Pimp My Saddle Pad: An SB Blog Non-Crafty How-To

If you have a boring saddle pad that just needs a little kick to become awesome but you have the craft skills and finesse of a drunken elephant even while sober, then we are on the same page. Emma and Olivia and Amanda and Monica and co are always writing these how tos for mind-blowingly complex projects that involve 1) artistic ability 2) having random arting supplies on hand so the damn thing doesn't cost an arm and a leg and 3) an awful lot of time/motivation.

needs spice!

Let me assure you. This project requires none of those things. Which is good because the list of craft supplies I own is basically scissors and super glue. And I don't know where the glue is.

Without further ado, here is a step-by-step process to pimp your saddle pad.

1) Get some wine.

I forgot to photograph this step. Hopefully you already have the wine. If not, perhaps instead of a craft how-to, you need to reevaluate most of your life choices.

2) Have some awesome friends give you some super cool iron-on patches. This saves on $ big time. I didn't have to pick anything or buy anything. It's great. No choices. No arting.

EB Racing pride!! 

3) Ask husband (/roomie/cat/whoever you live with who knows these things) if you have an iron. Ideally, they will then locate it for you to shut you up because no one wants to dig through this mess, even especially with said wine.

nope

4) Plug in iron. This step is actually way harder than it sounds. I mean, sure you know how to use an electrical outlet (that's the place where you charge your phone), but some irons have all kinds of complicated shit on them. Hint: the shit is to distract you. You don't need to put water in anything. Probably a light should turn on.

4b) It's critically important at this stage that whomever helped you find the iron and any associated pets either leave the room or faithfully and reliably promise to be well behaved. If the iron is working, things are about to get dangerous.

judgmental corgi probably needs a patch

5) Decide where the patches will go on your saddle pad. It's also helpful to already have the pad washed. If it's not, you can kinda just dab up the loose hairs on it with duct tape. No judgement here.

duct tape: now also a craft supply!

hint: do not iron patch to the board while hubs is watching.

6) Determine if the iron is hot. Careful, this is another hard step. If the iron is hot and you touch it, you might get a painful burn. I used a meat thermometer and am proudly burn-free. Let me know if you think of a better solution.

#burnfreebitches

6b) This step may take several tries if you're impatient like me. Just try to avoid the ER trip from burning yourself. That seems like a non-ideal (if predictable) outcome of a craft project.

7a) Once iron is hot, set it on top of the patch positioned where you want it on the saddle pad and let it make the sticky part stick. This step takes a while. Also I like to wiggle the iron around a little just so I don't accidentally make burn marks on the pad.

7b)It's a pretty bad idea I think to touch the patch once the definitely hot iron has been sitting on it for a while, so if you still have the meat thermometer out, you might want to poke the patch with it a few times  to see if it's stuck down.

7c)If the pad starts smoking, throw your wine on it to extinguish any flames and then pour another glass to celebrate your now multi-colored pad.

look ma no hands!

When it seems pretty stuck down, maybe go around the edges with the tip once or twice just to be sure.

8) That's it. You're done. Stay fabulous!

love it.

8b) Make sure you turn the iron off. Don't try to wrap the cord up around your iron until it's fully cooled unless you are trying to intentionally destroy the iron in a wine-fueled rage. You can either repeatedly test it with the meat thermometer or just leave it til tomorrow and hope husband/roomie/pets/social services think that it should be put away and handle that part for you.

too busy admiring handiwork

 And hey! If you completed this DIY without a trip to the ER or unplanned arrival by the fire department, then... you actually might have more craft skills than me. Happy crafting!