A Plethora of Pony Pouches

Check out that title - how's that for an alliteration?  But it's true; my horse room has pony pouches everywhere you look.

 They're stacked on the sewing table.

They're piled on the ironing board. (Amazon gift bags and the Breyer velvet bags work well when you are short a pony pouch or two!)

I pulled out my show tubs and did some inventorying so I knew what I had and what I still needed to make.

 Since mid June I have been experimenting with patterns, sizes,

and going through my fabric stash. I've been making myself a new set to use when I go to live shows.

Some of the fabric, like the matryoshka dolls and ocean fabrics are from quiet books and pillowcases that I've made for Pony Pals and Cowpokes. 

Today I counted and I thought I probably had enough for myself. To check, I printed an entry sheet from last October's Great Lakes Congress show and did a mock packing check.

I labeled the sizes OT (oversized traditional), T (traditional), C (classic), S (stablemate), OS (oversized stablemate), and P (padded pouches for my chinas). Then I counted how many I had made of each size. (There were 4 OT, 16 T, 15 C, 13 S, and 3 OS.) 

Next I laid out some of my show models that don't always fit the standard traditional sized pouches.

I wanted to be sure that I had enough of the oversized pouches to pack them.

There is enough room in the pouches so that, even though the piece might look like it won't fit, it will still pack well without fear of warping legs, tails, etc.

This blue Pegasus goes to shows quite often and I always pack the wings separately, so they need their own pouch.

Five years ago I ordered these beautiful padded ones from Lori Batchelor for my chinas. (My stable colors are orange and blue.) I have no plans to replace those for the time being and will continue to use them for my most fragile pieces.

I was pleased to find that I was in pretty good shape when it came to the new pony pouches. I easily had enough for that October GLC show, although I decided I would make a few more traditional pouches just to be safe.

The ones I made over a decade ago are still serviceable and work well, but are about as basic as you can get. I may cannibalize them to use for lining new ones.

I have an order of fabric coming today. As soon as I make those three or four pouches for me, I plan to start sewing some for show donations as well as to sell when I go to live shows.