craft and craftiness

I must admit I'm lucky that Baxter is a fairly easy sell when it comes to dressing him up. Sure it's not his favorite thing in the world, but so long as he doesn't have a mission of his own or he's not being munchausened by some sympathetic bystander, Baxter barely bats an eye at the things I sometimes make for him to wear.

Thankfully for Baxter, the bug doesn't happen often, but it always seems to hit me hardest when the weather turns cold. With Jacques biding his time with George this past week, I should have known I was susceptible to the doggie dud disease. Thanks to Joey & Maggie's Mayor of Munchkinville post, I have been in sewing envy for most of this week.

The seed of envy, planted for only five days now, has overgrown past the boundaries of my brain's right hemisphere and now inhabits every wrinkled crevice of the gray matter that is my control center. I had always wanted to experiment with collars and bowties, and there it was, staring me in the face. Someone beat me to it and even made a chest plate festooned with all the proper buttons. I wish there were more pictures.

So yesterday rather than making more purses and totes for an upcoming show, I fiddled around with newspaper and fabric. Not for very long, but long enough to mock up a quickie prototype to test some ideas and feed the hungry thought consuming monster inside my head.

The unadorned prototype results, I soon realized, were something quite different than the half formed vision in my head. Rather than creating the form of stately overcoat that hearkened back to days of olde when men rode horses and women in long flowy dresses succumbed to the vapors, my mind and my fingers had given Baxter a look I can only describe as leisure suit victorian. Perfect, I now see, for the disco themed Pride and Prejudice halloween party that my brain must want me to throw. Do plan on coming. Liberace Bingley awaits you.