Christmas Stylin'

We don't really like to wear dresses for the holidays, but we do like to look special and these bandana-style collar slipcovers and scrunchie neck ruffles keep us looking stylish.

Penny models a Poinsettia and Roses Bandana style collar slipcover. She wears a size Medium - which means the triangle section has a "drop" of about 6 inches from the top of the bandana to the point. The channel that her collar slips through is about 3" longer than her collar so it covers it completely.

Larger or smaller sized bandanas are scaled up or down so that the triangle section is longer or shorter for bigger or smaller pups. Large bandanas are about an inch longer with a 7 inch drop; Small bandanas are about an inch shorter with a 5 inch drop. The channel is custom sized in length and width, depending on actual collar sizes.

Keli (below) models a Large Classic Christmas Plaid Bandana collar slipcover - the plaid fabric is a cotton/metallic blend so it is just a bit sparkly! But, it is also very lightweight and a little bit slippery, so we added a button and elastic loop on the end to help keep it from bunching up on her collar. This button is pretty for the girls, and we have plain gold buttons to sew on for the boys.

"Leave a peppermint stick for old St. Nick"

Here's Keli again wearing a Peppermint Candy Bandana style collar slipcover.

We have a scrunchie neck ruffle made with a different Peppermint Candy fabric, too.

The good thing about Scrunchie Neck Ruffles is that even the pups who prefer harnesses instead of collars can wear them.

Penny models this Christmas Stripes and Dots scrunchie neck ruffle. The colors are just a little bit Grinch-y, don't you think?

Penny's ruffles are based on her neck/collar size. Since she wears a 14 inch long collar, we make her ruffles so they fit a 14 inch circle; they stretch a little, but rest very comfortable on her neck.

We make up sample scrunchies in 14- and 16-inch sizes for most, and we make custom sized ruffles for each pet. We even made one for a cat once!

Penny and Keli model the Classic Christmas Plaid scrunchie neck ruffles below.


We have several sets of scrunchies in coordinating red and green fabrics, too. Keli models the Berry Red scrunchie, Penny models the Berry Green scrunchie.


Keli models the Green and Gold Striped scrunchie; Penny models the coordinating Red and Gold Striped scrunchie.

One last photo - Penny models the scrunchie we call Santa's Helper, because the gold swirls on the green fabric remind us of one of Santa's elves.

We keep adding to the collection when we find fun fabrics, so if you'd like to see more, visit the Dog Collar Slipcovers and Dog Scrunchie Neck Ruffle sections of our ArtFire shop!

Or you can visit our Dog Collar Slipcovers and Scrunchie Neck Ruffles set on Flickr.

Thanksgiving Dressing

Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away, but we're already dressed for dinner!

Keli likes this Tiny Autumn Leaves Bandana-style collar cover. This is the plain version, made of fabric with gold, rust and brown autumn colored leaves.

Collar slipcovers are worn over your collar. On the end near the buckle is a buttonhole opening for the leash loop/D-ring to slide through so that the entire collar is covered. This also helps to prevent the slipcover from sliding around on your collar.

This variation of the Tiny Autumn Leaves has a Turkey Applique on it. We really like turkey, but we don't ever chew on the bones.

Sometimes a flock of wild turkeys visits our neighborhood! We bark at them when they wander through our yard but they just look at us and walk away. This turkey is a machine embroidery design from Planet Applique.

Doesn't Penny look elegant in this Autumn Maple Leaves bandana? This fabric has been in our stash for a long time! The leaves are pretty shades of gold, rust and brown with little bits of gold.

We like pumpkins, too! Penny is wearing a Pumpkin Homespun bandana. 

This is another machine embroidered design from Planet Applique that we reduced and omitted the jack-o-lantern face. The fabric is cotton homespun plaid in harvest colors - orange, green and brown.

Each of these bandana style collar covers is available in our SewAmazin studio on ArtFire; they are made and sold with permission based on a design by Penny Sanford Designs: http://pennysanford.typepad.com/. A portion of the sales price of each bandana is donated to WestieMed.

You can see more holiday bandanas in our Dog Collar Slipcovers and Scrunchie Neck Ruffles set on Flickr and in our ArtFire shop.

Happy Howl-a-ween

It's been quite a while since we dressed up for Howl-a-ween ... Penny was only one year old! (See some of Keli's old costumes are here).

So we were pretty excited to be models for these Halloween scrunchie neck ruffles and bandanas!

(They're all still available from SewAmazin on ArtFire.)

This first set looks just like the originals we wore in 2008, but in sizes that fit us now! We call them Howl-a-ween Stripes (left) and Howl-a-ween Checks (right). They'd be fun to wear for Mardis Gras, too. They're made of cotton fabric and have fuzzy yarn trim stitched around the edges.

Here we are wearing another version of the fuzzy edged scrunchie neck ruffles - the fabrics remind us of that Beetlejuice movie! They're a little bit spooky.

Penny (left) is wearing Howl-a-ween Weird Spots scrunchie - don't they look like eyeballs?

Keli (right) is wearing the Howl-a-ween Black & White Worms neck ruffle.

These are Howl-a-ween Cats bandana-style collar slipcovers.

And here is Penny wearing a Candy Corn scrunchie neck ruffle that's a little bit wider than the others.

This is a reversible bandana style collar slipcover, called Boo Bats - 'cuz on one side the fabric has BOO all over and the flip side has bats on an orange background. With the reversible bandanas, we get two looks in one slipcover.

Here is another reversible bandana-style collar slipcover called Trick or Treat. One side has those words printed on it and the other side has black cats on a bright green background. Penny is trying to find the 'C-A-T', since we keep using that word.

One more reversible bandana-style collar slipcover with those Worms and Spooky Spots that look like eyeballs!

Somehow Keli got a stain on this one, so it didn't make the cut for the shop. To hide the stain we embroidered a black and purple hairy spider applique on it.

~ All of the bandana-style collar slipcovers are made and sold with permission from a design by Penny Sanford Designs. A portion of each sale is donated to WestieMed.org.

~ The scrunchie neck ruffles are my own design; beginning September 2011 a portion of each sale is donated to Ramapo-Bergen Animal Rescue, Inc. (RBARI).

Patriotic Pups!

Just before Memorial Day we started making some new dog collar slipcovers with a Red, White and Blue theme in Straight, Ric Rac, Scalloped and Triangle/Bandana styles. These will be great to wear for Flag Day, Independence Day, Veteran's Day and other patriotic celebrations.

~ All of these samples are available now in our SewAmazin ArtFire Studio and can be made in custom sizes in a variety of fabrics ~

Here are Keli (left) wearing a Straight slipcover and Penny (right) wearing a Ric Rac slipcover. Both are made with cotton quilting fabric in flag/navy blue with white stars and red stitching for accent. The Ric Rac slipcover has Scarlet red trim. We just received the same star print with a Red background and plan to make a sample using white trim.

We used more of the same navy blue and stars fabric to make a couple of Scalloped Ruffle slipcovers. Keli is wearing a longer, 6-scallop slipcover and Penny is wearing a 5-scallop slipcover. The sizing on each one creates enough gathering for a lightly ruffled effect.

The plain Scalloped slipcovers are nice, but we decided they needed something extra. So we experimented a bit and came up with these red yo-yo "poppies" to add to the 5-scallop version. There are three yo-yo's added to the 3 center scallops; the middle yo-yo is extra-large while the other two are large. They were made using a Clover yo-yo making tool in each size, then hand stitched to the collar slipcover.

We only added these to the 5-Scallop slipcover because it didn't look quite so nice on the 6-Scallop version.

Here is Penny wearing the new and improved 5-Scallop Slipcover with yo-yo Poppies - it still has a bit of ruffle to it:

And here is Keli wearing the same 5-Scallop slipcover on a longer collar. It has almost no gathering but it still looks very nice on her, too:

We also made some new Reversible Triangle/Bandana style slipcovers.

Continuing with the Patriotic theme, this first bandana slipcover is made with Lady Liberty fabric on one side and Patriotic Stripes on the other side.

The slipcover is fully reversible - there is a buttonhole on each side to hold the leash loop securely in place.

Here is Keli wearing the larger size slipcover, showing the Lady Liberty fabric:

And here is Penny wearing the smaller size slipcover, showing the Patriotic Stripes fabric:

The next bandana, Kisses and Blue Stars is done in red, white and blue colors, but it could really be worn all year round. For this one, I machine embroidered a design on one side. Kisses One Dollar is from Embroidery Library and is stitched on a white background. The other side of the bandana blue stars fabric.

Here's a closer view of the embroidery, with Penny modeling the smaller size slipcover - this would look really good on a darker colored dog!

And here is Keli wearing the larger size slipcover, showing the Blue Stars side:

Can you tell they both had baths and haircuts in between photo sessions?

I'll be adding more patriotic themed collar slipcovers all summer long - to see them, you can visit my Dog Collar Slipcovers Set on Flickr or shop in the Dog Collar Slipcovers Section of my SewAmazin ArtFire Studio.