Collars

Recently, I decided that the kitteh's collars (especially El Gato's) were looking rather grungy. I decided to try to fix that but, money being a wee bit tight right now, combined with me trying to learn to sew, I decided to DIY this.

I started with El Gato's. First it got a good washing (and let me say...ew. It looked so very much better after just a washing that I'm rather grossed out that I didn't try that before--no idea how 2 indoor cats generate that amount of filth); the clean collar looked like this:.
(You will notice, of course, that La Doof Kitton 'helped' at every step of this sewing project.)

I adjusted the collar as big as it could go, removed the tags, and pinned on a piece of ribbion like this, then sewed it on (three times, since one time I screwed up and had to rip all the stitches out)--notice the paws in the picture:

I'm holding it up high in this picture to keep it out of La Doof Kitton's paws--he has an unnatural affinity for ribbon.
(and I also must confess that the bow is only in place because, I am my grandmother's protogee. I kinda ripped the ribbon w/ my seam ripper so, of course, I added a bow to cover said rip)


El Gato would like to model for you:
.

During all of this, La Doof Kitton was helping by stealing the ribbon and sliding it under the door to my closet, as seen here:

SO, since my first attempt was moderately successful, I decided to do the same to La Doof Kitton's collar the next day....

Since both kittehs have breakaway collars, I figured it would be easy to remove the collar--after all, every time we try to grab La Doof Kitton, his collar melts away and I am left with a handful of collar while La Doof Kitton enjoys his furry freedom, sans the opressive symbol of his subjugation by furless apes. So, since La Doof Kitton decided he didn't want me to remove his collar properly, I just grabbed a bit of the collar and tugged...and it didn't break away.

You know that moment when you 'have a tiger by the tail...'? Having an angry cat (apparently and understandably angered by collar tugs) by the non-breaking-away-breakaway-collar ain't no picnic either. I eventually got the collar, bandaged up my wounds, and washed the collar. I left it to dry on my sewing table and wandered off to make my apologies to La Doof Kitton by way of a bit of leftover ribbon and make me dinner.

While I was distracted elsewhere in the house ("ooh, shiny!") I heard Mr. G say the words I hear 1000 times a day..."Hey, stop that!" I assumed that La Doof Kitton was into something he shouldn't be into until I heard it "HEY, cats, both of you..." and ran to see what happened (La Doof Kitton raises cain on days that end in 'y'. El Gato raises cain on the 12th of never) and how El Gato was involved.

I had apparently left the door to my sewing project ajar. La Doof Kitton was borrowing spools of thread and hiding them in various spots around the house. El Gato had wandered in, found La Doof Kitton's collar in progress and was attempting to destroy it. She was standing there, the collar hanging from her mouth, shaking it violently and attempting to rip it into small pieces of ribbon and collar. I'm not sure if she thought "I don't want my brother to have a collar like my new pretty one" or if she thought "ick, this smells like the other cat...KILL" or "hey, this tells people where to return him to...If I destroy it, then mail him to Abu Dhabi without return address..." but regardless, it was amusing.
(If you've no idea why El Gato might wish to be rid of La Doof Kitton, I should point out that she seems to miss being an only pet and she has [although I haven't been able to get pictures of it] been pounced by La Doof Kitton 3 times in the time it took for me to type this out)

And it obviously didn't work, seeing as La Doof Kitton is here to model his new collar (note this blog entry in the background :-P):



So, yes, they match, as seen here...but they may not be thrilled about that (but I'm amazed, a picture of them...TOGETHER! Huzzah!)