I enjoy sewing and designing things with my very limited skill set. I love my sewing machine and my saws and screw drivers. For me it is pretty much material or wood or flours and spices in the kitchen and I rarely use a recipe for any of these but with all the people in the world on a quest for making things for themselves, it would be silly not to make some of the things that other people have laid out for us. With that being said, I set out to make my own saddle pads for my horses and discovered that there are many people making their own and some of them are making money while doing just that.
The ones that I have seen online have been just beautiful but I don't have an embroidery machine or a serger machine so it is just me and my very modest singer that is newer but only has one stitch. A straight line front and back. None of the settings ever worked right off of the bus from amazon market place and I even have to move the needle position by hand but it was a gift and I love it (and I can't send it back because I didn't have the heart to tell my dear Aunt Lynne that it came shipped with broken functions.) A year and four quilts, fixed clothing, pot holders, tote bags, saddle pads and some pretty big forgotten (rejected) projects later, I wouldn't know what to do with a zig zag stitch or a button hole function or even the stitch length. Bobbin threading, straight line stitching and the occasional backing of the stitch. DATS IT!
This is my sixth saddle pad to date of this design so I thought I would share how I came to make this magicland fairy tale looking bat wing or bird tail, baroque looking saddle pad for all purpose, dressage or even a western saddle maybe. I have not put it under one to see if it fits.
The first thing I did was get a cardboard box and trace out a template from one of my other regular saddle pads.
This is just a box I used as a grocery cart at Aldi's (I love that store) and I cut it open
and laid it under my old saddle pad and traced it out giving myself a little extra inch for mistakes
and stitching.
After I cut it out, I free handed the cut away to a design that I thought would look
pretty and unique under the saddle.
I set it on top of my batting or whatever you want to use as the cushion material inside of the blanket. I doubled the material over and traced it out and cut my batting.
I also did this with the top (rainbow patterned material and the under sided fleece. Double over and trace and cut for a full even on both sides blanket or pad.
I used pink fleece because it seemed to go nicely with the rainbow pattern. I usually use
up cycled or recycled materials that I get at thrift stores but there is nothing like a fun trip to the fabric store to
dream a big dream at times. This, however, I got at Walmart for five bucks a yard and there is nothing like a trip to Walmart to suck the dreams out of a big dream.
Here are the layers together before I started sewing with a picture of my template on top to give
better idea or what I mean about the doubled over material.
The next thing I do is sew all the layers together right down the middle as if I were quilting
in order to put all the pieces together. I have a cut in the middle of this one to give it some arch
and definition so I sew these together as well. I didn't sew the middle batting together because I thought it might help it breath on the horses back. Seemed fitting and gives it a nice contour.
I sewed to both sides of the spine or middle of the blanket to hold it all together. A basting spray works wonders to stick them together and I am sure is old school cheating but I HATE to
hold them together by hand stitching. I learned the hard way until I met a fellow quilter at the fabric store who said, "Oh Honey, forget the hand basting, that is a pain, just spray it." My life was changed forever for that dear woman and I can't live without it.
I did live without it on this project because my Standard Poodle Puppy ate the spray nozzle off
of the can. To bad it didn't temporarily glue her mouth shut for that day.
I pinned it instead which sucks but is still better than hand basting and for this small of a project
pins worked just fine to keep it from bunching up as I went.
After it was all pinned and held together, I started sewing it together or quilting it together. On this
one I followed the lines of the rainbow after I had three or so lines at the spine. I just jumped down to the colors and started following the colors of the rainbow to help them pop and give it a unique look.
For the spine support, I used a wide piece of nylon ticking and for extra support and prettiness. I pinned a pink stripe down the middle. I like the colors. I sewed the pink to the white, removed the pins and then sewed the entire thing right down the middle of the saddle pad only sewing on the white. I sewed it on twice for I thought it might be taking extra pull from the weight of the saddle and rider and I didn't want it coming apart.
Here are pictures of it all sewed together before I sew on the binding. That is the hardest part for me and I don't know if you are suppose to start from the top or the underside but when I start from the top then the bottom seams lines show and when I start from the bottom or underside it leaves a lip on the top. I don't know what is right in this step so for the simple fact that I didn't want stray lines running through my binding, I started binding on the bottom side. Uuuugg. It's so hard.
I face the right side down onto the fleece and started sewing around the outside.
Here it is with all the binding sewn onto the underside. I used satin from the store and it is kind of tricky for me but you can make your own binding with strips of fabric or buy it. I would have liked a cotton binding but the cotton binding that you buy is so cheap and transparent. You can see right through it and I don't know of a good one but I am sure they are out there.
The hardest part for me is getting the binding or hem on the second side to look right. I ironed it down and pinned it to the blanket to help with this part but the satin is unforgiving and really shows the bunching and pulling. I have never basted this part with spray so maybe that works but I used and iron and pins since Serendipity ate the plastic spray nozzle off mine rendering it useless.
This takes the most time for me but maybe I am doing it wrong or something.
By the way, if you use an iron to help hold in to creased place, make sure you
use a low setting. I melted a hole in a small section and
had to double it over in one spot. Dag gone it!
NONETHELESS, I finished it up with some nylon keepers and Velcro to the holders and WHAALAAA... I was finished. All in all, I think I spent three hours over two days from start to finish.
Here is my newest pad, all finished and ready to ride. Get started and show me what you made.
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