DIY Project: Custom Quarter Sheet

Last winter, I started riding Tristan in a quarter sheet on especially cold days. I borrowed one from the barn's stash, and really liked it: it kept me warm, and he seemed a bit more comfortable. I started shopping for my own, looking at a bunch of different websites. I didn't like any of the ones I found: whether the style, color, or price.

Wouldn't it be just as easy to make my own, I thought? So I bought fabric, ribbon for edging, and when my mother came to visit, she brought her sewing machine. We based the pattern off the one at the barn I liked most - I don't know what brand or even what size it was.

It was a bit of a rough first attempt, but the cat thought it was the best day ever.

Finished cutting:

We sewed a 1.5" ribbon doubled over around the edge, which I would probably not do again. I think I'm going to want a blaze orange one for hunting season (coming up soon), and I'm already thinking about new edging material.

Here's the finished product. I LOVE IT, and have gotten a ton of compliments every time I ride in it. I think it looks so much better than any of the ones you can buy. It ended up being less expensive in terms of materials (which I picked carefully to be on sale), though perhaps not when you factor in the labor cost of figuring out how to do it and then the sewing itself.

I think the only thing I'd change is the bump you can see just above the point of his hip there - we didn't figure the cut quite right to lay flat. Purely aesthetic.

Have you ever made something from scratch for your horse?