The Archery Practice Dress

Now that she's home from camp my little sister has been very excited to continue practicing one of her favorite activities from camp, archery, while wearing one of her new dresses.

The dress is one she has been waiting for. I had this fabric in my stash. My sister loved it and requested a dress made from it a couple months ago. I was finally able to get started on this dress while she was at camp.

From this fabric I wanted to make a her a fan-front dress like this one from 1840. It's at the MET museum, and I found a picture of it on pinterest. 

Now I didn't have a pattern that in any way resembled this dress, so I had to get creative. I used this pattern as my starting point..

It worked out pretty well!

To make the fan front I hand gathered/cartridge pleated the bodice. The original dress had long sleeves, but I knew that just wouldn't work for summer so I made the sleeves half-length and added a ruffle. I've seen similar sleeves on other fan-front dresses for children.

The bodice went together easily and I ran into no issues. That is until I finished it. I had my sister put it on for the first time. Then I discovered that she had grown since I last used that pattern. There was no way that the bodice would button, and I had absolutely no fabric left over.

So I had to add a panel of black fabric in the back, but at least it fits now! I might need to add a couple more growth tucks though, as the skirt is longer than it's supposed to be. 

Was the fitting frustration worth it? Yes, it was. My sister is pretty pleased with her new dress, and I can't say I'm disappointed with the overall look.  Making the fan-front bodice was actually great practice for a dress I plan on making myself later this summer. I've got several historical sewing projects planned, and now that my sister's summer wardrobe is finished I'm excited to get more into historical sewing!

Sombrita's Long Awaited Babies!

Sombrita has kidded!!! Saturday afternoon she had twin bucks!

I didn't know when she was due so for the last month I've been watching her very closely. She got huge. Her udder got huge.

Still no babies. Finally on Saturday i could tell she was in labor. She was staying away from the other goats and crying alot!

So all day I was checking on her hourly, until finally she began to push.

First two tiny hooves emerged.

Followed by the head. As soon as the head was out, I dried it off, just in case the baby started breathing before he was entirely out.

Now Sombrita could have handled everything on her own,(She has before) but I have a really hard time sitting back and doing nothing, so I was right there checking the baby's progress and helping how ever I could.

Pretty soon the baby was out! Sombrita was a very happy mama. She got right to work cleaning her son off.

Before long though she started pushing again. Baby #2 was on his way. Too keep #1 safe and out of the way my friend held him.

This is one of my best friends. For the past 6 years she has wanted to witness one of the goats kidding, but the goats have failed to respect her schedule, so it hasn't worked out. This time however she and her mom (who took all the awesome pictures) managed to arrive just as Sombrita started pushing! The timing couldn't have been more perfect. 

The second baby came out much faster than his brother. Almost as soon as we saw the hooves, the head was out. I dried off the babies head so he could breath. I was excited to see he was going to have the same markings as Brita.

The baby was soon entirely out!

Sombrita seemed as pleased with him as she was with the first baby, and immediately cleaned him off. She is such a good mama!

I am thrilled to have these babies! Sombrita is 9, so she's getting pretty old for a goat, and last year she didn't kid. I wasn't sure I'd ever get babies out of her again. Finally last month I could tell she was actually pregnant (after several months of hoping she was but not being sure).

These babies are out of Coach, a buck we just got last summer.

 He hasn't been very kind to my fences so I'm hoping to sell him and keep one of Sombrita's sons instead. I can't wait to see how these two little boys turn out!

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!

New sewing projects (and baby goat)

It's so nice to be done making Christmas presents! I love making things for my friends and family, but I have a few things I've been looking forward to making for myself, that I can finally take the time to make!
First off, this skirt!

On Pinterest I found this skirt, and decided to make one similar. I used brown polyester taffeta and altered a pattern I already had. The front buttons are functional, so I didn't have to add a side zip. This skirt is so much fun to wear, and it was really easy to make! I'd forgotten how much I loved wearing long skirts.

Now that the brown skirt is done, I have this dress to do something with.

I've been reading this blog, refashionista, and I decided I wanted to try my hand at refashioning something found at a thrift store, so I got this dress at Goodwill and have a plan for it!

And finally, the project I'm most excited about!

 I'm going to make this dress!!! A woman I know from church contacted last week. A few years ago, before she got married and started a family, she had started making this dress, and now didn't have time to finish it. She offered me everything she had for it if I wanted to make the dress for myself. Of course I said "Yes, please!"

She had the bodice mostly completed, and it's very close to my size so I'll only have to make a few adjustments.

(It's not laying very well on my dress form, but it's very well made and gorgeous!)\

I can't wait to get started on this gown!! But I have a few more projects I have to complete first, so it will be a few weeks.

Meanwhile, the baby goats keep coming! Meet Tigereye, a big buckling, who interrupted a good nights sleep for me by being born around 3am on Tuesday. At least he's cute!

Diamond, his mother (and Sombrita's granddaughter), is such a good mama!

She had him, got him dried off, and nursing, all on her own!

Chiffon

Well as of this morning I have one happy little sister. Her goat, Lacy, kidded with one HUGE doeling around 7 a.m.

I went out to feed around 6:30 this morning, when it was still dark out (dangit winter! I want more sunlight!), and I heard a goat crying out in the pasture, not in the lot with the rest of the goats. I went to investigate, and found Lacy, very much in labor. 

I got her moved into a kidding shed, but the heat lamps weren't hooked up yet, as all the extension chords were in use elsewhere, so I had to figure out how close Lacy was to kidding with the help of a flashlight. Well she was close, the hooves were emerging! But poor Lacy, she's not a big goat, and this was obviously a big baby, so I had to help her get the head out, by pulling as Lacy was pushing with her contactions. Thankfully Mama and baby got through it ok, and my sister got a doeling out of it! (last year Lacy had one big buck. . . so this was a long awaited doeling)

With a mama named Lacy, this baby needed a fabric-related name too, so several weeks ago my sister picked out Chiffon as a name for a doeling, if Lacy were to have one. Had this been a little buck, his name would have been Rick-Rack (yes, I have a creative sister, and I love it!)

I had to leave for work as soon as Chiffon was born, so I left my mom and sister to get her all cleaned up and make sure she nursed. Well, when I got home this evening I realized just how big Chiffon really is (my dad was still in the process of getting the shed lit and heated when I left this morning, so I only got to see the baby by flashlight) 

She's as big as Holly and Mistletoe, who are nearly 2 weeks old!

Now that is a big doeling! And a wonderful bit of joy on an otherwise bleak day.

Holly and Mistletoe

10 am, Christmas Eve morning.
I took a break from sewing (I only had 2 things left to finish sewing for Christmas at this point) to go feed the goats.
I fed them.
I made sure they were all there and looking well (I have several due to kid in 2-3 weeks).
I walked back to the milkstand/feed storage area.
Then I heard something.
It sounded like a baby goat! But that didn't make any sense, all the mamas were eating out in the pasture where I had just fed them. All the does were there, none had been acting like they had just given birth, and none were supposed to be having babies just yet!
Well I went to investigate, and behind the sheds I found. . .

Two newborn doelings!!!

I picked them both up to get them out of the muddy lot and they both started crying, and a mama came running. These were Zing's daughters! I got the mama and babies settled in a kidding shed, and then realized that while one of the babies was up and running around,

 the other was still shivering. So I took that baby into the house, bottle fed her some of Zing's colostrum, and laid her on a towel next to the heat vent. I named her Holly.

A couple hours later she was doing much better!

So I took her back out to her mama and sister (now named Mistletoe, what else could I name Christmas Eve babies?)

Mistletoe (on the left) was very happy to have her sister Holly (on the right) back in the shed.

Holly nursed and was quite happy to be with Zing and Mistletoe. She still gets cold easily however, so last night she spent the night in the house, but is doing well and back with mama now.

Mistletoe, on the other hand, is very hardy and ventured outside today with Zing.

What a Christmas present Zing gave me! Twin does! (typically I get doe and buck twins or twin bucks as my goats are stingy with the does) And somehow I still managed to finish all the Christmas presents I was sewing, by about 1:00 this morning. 

Merry Christmas!