dapper doxie duds: i like ike

Okay, I admit it. I was a little intimidated by the thought of making a dud for Ike. Don't get me wrong, it was nobody's fault but my own. You see, Ike is famous. Joey n Maggie superlative famous. World's longest dachshund, AND he's a city boy, AND he's never worn a dud style harness before AND he needs a little sumptin to take him through spring and summer? All the wrinkles in my brain smoothed to a glassy surface. Ike was a sizing and fabric challenge for which I had nuttin, and there was little inspiration to be found in my piles of wintery woolens and girly prints and perky hand dyes.

While the back of my mind whirred furiously thinking of fabric options, I sent a gajillion prototypes to his patient mom, unsure how Ike's body might be different. Some prototype bodies were wider, some longer, some narrower. Surely Ike's extended length required an alteration to the basic dud shape, I figured. Only to find out with a bit of a blush that Ike was pretty much Baxter sized, only rounder. Okay, I realized, I totally need to chill and just see what happens.

So with a lightened brain and score of some lightweight indigo wash denim, I came up with this. A study in balanced asymmetry and texture, incorporating a bit of silk necktie and fab old watch face that help lend this dud a vintage city boy feel, all lined in cotton interlock to keep things cool on those hot summer days. Ooo, I'm thinkin with a bit o naughty, maybe Ike won't like it so I can size it down for chumley. Ooo but I do like Ike. Guess I'll be a good girl after all and see what his mom thinks.



Tiny chumley, by the way, had a fine time modelling Ike's dud in warm afternoon sun, til a squirrel fight proved too much for his patience to contain. It only took seconds to take off Ike's dud before I let the kielbasa loose to frolic in the fracas, but time that seemingly took forever for this little hunting dog . Hey, which way did they go???