Creating the perfect gift for your Best Mate!
The day has finally arrived. We have a new product and it’s not a dog coat!
For over 16 years I’ve been handmaking coats to fit every breed, shape and size of best mate. All this time, bubbling away in the back of my mind, I’ve had a secret dream. With a fantastic team behind me, a dedicated sewing space, kids in school, and new technologies to improve our processes, it was time to get creating. No more excuses!
A portable dog mat with multiple uses was my quest. But of course, nothing leaves the Fair Dinkum Dogs sewing room that isn’t made to last the test of time and is super practical. Lots of fabric samples were collected followed by sleepless nights dreaming up the right look, feel and the general practicality of the product.
Finally, I felt ready to physically get cracking. With the product 80% designed, it was time to get sewing and come up with a prototype for testing.
Imagine how thrilled I was to show hubby our new product the Best Mate Dog Mat. Despite just arriving home from a long day at work he humored me by showing interest.
I was hyper with excitement, explaining to him how I’ve got four different sizes, suitable for dog crates with some cute little clips to help it to attach to the sides. Yep. I was absolutely babbling by this stage. “Oh, and watch, look how it rolls up with this handle!” Yes, I just had to do a demo. Naturally I also explained how it can be rolled out at a coffee shop, onto a couch, or the back of a ute. “It’s just so damn cute!”
By this time, he was regretting having called in to the sewing room on his way to the house and Charlene is laughing her head off at the sewing machine.
But someone once said that enthusiasm is infectious and they’re right. Hubby grabbed the mat out of my hands and beckoned me outside. He walked over to the car and draped it on the seat. “If you sort out attachments to the head rest, it will also work well to protect a car seat,” he suggested.
How did I NOT think of that!!! Two extra tugs on the XL size and a couple of extra clips and Bob’s Your Uncle, one more use created for this versatile dog mat.
The day that we made up a Best Mate Dog Mat in every size and popped their little swing tags on was a memorable one. The next hour was spent on the phone sharing the exciting news with the rest of the team. Peta, our social media guru, was warned that one was already in the post heading her way.
Patience is not my virtue and I’ve been dying to reveal our new product to all our Fair Dinkum Dogs cheerleaders.
After months … probably years … of talking about this idea, it has been incredibly satisfying to finally achieve it. I’d like to say that the hardest part of this whole process has been creating the product but, almost as much work goes into the photo shoots, getting website pages up and running, and sorting out the social media postproduction.
Many thanks to the FDD team that have kept everything running to perfection and allowed me the time to dream and create this product.
We hope you will love the Best Mate Dog Mat as much as we have loved making it for you.
Cheers, Elise