Megabucks the Racehorse & her Jockey Penny Costume

The idea to make Megabuck$, the Great Dane a racehorse kind of presented itself. Come on, she's pretty much a horse! And Penny being the jockey,well, she's just so petite and cute it's seem to natural fit as well.

I'm not generally a crafty person and I don't sew, but I had a vision in my head and enough knowledge of horse tack then I figured I can make it work. For research, I googled pictures of and resources to get an idea of what a real silk looks like for a jockey and what a racing saddle shape should be. Once I had the vision complete, it was off to the thrift store to see if I could find a kid size windbreaker for Penny . Mission accomplished. And then off to the fabric store to try and find an affordable way to make it happen. I never bought fabric before so that was kind of interesting. I ended up buying a yard of red fleece and a yard of what I can only call really really cheap plastic he vinyl like fabric. And duct tape lots of duct tape. Black duct tape, rainbow duct taped, silver duct tape. I also learned how do you sprayed he sieve. Man that stuff is cool!

To start, I affixed the red fleece to an old dog blanket I had that was too small for any of my five dogs. I cut out the saddle shape out of the black fabric and made a separate saddle piece for the top of the saddle to give it more definition. I cut the stirrups out of the silver duct tape sheet and you scraps from the saddle fabric to make stirrup leathers. I attach the stirrup leathers with black duct tape underneath the flap of the saddle. The tricky part of the silo was that it just seem to take the shape of the dog. So I reinforced the top of the saddle by cutting out the saddle top shape and up taping a bunch of newspaper together in that shape and then covering it with the black fabric and then reattaching. It looked more authentic that way.

For the bridle, I cut strips out of the black fabric and folded them over and use duct tape to secure the edges I thought. I thought I'd be able to just cut the strips and attach them but it looked very unfinished with the ragged edges therefore I doubled it over and taped the strips. for the bit, which is attached to the bridle and does not go through the dogs mouth, I cut a laundry detergent top and wrapped it in silver duct tape.

The jockey costume prove to be a little bit more complicated. The windbreaker worked pretty well but had to be taken in in the arms for it to look more fitted. The decoration to make it more like a jockey silk, we're hearts that were cut out of duct tape. The hat was an old baseball cap with the excess material from the windbreaker to keep the colors consistent. It was all taped together. The whip was made out of a drink stirrer with some fabric and duct tape. Are you swim goggles to attach it to Penny. The jodhpurs and boots were the hardest part. I used an under armor compression shirt. Her legs went through the armholes and her tail came out of the neck. I taped the black fabric around the legs to for the boots. For the foot part of the boot, I cut out cardboard and covered it with duct tape and taped it to the base of the boot.

I'm afraid to even tally up how many hours I spent on the costumes but it became so fun. It was also great to see the way that the dogs were terrified at first but then became very patient and good in their fittings. We had a lot of time together and a lot of treats together.