Spring is the season of birthdays in my world. In the span of a few weeks are the birthdays of two of my best friends’ daughters, my niece, and my own daughter. It’s simultaneously fun and exhausting. I can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when the last party is over, and we have a reprieve before the next party. I always gift a book or two and maybe some art supplies, but this year I wanted to sew something handmade for some of the girls. The Geranium dress has been on my to sew list for a while so I finally tried it out, and I am in LOVE!
This pattern in combination with the expansion pack (links below) provides seemingly endless ways to customize your dress. For each in this set of dresses, I used the same strategy: bodice extension, invisible zipper closure, and flutter sleeves. I don’t love empire waistlines and I will likely always opt for the bodice extension. I significantly shortened the skirts to give a more summery silhouette and to compensate for the extra length contributed by the bodice extension.
I was fairly hesitant leading into this project, worried I would mix up when I should do which step given the various customizations. Thankfully Rae’s instructions are perfectly clear with road signs to help make sure you know when to do what, always. I did accidentally forget to add the sleeves to Caroline’s dress at the appropriate time because I was distracted, but I ended up just adding them later with an edge stitch and it worked just fine. I am so in love with how these dresses turned out. They are beautiful!
The double gauze fabric is a lovely choice for this dress. I adore double gauze but often find it hard to know exactly what to use it for. In this case it is a nice lightweight option for a summer dress, and so far looks great after multiple washes. Scroll down to see a slideshow with lots more photos of the three dresses I made, as well as all of the project details.
Note: Thanks to questions and suggestions from several readers, I’ll have a post for you very soon (hopefully this week) about how I got started sewing. I know this may seem intimidating but I would love to help you lose that fear and take the leap in learning this useful and fun skill!
