Workshop Wednesday

Today marks another installment of the weekly blog series titled Workshop Wednesday. Each Wednesday will feature either a tutorial by yours truly or another talented artist or artisan, or a snapshot of an artist's creative process. This week's Workshop Wednesday is brought to you by Kelly of Gone Doggie. She specializes in handmade items for the dog and dog-lover, and she has graciously shared her process of creating dog collars with us. Here's what she had to say:

First and foremost, I begin by washing all my fabrics. They are then dried and ironed.

I begin with cutting the fabric. I make four sizes; each size is cut into a strip. This strip is then ironed in half with right sides together.

I then sew the strip into a tube.

The heavy weight nylon webbing is now slid into the tube I just sewn.

*Many collars are made using polypropylene webbing which is not as strong as nylon webbing.

Once the webbing is inside, it is cut and the ends of the fabric are tucked inside the tube. I then use my industrial sewing machine to secure the fabric and webbing. This is where I use a heavy weight nylon thread. This type of thread is much heavier than the thread used in a home sewing machine. The webbing is sewn down each side of the collar.

Once the fabric and webbing is sewn I then add the hardware.

A basic collar uses three pieces of hardware. I use both plastic and metal hardware. All of my hardware is heavy weight plastic, welded metal and secure locking buckles.

Finally I attach all the hardware using my industrial sewing machine.

I then snip all threads and we have ourselves a beautiful, strong, durable, and fun dog collar.

***As always with any dog collar, please be sure that the collar fits properly. Be a responsible pet owner and be sure that your dog has an identification tag on his/her collar. Many pets are found wearing a collar but no ID, many of these dogs do not make it home to their owners.

Thank you, Kelly, for sharing your artistic process with us! The collar above is actually the same collar that I ordered for Indie. Doesn't he look handsome? :)


To see more of Kelly's work, please be sure to visit her Etsy shop. Have a wonderful day!