Just Call Me Betsy Ross

This winter has brought a number of blanket rips. At points I thought the carnage was beyond my skills. Sonny was one of the worst, but Winston decided he could cause more damage. With two of our 100grm blankets he was not satisfied going  through the outer later. Nope, he had to go through all three: liner, fill and outer. He certainly surpassed Sonny's biggest rip. All of these made me look for my inner Betsy Ross.


Winston's blankets were not safe though. Sonny made one more statement by ripping his sheet. Plus Winston keeps tearing off his surcingles on his 100grm blanket. For some reason they are really dry and just tear away below where I stitch. I think I need to order new surcingles.
So here are the pictures of the repair jobs and damage explanation.

Victim: DaVinci's Midweight
Inflicted By: Sonny



before

After

This was my first time fixing a tear this big. Sonny had grabbed on and held causing a huge tear. Over 45min of working, the blanket was back together again. With as many horses as we have, there are no blankets to spare.

Victim: DaVinci's 100grm blanket
Inflicted By: Winston

Not as long, but required stitching two layers

Winston had to show Sonny he could do better and tore through all three layers. It is never a good time to see fur where there should be blanket. I put this aside thinking it was beyond my limited skills. When we could not find this type of blanket for sale, we ordered liners. The Yankee in me could not let this blanket go without trying to fix it. As you can tell by the wet blanket, he is wearing it again. Poor thing looks like a patchwork blanket with more repairs on the other side.

Victim: Rosemary's 100grm blanket
Inflicted By: Winston

Winston exploring different angles...

Rosemary was not quite fast enough to escape Winston's jaws. Peggy watched as he latched on creating this lovely corner tear. And yes again he managed to go through all three layers. This was slightly easier to stitch then the above one.

Victim: Winston's 100grm blanket
Inflicted by: Winston

Fingers Crossed

Winston tore off one surcingle and tore one half way. I worked hard to sew them back on. That material is really hard to get a needle through. That fix lasted awhile, but he tore them both off over time. When I repaired, the other two, I put one surcingle back on this one. I made sure to burn the edge thinking he had just pulled it through the sewn edge. Unfortunately he had a surcingle dangling the other day. When I looked it had torn about an inch below where I sewed. So I took a surcingle off a dead sheet and put both on. Now lets hope at least one stays on.

Victim: Winston's Sheet
Inflicted By: Sonny

Just a new dart on his butt :)

Sonny had to let Winston know he still had some blanket ripping skills. He left this little love rip on his butt. Luckily only through the top layer. It was a little rough and made a fun time to stitch.

Now all the stitching in the world would not help these blankets be usable with out a great seam sealer. That is something we have. It has worked great for all these repairs. It is specifically made to fill in holes made by the needle.

Best Stuff

We got this seam sealer from Schneiders years ago and it is still good. This combined with Kiwi waterproofer gives new life to a turnout blanket. My Yankee heart is satisfied and my ten year old blankets live on.