Newmarket Stripe fabric anyone?

I've always wanted to make a decent Newmarket/Witney style blanket for my Julips, but found the fabric was impossible to find at a suitable scale. I had a go myself with some fleece and marker pens, which looked ok, but it wasn't really what I was after.



Then I remembered a little online shop called Spoonflower, where you can design your own fabric and have it printed out on a variety of different types of fabric, from plain old cotton, to minky or faux suede. Unfortunately they don't do microfleece, which would have been perfect, but they seem to be bringing out new fabrics on a regular basis so I can only hope they'll do it eventually.

I made up a design, ordered a sample and got to work. The basic 8" x 8" test swatch was more than big enough for a Julip rug, and even had a little left over which I might be able to make into some clothes for a rider at some point.

The fabric I chose wasn't quite right for it, as it was stretchy and too shiny for a traditionally woollen blanket, so I went with a rug instead, as it looks a bit more like that kind of material. The neck is a little high on it as well, but I might make a neck piece too which will hopefully disguise it.



Harper, who probably has the most tack of any of my Julips (seriously, this is his third rug at least!) always likes his wardrobe to work as an ensemble, so I made him a matching headcollar and leadrope. This is the first time I've ever managed a three colour leadrope and I'm really thrilled with it. I didn't have any suitable red, black and yellow ribbon, so I just painted on the red and black bits with a very fine brush. It also got fleece padding because Harper is incredibly spoilt I thought it looked nice. He also got the proper etched halter rings and buckle too, as opposed to my usual homemade ones, so he's one lucky pony, as I rarely splurge on these kind of luxuries!

If I had a real horse, you can be sure that I'd have it kitted out in matching everything.

I'd quite like to do some other designs - either this in different colourways, or maybe some tiny horses? Ideas would be most welcome!

The best part about Spoonflower is that you can resize the design and choose which way the pattern repeats, so I can potentially have designs for different scales. I'm useless at measurements though, so I pretty much did this one by eye. I took a crappy picture of another test swatch draped rather haphazardly over one of my trads so you can gauge for yourself whether it could do with being upscaled or not. It's in totally the wrong sort of fabric, but it was a free swatch of some new stuff (poly crepe de chine) so I couldn't not get it, though god knows what I'm going to use it for.

 

If it does need tweaking, let me know and I can upload a bigger version as well.


On that note, if anyone wants some for themselves, you can order it -HERE-!

 I don't actually get any money for it, but it gives me Spoonflower credits, so I can buy stuff on the site, which is no bad thing, as I love fabric. I've got more than I will ever probably use, but I always have room for more...well, sort of.

EDIT - I'm going to see about offering it for sale on another site as Spoonflower has this rule where you have to declare all your tax details to them, and while I'm not earning at the moment so I don't actually pay any tax, I'm still not comfortable with that being mandatory, so I'm going to try elsewhere.


(I need to photograph my stash - it's getting ridiculous how much I have now, but it's all so lovely I can't just get rid of it!)

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!