The long black dress

I bought this long black eyelet dress at goodwill. 

Why? Because i liked it (I LOVE lace and eyelet), but mostly because I wanted a quick, fun, and somewhat easy project. I put my sewing projects mostly on hold in an attempt to force myself to get my sewing room finished quickly. The sewing room was coming along rather slowly though, and I needed a break! So I decided to get this dress and refashion it.
I brought the dress home and tried it on. It was a little tight. I could get it on (barely), but there was no way to put it on my dress form. In order to make the changes I wanted to make I had to have the dress on the dress form. So, the first thing I had to do was let the dress out some.
Now this dress doesn't have a zipper, just an elastic panel in the center back.

 I decided the best way to let the dress out would be to add stretchy panels to the side back as well. So I cut out the original side back panels,

 and replaced them with new panels made from an old black stretchy t-shirt.

 The new panels aren't as pretty as the eyelet ones were but they make the dress much more comfortable!

The dress then fit on my dress form so the fun part could begin!

To go along with this dress I got some black lace to make straps out of. So the first thing to do once the dress was on the form was drape the lace over the top.

I then started pinning the lace where I wanted it and cutting off the excess. It didn't take me long to get the general look of the lace straps figured out. 

I pinned everything in place then (very carefully)  took it off the dress form to sew. I chose to hand sew the lace to the dress for two reasons. First, because it looks nicer to have nearly invisible hand stitches holding the lace on, than it does to have a line of very visible machine stitches along the top of the dress. Second, by hand sewing this I could bring it with me to work, to sew during my breaks. This way I wasn't using my time at home (when I should be working on my sewing room) to sew.

So, i got all the lace sewn on. The dress then appeared to be done. It fit me well and had pretty lace straps, the two things I wanted. There was one more thing, however, that I wanted to add, pockets! I love having pockets in my dresses! 

So, using a seam ripper I opened up the side seams of the dress where I wanted the pockets to be. I made a couple of pockets from some black fabric I had in my stash.

And then sewed them in! Now my long black dress is done!

It's very lightweight and comfortable! As you can see I changed the front straps some from the original design.

I really, really like the look of the lace straps!

The back of the dress may be the prettiest part of the dress due to the lace!

This was a very fun, easy project. Now back to fixing up my sewing room and getting ready to go to Guatemala! 

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!

Milking: Two at a Time

I have started milking for the year! Up until now the babies have kept the mamas pretty well milked out, so I haven't had to worry about it. (Except to check the udders daily to make sure the babies have been nursing each side evenly. I can't have any lopsided udders!)

 Now that the babies are getting older and eating more grain though, they are nursing much less! So, in order to keep milk production up, I have started milking once a day. (In another month or so it will have to be twice a day)
When they first kidded I trained the first time mamas to stand still on the milk stand for me, so they have that all figured out. Run out the gate. Jump up on stand. Eat as much grain as possible while getting milked. What they don't have figured out is the fact they should do this one at a time.

That's right. They're all trying to come out the gate at once. The best I can do when that happens is only let 2 out. Thankfully they have figured out how to share the milk stand. So, I don't particularly mind, as long as they stand still while I milk!

 And they have no problem standing still as long as they have plenty of grain! It will be interesting to see how long they keep coming up two at a time, before they decide to take turns like they're "supposed to". Meanwhile I'm just happy to have goat milk again!

Aprons Galore!

Over the past week I only finished one thing, well actually 8 things, aprons. Why? Well last Friday my little sister wore this adorable outfit. One of my old historical dresses and a pinafore.

The pinafore I made her a couple months ago, just for fun. I thought it would be really cute with her historical dresses, and it is! It also does what a pinafore is supposed to do. It keeps her dresses clean, but goodness does it get dirty! After spending the morning out in the goat pen that pretty white pinafore had turned green, brown, and grey. I decided she need some printed pinafores that wouldn't show dirt as easily. So she picked out a couple of fabrics from my stash and we got to work.

The first thing I had to do was figure out a pattern. When I made the white pinafore I used a princess seam bodice pattern. I changed it a lot to get the look I was going for. Well, this time I didn't want to reinvent the wheel.

So I laid the original pinafore out on white paper and traced each piece. I then added seam allowances and we were good to go! By that evening my little sister had two new pinafores, that she had helped make! 

Both pinafores have already gotten plenty of use!

 (and they keep her dresses clean while hiding the dirt!)

Once those were done I decided to get started on another apron project I've been needing to do.

At our last meeting about the mission trip to Guatemala, those of us who will be working with kids decided we needed aprons. Brightly colored aprons with big pockets to be exact. Why? So that we would be easily distinguishable as leaders and have a handy place to carry craft supplies and such. We needed 6 aprons of different colors, one for each of us. Once this was figured out I, of course, volunteered to make these aprons. So last Saturday I got started. 

First I made a pattern out of newspaper. I then cut all 6 aprons out. For the straps I cut bias strips about 3 inches wide. 

I cut the on the bias so I could also bind the curved edges of the aprons with them.

Much easier than making a curved hem! (especially since I would have had to make 12 curved hems, 2 per apron. Yuck!)

The aprons went together really easily! First I hemmed all the straight edges, then sewed on the pockets, and finally the straps. I'm very pleased with how they came out and I hope the rest of the team likes them too!

Now on to the next big project, my sewing room. I need to get it done! I've been putting it off because I have sewing projects I want to work on instead, but at this rate it will never get done. So this week I'm putting all sewing projects on hold so that I can hopefully have a sewing room. Today I wrote down all my plans for it.

Now time to implement these plans!

  

  

A Springy Sundress

I love spring! The just right temperatures, the bright green grass, the pretty flowers that are everywhere, and of course baby goats!

Back in February, when it was freezing cold and snowy, I found these fabrics on sale. Dreaming of spring and sundress weather, I bought them.

As soon as i saw these two fabrics together I had the sundress designed in my mind! I knew I wanted elements from each of these two patterns, the bodice from the one on the left and the skirt from the one on the right.

Well, now that it is finally spring and warm enough to wear a sundress, I made it!

To draw attention to the lines of this dress I piped most of the seams with the leftover piping from my Easter dress. I'm really pleased with the overall effect.

I love the bright colors and full skirt this dress has. Plus, it has hidden pockets!

This dress is perfect for wearing on a spring walk with my little sister.

The lilacs are in full bloom and gorgeous.

The goats enjoy playing king of the mountain out in the pasture.

And a very pregnant Sombrita has been hanging out up near the sheds a lot recently. She is due to kid any day now. I'm really looking forward to seeing her kids, and getting to show her this summer!

Yep, I love spring. It's full of beauty and hope!