Puppy Love

Well it has certainly been a while since we’ve been out of our normal routine and I’m starting to go a bit crazy.  It’s been 3 weeks and 4 days since I started working from home and stopped going out of the house for unnecessary travel.  Not that I’m counting.  I didn’t even think social isolation would bother me so much because I’m a bit of a homebody, but it’s starting to remind me of when I stayed home from work postpartum and saw nothing but Julius and Will for 6 months.  That was probably postpartum depression though, and this I think is stress.  Anyway I hope you’re all staying sane and having fun – and if so maybe you can share your secret with me.

Julius and I have been finding interesting things to do on the weekends.  This weekend we started out by making some corn muffins.  Then we colored and decorated easter eggs, though we rationed it to only 6 eggs because eggs are not available on instacart this week.  After decorating the eggs he immediately consumed 5/6 of them in a rather Gaston move.  Post egg consumption we looked through mama’s seed collection and picked out some easy ones to grow.  Then we decided to see if some beans would germinate between some wet paper towels.  Next we hoed the garden and turned the compost (both of which Julius insisted on helping with, convincing me by saying “I so, so strong mama”.)  All of that took a total of about an hour, so then we had to come up with more activities for the rest of the weekend.

I know many of you are lamenting the lack of live sports on television these days.  As an end to the doldrums Erin and Mark put together a very clever “April Madness” bracket based on bed time stories their son Finn picks.  I don’t want to brag (okay I do) but I’m currently 6 for 6…  Maybe sports sites will take a page from my brother or sister in law to get everyone back in the contest mood or maybe they’ll just host a weekly puppy bowl – we all know how much strategy is required to keep all those puppies in one room.

Speaking of the puppy bowl, if you want to make your dog a flag football jersey I’ve got the perfect project for you.  I picked my sister’s girlfriend Bailey this year for Secret Santa/Trash Christmas and she asked for costumes for her dog Phoebes who is a tiny pomeranian.  Bailey is a nationally ranked flag football player so I wanted to make Phoebes a tiny flag football outfit so she could join in the fun.  I used a thrifted shirt as my base, and everything else I had at home.  The hardest part was guessing how big Phoebes was, so I used the average pomeranian measurements that I found online as my basis.  I think it was a bit tight, but Mandy and Bailey assured me it was because she was in her winter fluff.  Either way, I think you probably want to make it a bit roomier if you have a fluffy Pomeranian.

Pomeranian Flag Football Shirt

  • 1 old (human) t-shirt
  • Heat Transfer Vinyl (if desired)
  • Pattern here
  1. Align bottom of shirt front and back pattern pieces with the bottom hem of the shirt you are repurposing then mark and cut, adding 1/2″ seam allowance everywhere but the hem
  2. Cut sleeves of shirt, aligning bottom of sleeve pattern with hem of sleeves, adding 1/2″ seam allowance everywhere but the hem.
  3. Fold sleeve in half, right side in then serge along the edge.  Repeat for second sleeve.
  4. Pin right side of dog shirt front to right side of dog shirt back, aligning hems and arm holes.  Serge.
  5. Insert sleeve into armhole, right sides together, and pin.
  6. Serge.
  7. Repeat for second arm hole.
  8. Pin shoulder portion together then serge.
  9. Remove collar from the thrifted tshirt, open out, pin and stitch together to create an 8.5″ wide band.
  10. Fold band in half then pin along neckline on outside of shirt, matching neckline to unfinished edge of band. Center the seam of the band in the center back of the shirt.
  11. Serge.
  12. Flip band right side up and press.
  13. Here I added a number and name (Tumbleweed, my mom’s name for Phoebes) with heat transfer vinyl that I cut with my Cricut.

 

 

 

 

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4 Responses to Puppy Love

  1. Amy says:

    3 weeks appears to be my limit of social isolation… I thought enough projects would keep me sane, but it is still a struggle.

    Keep up the posts. I am using this as motivation to continue my projects. :-)

  2. Kaaaaa says:

    Echoing Amy’s statements! This is definitely a week of a ton of struggle buses. I got a cheap sewing machine to make masks, but I forget how loud it can get which leaves me only ~30mins a day to sew. Not to mention V thinks my sewing machine looks like a unicorn so she wants to snuggle with it, haha.

    • lexicolton says:

      OMG Ka you have got to send me a picture of that (Vicky snuggling with sewing machine). Awesome for the sewing machine!!! I hear you on the loudness factor. This (and the fact that my “sewing room” is in a constant state of disarray) is the reason mine are banished to the basement.

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