Finishing Projects! (and another baby goat)

I'm getting more and more excited about this Civil War ballgown I get to make! I can't wait to get started on it, but I'm forcing myself to finish some other projects first. Like this dress.

I got it at Goodwill with the intention of refashioning it.

So I cut it up.

And then I drew on it.

(Look at the seams on the back of the dress here, aren't they cool?)

Why did I cut it up before drawing on it, you may ask? Well, there was this seam about a foot or so from the bottom of the skirt straight across the front of the dress. So I used that as my cutting guide. The line I then drew was at my hip level. Why? 

I much prefer full, gathered, skirts to straight skirts. Thus when I was figuring out what I wanted to do with this dress I knew right away that I wanted the skirt to be gathered. So that piece of skirt I cut off the bottom of the dress? That became the new skirt. I gathered the top edge and then sewed it onto the dress where I had drawn the line at my hips. The middle section of skirt, now hidden by the gathered skirt, I just cut off.

 I paid special attention to matching the seams on the back since I thought 

they added some nice lines to the dress. 

 I added an ivory crocheted belt, and then, after just a couple hours of sewing, ta-dah! I had a cute, brand-new dress, that only cost me $4!

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!

Of course I also had a few dresses I was working on for my little sister, and this one is my favorite of those!

A couple months ago I found this flannel print at Walmart.

I thought it would be perfect for a dress for my sister, but there was only 1 yard of it. Not enough to make an entire dress, so I knew I would have to get creative. (and use some rather unorthodox means to get it to come out the way I wanted, like using fraycheck on the overskirt, rather than hemming it.)

I got some pink flannel to use with the print, and then got to work. I cut the bodice out of the print, and then saw that I had enough fabric left over to make an over skirt too! The main skirt and the sleeves I made out of the pink flannel.

To add some interest to the underskirt I sewed on some black ribbon in a zig-zag pattern on the front, and then just straight across the back.

To make the sleeves look like they matched the rest of the dress, I cut out part of the design from a scrap of the print, and appliqued it on. I love how the sleeves look now!

In fact I'm pretty happy with how the entire dress came out! I used part of a pattern I already had for the bodice, and then just made up the rest from there, so I had been rather unsure of what the final product would be.

Now that these dresses are done, I only have 2 more projects to finish before I can get started on my ballgown, so back to sewing I go!

Oh, and taking care of my goats. This little lady decided to arrive Monday morning.

Her name is Paisley, and she the first daughter I've gotten out of the buck we bought last fall,

 Du Bonheur Coach, so I can't wait to see how she turns out!