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!!

The Last Minute Easter Dress

 Right after Christmas I had grand plans for my Easter dress. A week ago I had no plans for an Easter Dress. Holy Thursday, I started dreaming of an Easter dress again. Good Friday I decided it was absolutely happening, picked some fabric, pre washed it, picked a pattern, and cut out the pieces. Saturday morning I cut the dress out, then went outside and did animal chores. Saturday afternoon I made deviled eggs, a strawberry pie, and a carrot cake. Then I cleaned my kitchen. At 6 p.m. I finally sat down at the sewing machine. Would I have a new dress for church the next morning? It was getting doubtful, but I might as well give it a shot.

From my stash I'd picked a 3 yard cut of Pioneer Woman cotton, which I'd scored on clearance at Wal-Mart over the winter. 3 yards for $5 - now that's a good deal these days!

Minty green covered with brightly colored flowers - looks Easter-y to me! With my fabric chosen I went through my pattern stash. I had some rather specific criteria for this dress.

a) It needed to be simple. I was only going to have Saturday (and not even all day Saturday at that) to sew, so it had to be something that would go together quickly.

b) It needed to require 3 yards of fabric or less thanks to my fabric choice

c) I was scheduled to be in the nursery at church Easter morning, so the dress needed to be something conducive to getting down on the floor to play with kids. Something I could move in. For this reason, wrap dresses and anything with a straight skirt were out.

With all this in mind, I picked a late 1950's/early 1960's (can't find a date on it, going by envelope style here) pattern I hadn't used before. It fit all the criteria, and featured a couple fun design elements to make it special.

Simplicity 4468, if I skipped the sleeves (Which I could easily do because Easter was forecasted to be WARM!), really only featured 4 main pieces - bodice front, bodice back, skirt front, skirt back - so it would go together quickly. It also just used facings to finish the neckline and armholes, which would make this a quicker sew than something with a lining. 

The back of the pattern envelope claimed 3 and 1/8th yards of 44" fabric were required for the full skirted dress in my size. As I was leaving off the sleeves, I knew my 3 yards would be plenty!

And finally, I didn't see any way that this style would get in the way of my plans to look after children for an hour that morning. (As I discovered later that afternoon that dress was also well-suited to climbing on rocks, clearly I was correct in that assessment.)

On top of all the practical things, I really liked the angled darts on the bodice front, and the draped neckline was fun! These two details would make the dress special and a bit different than all the other cotton sundresses in my closet.

There were only two potential issues I could see. First, the pattern was about 2" too small for me so I would have to enlarge it slightly - and I didn't have time to be precise with my pattern alterations, or do a mock-up, so hopefully that would work out alright. Second, my fabric was fairly thick and stiff, so hopefully it would still drape prettily at the neckline.

Saturday morning, with my freshly washed, dried, and ironed fabric, it was time to give this a try. I started with the bodice front. As that was meant it to be cut on the bias it was one big pattern piece rather than just half the piece meant to be cut on the fold.

I carefully laid out the piece on the bias in one corner of my fabric, and pinned half of it in place. I cut out that half, then unpinned the pattern piece and scooched it over approximately a couple inches to add the width I needed. I pinned down the side that hadn't been cut around yet, and cut it out. Thanks to the drapery I knew this method wouldn't screw up the neckline shape like it might with any other neckline style - and just hoped when I sewed together the dress it would fit! I then proceeded to cut out the rest of the pattern with little to no adjustments. (No, this is not the correct way to size up a pattern, but I didn't have time to go about it the correct way, so I decided this was worth a try. For only $5 worth of fabric it wasn't too costly of an experiment.)

As I said above, upon cutting out this dress, I then did a bunch of other stuff before sitting down to sew. Finally, at 6 p.m., I turned on the sewing machine. I had an hour and a half until it would be time to do the evening milking (and the goat I'm currently milking gets quite grumpy with me if I'm late), so we would see how much sewing I could get done in that time.

The downside to a "free range" milker - she will come and find you at milking time

Well, in that hour and a half I was very productive! I got the bodice completely constructed, and the skirt completely constructed. (Including pockets in the side seams!) 

I went outside and milked the goat, fed the other goats, and brought my bottle babies into the house for the night.

The get to play outside all day, but come in at night and sleep in a dog crate in the basement

Once I got back in the house I threw frozen pizza in the oven for dinner (There was no time to cook, I had a dress to make!), then gathered up the skirt and sewed the skirt to the bodice while that baked.

At that point I paused to eat dinner with my husband, then I did a quick try-on to check fit, and returned to the sewing machine to finish this dress!

A zipper down the back - vintage, from my stash - a hem, and the dress was done!!!

All before 10 p.m. that night! Considering I didn't start until 6, then took about a half hour to do evening chores, and another half hour to eat, I'm very impressed with myself. 3 hours of sewing time isn't bad! Heck, I don't think I could go to the store and buy a dress in less than 3 hours once you consider drive time, browsing time, and trying on time - and I much prefer staying home and sitting at my sewing machine to doing all that! 

The next morning, I paired the dress with the red bow belt from this dress, a poofy net petticoat (made years ago, but never blogged), and my favorite dangly earrings and cowboy boots. I was ready to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!

I cared for children at church during the first service, attended second service to worship alongside my husband and church family, then went and admired the baby chicks some friends had brought for the kids to see in children's church.

Ok, so these are my new baby chicks, but the ones that visited church on Sunday were equally adorable peeping little fluff balls.

Upon returning home, I packed up all the food I'd made the afternoon before and my husband and I headed off to meet my family at a state park for a very delicious Easter picnic.

As with most holidays in the last few years, I was rather dreading this one. Yet another Easter with no children of my own in my arms or running around hunting eggs. This is the 4th Easter where I've said "Maybe next year. Hopefully next year. Please, God, let me have children by next Easter."

But Easter itself? It was wonderful. On the actual day I was able to remember why we celebrate Easter - and it's not kids hunting eggs. It's Jesus. He's alive! And because of Him, we have hope. Our Redeemer Lives! My heart might hurt right now, but I trust that one day He will remove the pain.

And hey, even though the day is not about eggs and bunnies, and new dresses, having a new dress to celebrate in is pretty fun!

Happy Easter!

Claire McCardell Meets Minerva McGonagall

 It was a beautiful green plaid - I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it at the City Sewing Room - and there was a lot of it! My first thought was it would make a wonderful 1880's ensemble, but. . . it was stretchy. This woven plaid certainly had a high spandex content, which is not ideal for historical clothing. I almost left the plaid behind for that reason, but it was just too pretty! I decided to take about 4 yards home with me that day. It wasn't suitable for historical clothing, but surly I could figure out something more modern to make with it!

The green plaid reminded me of Professor McGonagall, so I decided I wanted to use the fabric for something inspired by McGonagall - inspired by her, but not costume-y. (I've already done an 1890's McGonagall outfit, so this could be more casual.) 

I decided a long skirt was a must, but did I want a shirt dress, or a wrap dress? Or something else entirely? I wasn't sure! I let the ideas linger in my mind for a few months while I worked on other projects. Finally, in November I decided I wanted the green plaid to be my Christmas dress, so I needed to nail down the design. I took to Pinterest and discovered this Claire McCardell dress saved to one of my boards.

It was perfect! Long skirt, unique wrap-style bodice, and, since it was a designer dress, it would work for my "Designin' December" entry, for the sewing challenge hosted by Linda of "Nice Dress, Thanks, I Made it!" This dress had everything!

I spent most of November keeping my eyes open for a good pattern to alter for my dress. I contemplated several - both in my stash and in the pattern books at Joann's. I needed a pattern with cut-on sleeves, no darts, and a high wrap front with some rouching. I knew I'd have to alter a pattern to get just what I wanted, but even so, finding a good pattern to start with was harder than I thought it would be!

Finally I picked Butterick 6318. It only featured one of the three elements I was looking for - cut on sleeves - but as it was a basic bodice pattern without any extra design details or fluff, it would make a good block to alter for the McCardell Design.

I started by tracing off the bodice in my size. For the bodice back I eliminated the center back zipper (my dress would close at the side like the original), and the waist darts. Since my fabric was stretchy due to the spandex content I knew I wouldn't need those back darts the way I would with a standard (non-stretchy) woven fabric.

The front bodice alterations were a little more involved. First I cut out a full bodice front pattern piece from brown paper, rather than the standard half to be cut on the fold.

Then I messed around with folding down to top edge of the pattern piece to decide on the angle I wanted the wrap neckline to have. The original McCardell dress had a very high neckline, but that looked uncomfortable to me. I wanted mine to be a bit lower. Finally, I picked an angle I thought looked good, and chopped off the extra paper.

Next came the messy part. I eliminated the front darts by rotating that fullness over to the side seam to make the pleats featured on the McCardell dress. Once that was done my pattern was ready! I just wanted to make a mock-up to double check everything. . .

Yeah. That mock-up didn't happen. In fact, the dress didn't happen for Christmas the way I'd planned. I was too busy sewing other people's Christmas dresses and Christmas gifts to make my own happen. (Good thing I've got a collection of Christmas dresses from previous years, I still had plenty of options to wear to the various Christmas gatherings - and it was fun to wear old makes again!)

So, here was are the week after Christmas. I decided I still wanted the dress. So yesterday I made it happen.

Since I didn't feel like dealing with a mock-up I just cut the dress out yesterday with some extra length added to the sleeves and bodice - as those are the areas I often find a touch short. I also added a cut-on facing to the  front bodice neckline, and decided to skip doing a lining.

I carefully cut out the bodice back so the two halves would meet in a chevron pattern.

 I attempted to do the same with the sleeve seam, but since I had to cut the front at a specific angle so the front neckline would be on the straight grain, the sleeve pattern matching was less successful.

I sewed up the bodice, then tried it on to double check the fit. It fit beautifully, and I was very glad I'd added the extra length!

I made the skirt - two rectangles gathered up with side seam pockets and a placket on the left hand side, and attached it to the bodice.

To maintain the stretchy-ness of the fabric I sewed the waist seam with a zig-zag stitch and bound the seam with some red plaid fold-over elastic from my stash. I thought the red would add some Christmas cheer to the inside of my dress!

To finish off the dress I added button holes to both the under and overlap of the bodice, and the skirt placket. On the underlap side I added a piece of twill tape to the side seam to sew buttons onto. I used some black plastic buttons from my stash for this.

On the overlap side I used some beautiful black glass shank buttons for the bodice closure, and some standard plastic buttons for the skirt closures. The buttons on the skirt placket are completely hidden inside the pocket when the dress is worn, so those didn't need to be fancy.

The original Claire McCardell dress closed with hooks and eyes, rather than buttons, but I didn't feel like sewing on a bunch of hooks and eyes last night, so buttons it was!

Besides, there's a another McCardell dress of a similar design (just shorter and of a less expensive fabric than my inspiration dress) that does close with buttons down the left side - so I felt completely justified in my closure choice!

I sewed on the buttons sitting by the fire last night and my dress was done! I'd begun at 10 am with cutting the dress out, and it was finished by 9 pm, even with several breaks throughout the day to eat, do house work, visit with a neighbor, and cook dinner!

Probably my quickest and easiest Designin' December entry yet! There are a couple little things I wish I'd done differently, but for the most part I love the dress and am very pleased with my day's work!

I made my skirt from two panels of 44" wide fabric, and I wish I'd done 3. The extra fullness would have been luxurious! But I didn't have enough fabric for that - I really should have snagged all of this fabric when I found it at the City Sewing Room, rather than just taking half. Oh well, two panels still gives a comfortably full skirt.

My second regret is the bodice length. Remember how I said the bodice was the perfect length when I tried it on prior to attaching the skirt?

Well it was. . . but the weight of the full skirt certainly stretched out that bias cut bodice so it's a touch too long now. I should not have added that extra length. It would have been fine without it. Oh well, throw on a belt or sash and its an easy issue to hide!

All in all, I love this dress! 

It's incredibly comfortable and I intend to wear it lots this winter!

I've even got one more family Christmas gathering coming up that I can wear it too!

So I can still call it my Christmas dress, right?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you! I hope you had a wonderful celebration of our Savior's birth with your family and friends!