Launch My Line

While I do not watch reality television, it is hard to avoid the incessant commercials when watching any show in real time. One of the annoying ads airing currently is for a show titled "Launch My Line" about contestants trying to design lines of clothing for market. For the past couple of days I've been playing with designing clothing to protect our new kids in very cold weather.

At first the boys wore little bluejean capes but those needed work and quickly changed into the impromptu wool-lined jean jackets (okay, goat coats) pictured here. That night the temperature dropped into the low 20's. In the morning I was concerned about Gwen's Mary who had been active enough to leave unclothed the prior night. Smart Mary had bedded down behind a folded table propped up against a stall wall (serving to cut drafts into the adjoining stall); she conveniently loacated herself as close as possible to the heat lamp under which the boys lounged. Clever gal! My feelings of guilt ensured that she quickly got a wool cape. The boys' coats had shifted so that their linings were more to one sidem nut they were still serviceable. Satisfied for the time being, I went about my chores and errands.

In the afternoon when I checked on the animals again, Mary's cape had slid around and she was stepping on it as she moved. Soon she had stepped right out of the cape, leaving it lying on the stall floor like any child's cast-off jacket. Since the boys had been trapped inside the barn (out of sight of predatory birds) for the morning, it was time they got out into the sunshine and I brought them out. (Any predator would be hard pressed to challenge Gwen.)

Alhough the jackets had stayed on the kids, the slippage meant that the little bucklings had thoroughly wet the low side with their urine. It was time to revamp my clothing line.

My morning errands had included a trip to the Lebanon Goodwill, where Wednesdays and Sundays are 99 cent days (on select clothing items). After a couple of nights with temperatures in the 20's, I wanted better covering for the kids and had gone in search of a fluffy-lined coat (fake sheep's wool) to cut up. Almost immediately I found a large, heavy jacket and a full-length wool tweed coat, each marked $24.99 but selling for $0.99 apiece. Silently cheering at my luck, I bundled these into the cart and browsed on only to realize a bit later that these materials were certainly thick and heavy, but that very weight would make cutting them a challenge. They went back onto the racks and I left with a couple of much lighter fleece pullovers--one a thicker vest and one thinner but with sleeves. (Sleeves and tube socks are the fastest young-animal coat materials I have found: cut a piece off and make a hole for the legs, and we're in business.)

Miss Mary Packer's new coat was the first freed from the scissors. Once it was on, I saw that I had added unnecessary extra holes for threading also-unnecessary ties with which to cinch the coat on more tightly. (That design had worked well for the boys the prior night, but was totally unnecessary this time around.) The fleece tube hugged her body quite well and only needed to be turned around to make the narrowest part of the sleeve into the collar. She suffered my attentions with aplomb and was soon out cavorting about with Gwen again.

Will and Walter's coats had held well, but both were wet with urine and so in need of a change. I had fun using the remaining sleeve to line the two denim capes that had been my first (discarded) attempts the prior day. Working with wriggling kids makes fittings challenging, so each cut is a gamble, but I rather like how their duds fit when I was done. Something about the fleece-lined jean jacket look says "farm boy" to me.

For the record, the wet on little Walter's coat in the photo is water, and the dirt on their coats is "clean" in that my bluejeans tend to emerge from the wash still looking a tad worn.

So, what do you think, Dear Reader? Am I ready to launch my line?