Sunday, August 11, 2024

The Goat Dresses

 Who wouldn't want a goat dress?


No, No, No. I don't mean a dress for the goat to wear! I mean a human dress, with a goat print on it!


Despite my years and years of raising goats, and my (slightly fewer) years of making myself what ever dress struck my fancy, I actually never considered making myself a goat dress, until The Dreamstress shared this Gilbert Adrian dress on Facebook last year.


It has Sheep on it! (Ok, lambs to be precise.) If a fashion designer in the 1940 could make a sheep dress, why the heck hadn't I made a goat dress yet???


All I had to do was find some goat fabric - and for some reason goats are just about the most under represented farm animals when it comes to animal prints. There are goat prints out there, but they're generally something I have to actually order, verses something I can just go into a local fabric store and buy (after a good half hour of feeling it, considering it, staring longingly at it, and carrying it around the store while admiring other fabrics. I have my method.)


Well, back in January I found a goat print at my favorite place for novelty print cottons - the Mennonite fabric store out in the middle of nowhere. It was blue, with cartoon goats all over it - quite different from the realistic looking lambs frolicking on a green background of my inspiration dress - but it was a goat fabric! So I bought 3 yards of it. 


 
I decided I could use the cartoon goat fabric to make goat dresses for my two favorite preschool-age girls. I'd already made both of these girls chicken dresses, and they both love my goats, so obviously they needed goat dresses!


For two months I intended to just make the little girls dresses out of this goat fabric, and I'd keep my eyes open for just the right goat print for a dress for me. Then it came time to cut the dresses out, and I couldn't do it - I wanted a goat dress right now too! So I shifted plans. All three of us would get matching goat dresses.




To make my three yards of goat fabric stretch I decided to take inspiration from the Gilbert Adrian dress and make the bottom section of the skirt green, just using my blue fabric for the bodice and upper section of the skirt. I found a 2 yard cut of a lovely green swirly fabric at the City Sewing Room for this purpose. And to make sure I'd have plenty of my goat fabric, I also bought 1 yard of a solid pale blue cotton for the collars, cuffs, and waist bands.


Next up, figuring out a pattern! In homage to the inspiration dress, I wanted something vintage(ish atleast), with cut on sleeves and some sort of a collar. To make things slightly complicated, said pattern also needed to come in both adult and children's sizes. Thankfully, I had something that would work in my stash!



 McCall's 7184 - it met all the requirements! This is one of my favorite blouse patterns (you can see my previous versions here and here), and thankfully it comes in both children's and adult sizes - and I own a copy of each! All I had to do was trace off the blouse pattern in the girls' size, shorten the sleeves, shorten the blouse length to the waistline, ignore the darts, add a waist band, sleeve bands, and a skirt, and I'd be set to go! That might sound like a lot, but it was really quite easy. I decided to make the dresses button all the way down the front, as that's been a favorite style of mine lately. 



Not wanting to distract from the design of the dress, and especially the goat print, I decided to use clear buttons on the dresses. I had a nice set of large transparent buttons off of a duvet cover (the duvet cover that became this skirt) for my dress, but finding crystal clear buttons for the girls' dresses proved slightly more challenging. I had one card of clear vintage patterns just the right size - but there were only enough for one dress. Neither Hobby Lobby nor Wal-Mart had any clear buttons, and I didn't have time to go check Joann's that week. So, in the end I I had to settle for a card of clear-ish buttons from my stash for the second little dress. Those worked fine, they just weren't my first choice.


Once the dresses were done, I needed an occasion to give the girls their dresses - and neither one had a birthday any time soon. So I decided to make an occasion, an occasion where we could all three wear our dresses together.



A tea party!! 



I fixed a tea tray with all the most kid-approved foods - chicken nuggets, cookies, and berries. After asking each girl individually ahead of time if they preferred hot of cold tea, the vote was unanimous and I made some iced tea to fill the little tea pot with.


 When the girls arrived for the tea party I gave them each a gift bag. They unwrapped their new dresses, and were both very excited to put on the goat dresses right away!


After they finished their tea, we went outside to find the goats.


Because, if you have a goat dress, obviously, you must wear it to play with goats!!




Wednesday, July 31, 2024

The Anne of Green Gables Picnic

 We watched the forecast all week leading up to our Anne of Green Gables Picnic. Rain. Rain. Rain. 

Photo by @samithefae

It was supposed to rain. It was a good thing we'd rented a picnic shelter for the occasion, so we would have some protection from the precipitation, but really, who wants to picnic in the rain?? 

Finally, the night before the picnic, there was a ray of hope - the rain was supposed to be done by late morning, and our picnic was scheduled for early afternoon. Maybe we'd have the perfect sun-shiny picnic after all!

Photo by @samithefae

By the time I'd arrived at the picnic location (late, thanks to my flurry of baking and house cleaning for company that morning. . . It's a good thing my co-planner is a timely person!) the rain was gone - and the sun was just starting to peak through the clouds!

Photo by @samithefae

Our first vendor was already there and set up - The Book Nook Bread Co. - with the most delightfully on-theme booth!

Photo by @samithefae

(And yummy bread too of course!)

Photo by @samithefae

Soon other guests began arriving. . .

Photo by @samithefae

Our second vendor for the occasion was Ptera Jewelry - a booth full of pretty sparkly things to admire!

Photo by @samithefae

As people began filtering in, I enjoyed greeting everyone - and inviting them to try some of the Raspberry Cordial I'd made that morning!

Photo by @samithefae

It was great fun seeing what everyone had chosen to wear for the picnic. 

Photo by @samithefae

Almost everyone had worn a hat!

Photo by @samithefae

Some wore hats they'd already owned. Some bought pretty new hats.

Photo by @samithefae


And others (like me!) decorated their hats specifically for the occasion!

Photo by @samithefae

The hats were pretty, the food was yummy. . .

Photo by @samithefae

And the company was the best part!

Photo by @samithefae

It was so much fun to chat with and get to know those who had chosen to come!

Photo by @samithefae

As this was our very first event, there had been a little worry in the back of my mind.

Photo by @samithefae

Would people come?

Photo by @samithefae

And would they enjoy it?

Photo by @samithefae


Well, they came!

Photo by @samithefae


And I think they had fun! I sure did!

Photo by @samithefae

There is something wonderful about getting together with people who have similar interests to yourself - which is pretty much the entire reason why my friends and I decided to start hosting fantasy events!

Photo by @samithefae


If you would like to join us, we have another picnic coming up this fall - and this one will be pirate themed! (I have grand plans for my outfit for this, we'll see if I can make it happen!)

And. . . We have a YULE BALL coming up in January! Tickets are on sale now for this!! (our other upcoming ticketed events are already sold out, so if you're interested in coming to the Yule Ball, I recommend buying your tickets ASAP!) 

Info on all of our events can be found on our website, our Instagram, and our Facebook page

I'd love to see you at some of our future events!





Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Anne's Hat of Buttercups and Roses

 "Her hat was a little, flat, glossy, new sailor, the extreme plainness of  which had likewise much disappointed Anne, who had permitted herself secret visions of ribbons and flowers. The latter, however, were supplied before Anne reached the main road, for being confronted halfway down the lane with a golden frenzy of wind-stirred buttercups and a glory of wild roses, Anne promptly and liberally garlanded her hat with a heavy wreath of them."

~Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery

Most of my ensemble for our Anne of Green Gables picnic last month was modeled after what the grown-up Anne would have worn, but my hat? That was straight out of Anne's childhood fancies.

Photo by @samithefae

As I listened through Anne of Green Gables to get myself in the mood for the picnic I heard the passage above and went "That's it! That's what I'm doing for my hat! Garlanding it with a heavy wreath of buttercups and roses!"


A quick glance through Edwardian fashion plates on Pinterest showed a hat trimmed thusly, was indeed right on point for the era. So I went to my stash of thrifted straw hats, picked one that would work for a base (a rather flat straw hat with a wide brim), and got started!


The hat I'd chosen unfortunately had some damage to the underside, so the first order of business was to either fix or hide that issue.


Back to Pinterest for inspiration, I came across this hat from the 1910's, held at the MET Museum, with a band of velvet around the underside of the brim.

Ah-ha! I could do that!!


Pink velvet ribbon was unearthed in my stash and sewn on - this was honestly the most tedious and time consuming part of the hat trimming process.

Photo by @samithefae

Once that ribbon was securely in place (and looking fantastic if I do say so myself!) the fun part could happen!

At a local farmers market/craft fair I picked up two pink, soft, hand made, and dyed, wooden roses. They were absolutely lovely, but it would have been cost prohibitive to do the whole hat in these. So, to supplement, I picked up some fake roses and buttercups at the craft store. Flowers obtained, there was still the question of what other trimming would go on the hat. Anne's fancied ribbons, or something else?


I pulled several options from my stash, and returned to Pinterest to settle the matter. 


I decided I really liked the look of the tulle on this hat (sold on Etsy several years ago apparently), so I decided to do something similar.



Funnily enough, I happened to have a piece of tulle, just about the right size, hanging out on my dining room table. A gift had come to me wrapped in it the week before. (Free trimmings!! Who could complain!?) I arranged said gift-wrap tulle around the brim of my hat, and it was perfect!


 Next up, the flowers! I gave the two wooden roses stems of floral wire, disassembled the store-bought floral bunches to give myself individual flowers to work with, and set about arranging.


Once I was pleased with the wreath of flowers I hand-sewed them in place.


The final touch was a green ribbon bow on the back of the hat - then it was done and ready to wear!

Photo by @samithefae

The perfect topper for my Anne Edwardian outfit!

Photo by @samithefae

I believe Anne Shirley would approve whole-heartedly!