geranium dress, take one

Geranium shirt

I'm a little late to the Geranium dress party (Made By Rae pattern), but I finally caved and bought it. 

I've got this pattern guilt where if I haven't made a pile of things from every pattern I have, there is this nagging feeling that says "you haven't earned that new one yet". I actually think it's helpful for not letting me become a pattern ravenous hog, dishing out $ for every pattern I feel like gobbling up. Trust me...there are plenty of patterns out there that tempt me. 

There is also this thing where people whose blogs I follow make annoyingly cute versions of patterns that I'm eyeballing. (a little gray, skirt as top, you and mie,  you are repeat offenders *shakes rolling pin*) 

Needing to make some Easter dresses, plus seeing cute versions of the Geranium, plus Clover saying that she thought the pictures of this in the Rae flickr pool were pretty finally made me pull the trigger. 

My kids are weird sizes. Clover is above average for her age in height, Violet finally is about average after being very miniature for a while. But when you measure them around they are the size of babies, according to sewing pattern sizing charts. Having a child who is 18 months sized around and 4T sized in height makes for weird sewing....and clothes buying for that matter. In general, no adjustable waistband = doom. And you can't necessarily just make a dress in the 18 month size but then make the skirt 4T length, because you might run into problems with the bodice armpits being too short or it hitting the wrong part of her very long waist. 

Violet happens to be the size of a 6 month old baby, which makes sense if she is 18 months younger than her baby sized 4 year old sister.  It was easier before she decided to grow taller. Making 12 month sized clothes for her up until recently usually worked out fine. 

All that to say, I test ran the sizing on this in a wearable muslin of the shirt view of the pattern to see what was going to happen. Kristin told me that she did a 3T/4T length size for her daughter for her versions of the geranium and our kids are of similar build. So I went with that instead of really fidgeting with the pattern to Frankensize it. 

I used this Michael Miller from Bolt for the outer bodice, a natural linen for the bodice lining, and a cotton gauze for the skirt. Clover picked out the red glass buttons from my antique store button stash. The texture on them mimics the sea urchin pattern on the fabric. 

Oh, and for some insane reason I decided to hand sew the bodice in on this thing. 

The verdict on the sizing is that it's a tad loose on her little chest, but works fine. Had I really used the Rae sizing measurements the fit probably would have been perfect. As it is, I feel fine doing this size as a dress for Easter with my precious fabrics. Violet will be getting an 18 month size.

I'm really looking forward to making this super versatile base pattern in different fabrics, and then customizing the crap out of it. This one is the cap sleeved version. The flutter sleeves are super freaking adorable too though.

Clover says it's pretty. Always a win. No pictures of her wearing it right now though.... Her daddy dragged home a cold from somewhere, and Clover caught it. The second she gets sick she gets an awful "snot mustache" from the combo of runny nose, wiping it, and licking her upper lip over and over (um, gross). Does not make for attractive pictures, let me tell you. 

In my infinite use of logic and reason, I went on to use my evening yesterday to cut out some fabric to get sewing on my next project....some pants for Violet. It's not like Easter is coming or anything, and I have two dresses to finish in time.