stitched every piece of this quilt. Isn't it gorgeous?

Because I helped her a bit with the horses on that quilt, she made me my own quilt block and sent it to me as a surprise. It hangs in my tent for Jolis Chevaux.

As a young mom, I sewed all my maternity clothes and the kids' baby clothes, continuing to sew for them on into high school for Prom and then weddings. 

So, when Breyer asked me what I wanted to teach for BreyerFest this year, my mind went back to my own beginnings. The blankets for Sham and Apache Joe. Some fairly spectacular fails when I made a dress or two for me. And so on.

I felt it was important that any beginning sewist who watched whatever I presented would not feel overwhelmed and could complete a successful project. That they might feel encouraged to continue on their sewing journey. That what I taught included lots of sewing hacks, tips, and general how-tos that would be helpful to them.

I rewatched my 2026 seminar yesterday for the first time since I submitted it in April. I think that there is something for everyone but especially for those who, whatever age they are, are learning how to sew.

I hope it encourages them to keep at it and that down the road, some of them will be part of the hobby sewing community and knocking our socks off with their creativity in pouches, aprons, pads, blankets, and more.

I'm staying 'tooned for that!

 

Unsealing My Lips

Just before I went to bed last night, I did one quick last check of my social media. And there it was - finally! The my-lips-are-sealed project that I had worked on for several weeks in March and April!

Early last August I was contacted by Breyer and asked if I'd like to participate again for BreyerFest 2026 and if I did, to submit some ideas as to what I'd like to teach. 

I really wanted to provide something beginner sewists could do. We all have a beginning point, but sometimes we compare ourselves to the more accomplished and experienced artisans and quit before we begin. 

So I pitched that idea to Breyer with my reasoning that I felt it was important to have something beginners as well as more experienced sewists could do, something that would be useful, that was fun to make, and wasn't too hard that they would be disappointed in the results. 

Breyer agreed, and so...

I clicked on the links and noticed that one of the pattern sheets had not been uploaded, so I will contact Breyer and make sure that that gets posted, too.

Now that the virtual workshops have been announced, I'll share more about mine, how Lisa and Jessie both helped me in its production, and more.

Stay 'tooned!

 

Vintage Club Inferno

Take a look at this new shipping box! Normally I don't save the outer shippers but this one is just too cool to recycle. 

I also really wanted to call Breyer and ask if they'd turn this into fabric so all the hobby sewists could have some, but I think that market is pretty small. Hah! Still, a girl can dream, right?

Inside that fabulous shipper was my Vintage Club Inferno.

packed in another nice box. A very heavy box, much heavier than the usual Breyer box.

I'd forgotten that a book was also part of this Vintage Club offering. This will be passed onto a Pony Pal.

Inferno is really, really nice.

The dapples are subtle and remind me of the dapples the horses at the barn get during high summer.

The Black Stallion mold is not a favorite of mine - I sold all of mine except for the two Hyksos.

My first one was gotten in 1991, the year it was produced, and it turned out to be a variation that is now mentioned in Nancy Young's book. I got the second one a few years ago because I wanted an example of the regular run Hyksos, too.

The book wasn't the only extra that Breyer tucked into the box.

A retro blanket that harks back to Breyer's very first attempt at tack!

Mine is staying in its plastic wrapper - I'm not risking having that color transfer onto Inferno. (Always be cautious around red fabrics. Some will bleed onto other things.)

Photo of Inferno and blanket from Breyer's web site.

As always, there was an informative double-sided insert included, too.

I know Andrea Gurdon used to write these for Breyer; anyone know who is doing it now? 

The 2025 Vintage Club is off to a great start and there is a lot to look forward to - a stallion and foal pair, Pioneer, and more.  

Can't wait! 

More Newly Arriveds!

I have two more pieces to share that I received from the Carolyn Boydston auction. 

Elephants! (And cute ones, too!) This is African Elephant Mama and African Elephant Baby in grey gloss.

The were sculpted for Hagen Renaker by Tom Masterson and released in matte brown (1953 - 1956) and grey gloss (1971 - 1972.)

The pair has beautiful shading, 

the price was right, 

and well, you know what happened. Now they're mine!

I'm amazed that those slender, delicate trunks have survived for over fifty years

and I am going to do my best to keep them that way. 

I also received the two 75th anniversary blankets from Breyer.

I think the Western Horse is the right choice for their anniversary logo; after all, he was the first horse or animal produced by Breyer way back in 1950.

But that odd 75 on the logo puzzled me at first. And then I saw and understood what Breyer was doing.

It's Breyer's 75th or diamond anniversary, and by drawing a line around the number, you can see a diamond. Clever!

The second blanket has various diamond shapes just like the logo uses. 

It also has five models on it, models that are celebrating their own anniversaries.  There's Smart Chic Olena (2005, 20 years), the Western Horse (1950, 75 years), the American Saddlebred Stallion (2000, 25 years), Lonesome Glory (2000, 25 years) and Esprit (2010, 15 years).

That Esprit puzzles me - this is his 15th anniversary which is rather unremarkable. I'm going to do a little research and some thinking about the reasons why he was included.

Stay 'tooned!

Seeing the Quality in the Stitching

Because I sew so much, I can pick out a poor quality sewing job almost immediately. Shortcuts get taken because it's cheaper and and faster, and a lot of commercially sewn items will show evidence of that shortcutting. Manufacturers get away with it because most people don't know what to look for.

I wasn't expecting much as I took Kohl's blanket off to look at it. But the stitching on the velcro jumped out at me immediately, and in a good way.

See that small stitch of red thread? That was the clue. And, it is not evidence of a shortcut, it is evidence of quality. 

I flipped the blanket over and saw that red thread had been used to stitch the velcro to the outer side of the blanket. Red was reasonable as it is the predominant color in the blanket and as a result, many of the stitches blend in and are less noticeable.

The flip side of the blanket used the bobbin thread. Now, normally your bobbin and top threads match when you are sewing.

My bobbin cases.

But when both sides of the item you are sewing are going to be showing, essentially you have two top threads instead of a bobbin and a top thread. So, the bobbin thread is changed out to match the color of what it is being sewn onto.

Here's an example. This haversack's predominant color is black, so when I attached the customer's velcro to the flap, I used black thread for the top thread.

But on the inside, I switched the bobbin thread from black to white because the haversack lining was white. For the other strip of velcro on the black part of the bag, I changed the top thread from black to white because I was sewing onto the white velcro, not the black haversack. The bobbin was white, too, because of the white fleece on the flip side.

Most people wouldn't even notice that attention to detail, but it is evidence of a sewist doing quality work - winding and changing those bobbins and top threads in and out repeatedly takes time. So to see that Breyer had their sewists switch threads back and forth speaks a lot about their desire for a quality product.

But there was more evidence of quality on Kohl's blanket. Look how nicely the bias tape binding has been applied!

Nichelle Jones of Desktop Stables is one of the best of the best when it comes to applying bias tape. It takes time and effort to do it right. Her bias tape binding is beautiful. But the bias tape on Kohl, while done with the one-step method rather than the two-step like Nichelle does, is still done well.

Take a look at this last picture. Can you pick out another bit of evidence as to the quality sewing job on Koh's blanket?

Another thread change! Instead of using red thread, the sewist switched to white when he or she applied the Breyer tag. A little more time intensive, but the result is a better quality product.

I kid you not, every sewist gets tired of thread and bobbin changes. But if you see evidence that they did, then you know they were trying to stitch that product to the best of their ability.

Kudos to those who stitched up the blankets for Kohl.