Gilly Wear

Me and Gilly are starting a new adventure, well, he is just the model I am doing all the work and he has his name on it! "Gilly Wear" Gilly's line of designer one of a kind saddle pads. This all started over taking off the rubber ThinLine pad off a saddle pad I had so I could dry it. You can wash the pad but not dry it in the dry because of the rubber pad sewn onto it....... sooo....I took it off! Being a seamstress I thought I can fix this; made a pocket for the rubber pad to fit in and I could remove it to wash and dry the pad.

After I removed the rubber pad, you can see the outline of it still on the cotton pad.

Pocket added and rubber pad is inside, I left an opening in the top center of the pocket so I can remove the rubber pad for washing and drying. I used the green fabric just cause it was handy, should have used black but it wasn't on hand.

Here is a picture of the black rubber pad laying on top of the dressage pad so you can see what it looks like and how it fits inside the pocket. After doing this I thought, hey, I can make saddle pads with designer pads and do the same thing, the pocket and still use the thin line pads and Gilly can have a wardrobe of clothes to wear!

So "Gilly Wear" was formed and I started collecting fabric.....which isn't hard for me because I used to be a quilter.  A quilter on break, I took 10 years off to do rug hooking and now I am quilting again, this time saddle pads!

                       

Here is Gilly modeling, this is all he does, a pad that I had put pockets on for the ThinLine pads, which I later changed, more on that later(see PS at bottom). I got this fabric at the local fabric store, love the red Chinese symbols on the black background. I made the pattern from my fitted dressage pad, above, but added a square back to it. So it fits my 18" seat saddle really well, this I call the small pad.

Here is a close up shot of the pad. Machine quilted in a 2" grid pattern. I made the black bias binding and the red bias trim too.

This pad I bought because I wanted a larger pad, it's only longer across the back than the one above but I added some really gorgeous fabric that I bought from a quilt shop, more expensive than the local JoAnn store but wow, pretty!

Close up of this one, I am not usually attracted to bright colors like this but, hey, it had horses on it so I had to get it and there was a matching horse fabric also. Of course I got it too.

Even closer! I did free motion machine quilting on it, around each horse head. Oh, I do love it!!! I only got half a yard so there isn't enough to make a full pad.......sigh.....may have to go get some more of this and this is really bad......this quilt shop is only a few miles from home! Where do you think I will be hanging out with the delivery truck comes with more fabric???? (I saw one of the gals that works there at a quilt meeting the other night and she says, "Hey Jane...we got some new horse fabric in!") Oh, boy, they got my number! LOL

Here is another pad I made, Gilly doesn't get to model the ones I plan on selling but this one is the same size as the black and red one. The patch at the bottom is the matching fabric that goes with the one above. There are either two or three more designs in the fabric for more interesting designs too. The purple fabric was from the JoAnn store but it sure matches the purple in the quilt fabric! The batting I used in this one is a high loft so it's puffier than the first one, the low loft is much easier to quilt.

I was going to make some bell necklaces for hoses too but then decided that the long necklace is a lot of work and a bit pricey since I use glass beads and semi precious stones so I decided to make a smaller string of bells and beads. I don't have one ready to show just yet but will have soon. I am also working on a little web site for the "Gilly Wear" pads and bells that are called "trail riding Liberty Bells". The name of our farm is Liberty Homestead Farm and we live in Liberty Township so....guess where I got the name? Also my hooks rug business is called "Liberty Homestead Rugs"

I do have a business card made up, what do you think? It took me awhile to decide on the colors but I find that this year I am loving purple! I seem to be drawn to a lot of purples everywhere I look, is that a popular color this year?

My neighbor, Kim, rides western and wants me to make her a western pad so yesterday we found some really neat fabric and ordered it. When I have it finished I will post it so you all can see it, I guess Messina will have to model the western pads and I'll have to call it "Messina Wear West"......LOL

The catchy phrase I came up with for "Gilly Wear" is this:  "It's What Your Horse Wants to Wear"

OK so this is the "END" of this post........

I am off to the sewing room to get busy on some more saddle pads!!! This is a good rainy, dreary day here in Ohio and these are the days I love to be in my sewing room creating!!!

Later,

Jane

PS~I have decided that I don't need to make pockets for each saddle pad for Gilly. I just made a small thin pad with pockets, still has to be open for extra shims, to lay over the pad and under the saddle. Problem solved!