Sunday, May 26, 2013

Boring saddle pad? Here's how to dress it up!

I love gorgeous saddle pads. You know, the ones with double trim or plaid bindings or something special that makes you go "oooh!" when you see them? Yeah, those. Love them. But they're expensive, and I already have a bunch of perfectly serviceable (if boring) pads. What's a girl to do?

Enter a rainy day, the sewing machine, and my embarrassingly large collection collection of fabric scraps and trim. I had a hunter green AP pad and a chocolate brown dressage pad that wanted a little something more. So I started digging around to see what would work.

Love the gold brocade with the hunter green. The two types trim add a little extra flair, and will cover up the edges nicely.

This fabric scrap is leftover from the kitchen curtains in our old house. Time to use it up! 

To get started, cut out the triangle of fabric, then overcast the edges to keep them from fraying. I use the zigzag setting on my sewing machine - if you have a serger, that would work too.

Next, fold the long edge of the triangle over an stitch it to itself. Use matching thread to sew your trim over that, being sure to cover up your stitches. (Note that I've also sewn across the end of the trim to keep it from fraying.)

Lay out your triangle on your saddle pad. I lined up the left and bottom edge of the triangle with the left and bottom edge of the pad. This gave me plenty of fabric to turn under.

Here's the hardest part - you need to go around and turn the edges of the fabric under, pinning as you go. You'll top stitch this later.

Here's the final thing, all pinned down and ready to be sewn. Use as many pins as you need to hold the fabric in place and prevent it from wrinkling.

Here's what it looks like after it's been sewn down. 

Finally (not shown), stitch the thinner trim down all the way around. Tuck the edges under the point of the triangle on one side, to keep them from fraying.

The finished product. Way fancier than what we started with! 

I ended up using some plain gold fabric I had instead of the trim I had originally picked out, but I think this worked better.

If I were going to do this again, I would use an iron-on fusible interfacing to stiffen the fabric and make it easier to work with. The gold triangle got a little wiggly on the long side as I was sewing it down, and it's not the crisp, straight line I was hoping for. I would also be a little more careful in matching my thread colors - I didn't do too bad a job with what I had on hand, but having your thread be invisible means that any screw-ups aren't quite as noticeable (ahem).

The green pad took me significantly longer than the brown one, in part because I was still figuring out how to assemble everything. Sewing is half geometry, I swear! Anyway, I spent about 5 hours on both pads, but that included trying to find all my trim and fabric. It did NOT include cleaning out our hall closet, lol! 

I realize that this is not the best step-by-step tutorial ever. I just sort of got to sewing and forgot to take pictures! If anyone is interested in better instructions, I can do that in another post with another project. Just let me know!  

I've got another pad - made from scratch - in the works too. Pictures to come!

22 comments:

  1. Oooooo. I've been wondering how to add beadwork to my blanket and now you've given me a great idea on how to do it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Karen, if you do, please blog about it! I love sharing crafty ideas. :)

      Delete
  2. Snazzy! I love crafty stuff like this :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too! It's fun, and I haven't had time to do something like this in forever. If you need better instructions, let me know!

      Delete
  3. Bee-utiful! Now I'm going to have to do something with a pad or two of mine. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a great idea!!! Kudos to you!! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! If you have a little sewing skill, you should give it a go!

      Delete
  5. Love it! I've only ever decked out my saddle pads for Halloween themed shows and dress up; not sure why I never thought of this. Now to call on the long lost sewing skills.

    P.S. Thanks for giving me a good reason for getting more saddle pads :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooh, it would be fun to do themed pads for various holidays. That would be neat!

      If you're calling on long-lost sewing skills, I'd recommend trying one like the brown pad first - straight cuts are less wiggly than diagonal cuts and therefore easier to work with. Also, if you use trim, don't use ribbon, since it won't bend well around the corners.

      And everyone always needs more saddle pads, right? ;)

      Delete
  6. What other hidden talents do you have? Those saddle pads are way cuter than anything I have seen in a catalog. Neat idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol, none! I'm a mediocre cook at best and a horrible housekeeper - sewing is totally the only creative thing I can do!

      Delete
  7. Great project! The most creative I've gotten is to slap an iron-on heart patch when I discovered a hole in my brand new pad. This is much more elegant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooh, I'd'a been ticked about a hole in a brand-new saddle pad. I like your solution, though! Did you clip a matching heart on Hudson's butt? That would have been just about perfect... ;)

      Delete
  8. They look so good! Love this idea :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice! It gives me some ideas (and courage) to dress up my boring pads.

    Sam

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sam, go for it! Doesn't have to be super fancy - an iron-on applique and a little trim works wonders! If you do something, please post it and share.

      And thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Lol my iphone takes awful pics... I swear that pad is chocolate brown in person. But thanks!

      Delete