Showing posts with label ranch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ranch. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Easter dresses, part 1

Jenn was a real champ this time around and was very gracious about letting me take her picture in her seafoam Easter dress. Doesn't she look cute? I should have made her twirl in that full skirt...
Yep, I made her take to the field in heels. Nice sister, eh?
I used Butterick 6582, the same pattern I used for her "Mad Men" party dress and my Christmas dress (new dresses for every high mass!), though I used version C for the first time to create a full-skirted springy effect. This pattern has been getting some good use, being used three times in about six months! The full skirt was a bit unwieldy at times and it seemed to take forever to hem, but look at how it fluffs out...
So you can't see the skirt fluff out too much because she didn't want itchy legs. Can't blame her. However, I think this pose was used for Jenn's 8th grade graduation shots, too. Any word on that?
Naturally I used horsehair braid along the hem to give the skirt some life (like I even have a choice at this point in the game). Going into this dress project, I knew that both Jenn and her friend Sara had issues with this dress slipping off their shoulders at the Mad Men party (for which they both had someone make this dress for them) once the dress was made large enough to accommodate their busts. With that in mind, I made a pass at shortening the length of the neckline near the shoulder seam by folding the pattern to remove a triangle of space before I cut the fabric.
The parts shown in red are parts that I "removed" by folding the pattern over itself before I cut the fabric. And isn't my drawing awesome and totally to scale? I thought so. :) 
This seemed to keep the dress on Jenn's shoulders and I think I'll make the same alteration if I make it again for myself. It would probably also work to take the pattern down another size then do a full-bust adjustment, but I'm still avoiding those...
So this is the dress I finished Thursday night, then I started working on the next one which was ALSO long overdue...

Monday, June 28, 2010

Ranch creek time!

On Saturday I dragged Chris down to the creek. The creek is wonderful right now! I just wanted to post some pictures to make you jealous of creek swimming. :) If you play your cards right, maybe you'll get a chance to swim too.
Serious joy!
Other side of the swimming hole
Magic!
Why am I not in water right now?

Friday, February 26, 2010

Lamb tails!

The annual terrifying event known as "lamb tails" occurred on February 15th. Dad kind of sprung it on us last minute (February 13th around 7:30pm, to be specific) but Michelle, Chris, and I were still able sever woolly appendages. All in all, it went pretty well. There weren't any hospital-worthy injuries, Chris developed a new technique for catching and passing horned lambs, Michelle was the champion of the bench (I tried holding lambs on the bench one time this year--then I fell off the bench because my legs couldn't reach the ground), and I didn't get killed. All around success!
Dad displaying his sorting skills.
Perfect little lambs in a pen!
Would someone PLEASE tell our father to stop buying and breeding horned rams?! They are a hazard! Though I must concede, the horns are a good defense against predators.
Chris taking a lovely lady to get her hooves and tail done.
(Gotta get my tail done! Gotta get my hooves done! Gotta look good tonight! Cuz I'm going to the barn tonight!)
The end of the day, that time when you finally have the excuse to cuddle two lambs at once! How do you think they feel about it? They look conflicted...
The damage done: 78 tails.
The twins pose proudly, knowing their good deed shall not be undone!