It's been a while since I did up a Steamwork pet, and yesterday (I believe) I gave all the required items, and picked a pet, and it said 3 days, etc. But today I go back and there is no sign at all that a pet is being dressed up for me. Is this normal? I would think that a timer would be visible?

It's normal. There is no timer, but you will get an event when your pet is ready.

[font=cambria] No timer, but if you search for the pet by name, you should be able to see it already exists as a common, genderless, version of whatever species you ordered, complete with born/created date, which should give you an idea of about when to expect your new pet if you can't remember exactly when you ordered it. [/font]