Geranium Dress in love

At the end of January I purchased the latest pattern from Made by Rae, the Geranium Dress. This pattern has been popping up all over blogland and there are some seriously cute versions of this dress out there! Just check out the Geranium Sewing Pattern flickr pool and you will see what I mean.

So for Valentine's Day I decided to sew up a Geranium Dress for Miss Erin to wear to school. I found such a cute knit fabric at my local Joann that they sell online as well. It is called Spring Knit Heart Toss in pink by Doodles Collection and it comes in a 100% cotton twill as well. The Doodles Collection has such cute fabric. I am thinking that Erin needs something in this fabric for the spring!



I had purchased the fabric with the intent of using it for an outfit to submit for the Love is in the Air week at Project Run and Play but I never got around to it and in true me fashion I was sewing up the dress the night before Erin had to wear it to school for her class Valentine's Day party! And in going with the procrastination theme here, I only just got pictures of her in it yesterday. So here is my version of the Geranium dress:



I went with view A of the dress which is the flutter sleeves and gathered skirt version but made a couple of changes due to the fabric that I used for the dress and the fact that I wanted the dress to have long sleeves. I lined the dress with the same white knit fabric that I used to make the sleeves for some added warmth but I don't think I will put in a lining if I make it again in knit. It was a little bulky sewing through all that knit. I wound up attaching the bodice to the skirt using my serger instead of folding the bodice and lining up and slipping the skirt in between which is how Rae instructs you to do it. I could not for the life of me get the knit to iron flat and stay for me to slip the skirt in. I also added a ribbing to the neckline instead of sewing the bodice and lining together around the neckline. I didn't add buttons to the back of the dress - I cut the back bodice piece out as one piece instead of two so I needed the neckline to stretch so Erin could get it over her head.

I used the sleeve pattern from the Flashback Skinny Tee and attached the sleeves after attaching the flutter sleeve and scrunching the long sleeves up and out of the way when I sewed the arm holes together so that the sleeves are encased in the bodice and lining (I hope that made sense!)  When it was time to sew the sides of the bodice together, I just continued down the sides of the sleeve. I made the dress in a size 4 but for the sleeves I used the size 5 pattern. The sleeves are a little long on her but that just means she can wear it a little longer ;)



I left the flutter sleeve edges raw since the knit doesn't fray too much

I really love how the dress came out and Erin thought it was so comfy and cute. She has worn it three times now since I made it (washed before each new wearing lol) so I say it was definitely a success! I already have a view B of the dress cut out in some cute Riley Blake fabric from my stash - can't wait to sew it up!

love her fly away hair!