THREAD - Biscuit's new leash on life.

As you may know - Biscuit had a little "work" done recently. Some would say that he is now less of a man but I like to think that his surgery was more of a transition into the non-puppy stage of his life. Sort of like getting confirmed or having a Bar Mitzvah eh?
To celebrate his move into adulthood - I decided he needed a new leash and collar. I wanted him to have something more grown-up and less puppyish. He needed something to represent his new maturity and perhaps looking less like it belonged on a cat (he already sleeps in a cat bed but shhh don't tell him).

As usual - I gained my leash inspiration in a purlbee posting. In Molly's Sketchbook there was a great tutorial for a cotton leash with alphabet ribbon. It was perfection - from the color (red is Biscuit's signature color) to the preppy monogram. Luckily - it was very easy to do. The hardest part was finding the right hook for the end - I did find an okay one on amazon.com but it's still not perfect.

A few things to note -
1. Since the dog in the tutorial is a giant and Biscuit currently weighs 11 pounds (he'll probably top out at 18-20 lbs) - I reduced the leash length by a few feet.
2. It is really really important to take the time to pin the ribbon onto the cotton webbing every few inches  - otherwise it wont stay centered and the whole look will be off - more sloppy than preppy.

3. The pattern calls for invisible thread but this is harder to find than one would think - neither purlsoho.com or joannes.com had it in stock. I used white thread with a red bobbin and it turned out great. The only places you can see the stitches is at the loops for the handle and hook where the stitching is reinforced for strength.
4. I didn't make a matching collar for a few reasons - the hardware would have been difficult to find and attach, cotton webbing doesn't lend itself to being very adjustable and it would have been a really thick collar for our silly little dog. We did pick him up a nice new red collar from Target for around $7.00. It is thicker than his last one so there will be no more confusion with cat collars!

I hope this inspires y'all to do a little spring upgrade of your own.

B.L.E.