Bling It On

Yesterday Owen was looking so adorable as he greeted me when I arrived to the barn that I just had to get a picture of his handsome little self.  Unfortunately, he kept following me around, so this is all I could get.  Not terribly flattering, is it?

Work has been really tough lately, since I've been seeing a lot morbidly sick pets.  I have three coming back in tomorrow for radiographs under sedation...all double booked with my regular appointments.  I haven't actually had a lunch break in several months, but what are you going to do with sick pets?  Tell them to come back when it's convenient?  The hard thing is that I have a sneaking suspicion that two of them are going to have fatal cancers and one is going to need several thousand dollars of orthopedic surgery if she is ever going to walk normally...breaking bad news to devastated owners is the worst part of the job. 

So, when I get home I really need to do something satisfying, and as of late that's been sewing.  I've had some more ideas about western outfits that I'd like to sew, and I'm afraid this making garments is getting to be a bit of an obsession, especially since I don't even have a western horse!  Owen may have to start showing in western pleasure this summer just so I have a chance to wear it all.  But he's gotten so lazy that may not be much of a stretch.  The lambskin came yesterday for the appliques.

First I sketched a curlicue and cut it out of cardboard.  Here is the template on the apron corner:

Then I cut the shape out of crocodile embossed lambskin and lightly glued it down so it would stay in place when I started sewing:

Sewing down the appliques was a real pain...I wish I'd been a little less ambitious, since turning a couple lbs of leather in the machine was very tough!  But here it's sewn down, with a bunch of crystals painstakingly hand placed.  The glue's not quite dry, so that's why there are some whitish areas; the glue will eventually dry clear.

I don't think this apron is ever going to be finished.