Rope halters and a Newmarket quarter sheet!

Rope halters are something that I have always found absolutely impossible to get my head around, and yet, I have somehow managed to make twelve of them in a matter of days!(one is currently being modelled by a really wobbly HOTY who always falls over, hence the lack of evidence, lol)

I used -this- tutorial for real horses and after an hour or so of faffing about with knots, something just clicked and everything made perfect sense. I still struggle with the final knot/loop under the chin, especially for horses with tucked heads but I'm getting there!

Oh and a tip for anyone wanting to make their own - the 'rope' material is commonly sold as 'Shambala Cord'. ;)
I used the 0.8mm and 1mm grades on my Julips but you would probably be best with 1mm or 1.5mm for Traditionals. I saw some of it sold simply as 'craft string' in a shop in Glasgow which is what got me in the mood for making them so it's worth keeping an eye out!

I started off making one for Kenway (you can see my horribly crude repair job on his paint rub at the bottom right :( ) which turned out ok, but my next wasn't quite right; the underside was too long! XD



Next up was a plain black one for Harper and a deep red number for Simba.



Kestral wanted a pink one but it ended up too small so now Arkas is being forced into wearing it until I can make him one of his own. XD You'll see that I managed to overdo the chin loop on both Kestral and Kerry's. >.<



The purple cord on Fanta was bought from a wholesale bead shop I recently discovered in Glasgow whereas the other stuff on Agrimony was the 'craft string' which handles a little differently.They're both essentially the same stuff but the Shambala cord on the right is a lot neater I think.



Finally, I found this 0.8mm stuff at my local craft shop and instantly bought three metres of the stuff because I knew I just had to make halters for Jazz and Archie. XD It's so wonderfully over the top but I love it!



I gave Archie's a thicker noseband as an experiment but I really liked how it turned out so I doubt it'll be the last time I do it.



Another item of tack that's been on my to do list for ever is a Newmarket fleece.
It's such an iconic pattern that you'd have thought there'd be loads of it about but there's simply nothing small enough to use for models. Like that was going to stop me however. :P
Ever on the lookout for bargains, I was browsing the local Poundland/£1 shop the other day when I spotted a pair of fleecy socks and leapt at the opportunity. They were just plain white and not really *that* fleecy but they had potential I thought.
I got them home, cut one apart and then set about 'dying' them with copic markers. It went a little stiff but still retained much of its fleecy character and well, Giovanni doesn't seem to mind. :P





I'm definitely going to make a couple of actual rugs and perhaps a shorter quarter sheet as this one absolutely swamps 'vanni and he's one of my tallest Julips! XD

Next on the agenda...christmassy tack!