Western dress and vest

About ten years ago I received a western catalog with a nice burgundy dress and western vest; I wanted to make something similar. I purchased some burgundy cloth and found some drapery/upholstery cloth with the right pattern for the vest, and never made it until just a couple of weeks ago.

The upholstery cloth had a suitable texture in the pattern design part, but the green on each side had a texture like carpet. I cut it off and sewed black cloth on each side and cut my vest fronts from this. The back of the vest is solid black.

The catalog picture was a two piece dress with the blouse having hidden buttons except for the top one which was silver, as most western buttons are. I used a hidden button blouse pattern and used matching silver buttons on the vest and the top blouse button.

To make it look western, it really needs black cowgirl boots, but I haven’t any black ones and my cream ones do not match. I am thus obliged to wear my burgundy/wine lace up boots. These, along with my re-enacting hat, gives the clothing more of a Victorian western look than a modern western look. I plan to make a matching western purse out of some of the vest upholstery cloth. Lord willing, when this is done, I will post pictures.

Cedar board and spurs bookends

A few years ago I saw some bookends with spurs in a western catolog and decided to make some. I purchased the spurs and cut the wood, but have never put them together. My friend Kayla who likes western stuff as well, had a birthday in March and I thought I would make her a set - even though I still have not made mine. I bought some shiny silver spurs and sanded some cedar wood. My dad helped me cut the pieces and screw them together.

Kayla makes hand-braided whips, bolos, and key-chains.

Cowboy boots baby quilt

One of my friends who is expecting a baby boy had told me cowboy boots were too expensive for how quickly a baby would outgrow them. I thought baby Colton should have a pair of cowboy boots - even if he couldn’t wear them. I machine stitched this little baby quilt and tie-quilted it. The boots were hand embroidered with a simple out line stitch. The drawing was from a coloring book. There is a rod cover slip sewed onto the back so it can be used for a wall hanging when the baby grows to big for it.

Horse silhouette

At a re-enactment in November, I burned this horse silhouette with iron poker pieces heated in the fire.

This blog has not been abandoned. Even if post are few and far between. Several years ago, I made matching western shirts for my brother and me out of this cloth. It has the traditional western yoke in the front and back though they do not show up much since I matched the stripes instead of placing them diagonal as some shirts are done. My brother’s shirt also has front pockets with the western cut flaps with the stripes matched as well. We do have one picture of us wearing these shirts together, but it was taken before I had a digital camera, so I cannot post it on here.

Horse drawing

This is a drawing I did of my pretty Casey back when I had a horse.

Cowgirl’s room

This is a bandana tie quilt I made years ago, plus some horse pillows and a "Fancy Fiddle" neelepoint picture.

There is still a lot of the horse fabric from which the large pillow was made, if someone wanted a pillow or small quilt made.