Another Made by Rae pattern is heeeeere! I cannot tell you how much I love all of the patterns by Rae that I’ve tried so far and this new one is no exception. It’s called the Geranium Dress and it is an adorable dress pattern for sizes 0-3 mo. to 5T. I feel like this is a really amazing must-have dress pattern for your collection.
I was lucky enough to be able to test this pattern and decided to use this grayish-lilac eyelet that I’ve had in my stash for awhile from Fabrix (I got it for cheap!). I lined it with a plum fabric and I love love looove the way it came out!
My favorite part is all the variations that are included in the pattern so you can construct the perfect dress or tunic for your little one. You can get a little look here at all the options.
There are 3 sleeve options, 3 neckline options, 2 skirt options, 2 length options, and an optional patch pocket. With this one pattern you can make a million variations!
For my first Geranium, I chose a notched neckline with flutter sleeves, a gathered skirt and in dress length. It’s my favorite combo right now, but a mini-Washi dress is hard to resist too!
The pattern is of extremely high quality, which is what I’ve come to love about and expect from Rae. It’s well written with great diagrams and photos and extremely helpful hints. The dress is a pretty fast and simple sew, and yet it yields gorgeous results, which in my opinion, is really the best kind of pattern.
Sewing with eyelet was a fun new challenge for me. It really wasn’t too difficult at all, but of course, required a few extra steps. For one, you’ll need more lining fabric than what the pattern calls for since you’ll have to line the entire skirt and I also double lined the bodice. After cutting out a lining piece for every eyelet piece, I basted them together along the edges and then sewed as directed. Because of all the stitching on the eyelet material, plus the lining fabric, it can get a bit thick in places, so just be aware of that and take it slow. One thing I had to do differently was instead of double folding for the hem and skirt seam, I just finished the edges with my serger and sewed it down. In the end, it was probably easier 🙂
If you’re not yet convinced that you need this pattern, go check out the Geranium Dress Flickr Pool or all the tester versions in this post. Then head over HERE to buy the pattern. And hey, you still have 24 hours to whip up that last minute holiday dress, right?! 😉
Speaking of which – are you all done with your holiday sewing? I’ve gotten a few things checked off my list, but still have a few left to go, some of which will be sewn after Christmas! Better late than never, right?
Well, I may pop in over the next 2 weeks, buuuuut I might not. 🙂 So until next time, please take care, stay safe and enjoy a beautiful and wonderful holiday season with those you love!
Happy Holidays everyone!
The rectangles of fabric in the original tutorial are 10×12 inches, so you’ll want to cut your leather 10 inches wide. The height will depend on how large you want your leather block to be (and how much you have). Be sure to add 1/2 an inch for seam allowance to the height. Cut 2.
To figure out the size of your coordinating fabric for the outside of the clutch, you’ll want to take 13 and subtract the height of your leather piece. That number will be the height and your width will be 10 inches. The reason for this is that you want your finished piece to be 12 inches and you’ll need 1/2 an inch on each piece for seam allowance. So for example, if I cut my leather piece at 10 inches by 4.5 inches, my fabric will need to be 10 inches by 8.5 inches (because 4.5 + 8.5 = 13).
Cut your lining fabric according to the tutorial directions. You should have 2 of everything.
Be sure to clip your corners.
And that’s it. 
(testing on paper)
Once it’s dried and set, you can cut and assemble as instructed above!
BETH! Who said, “this is the first year we have a “real” electric train going around the tree, and I am looking forward to watching the little guy play with it!”
I chose the 
I just think it’s adorable and I’ve thought so since I first saw the pattern come out. I love the colorblocking, the curved pieced bodice, the little cap sleeves, the pleats – I love how stylish it is, but still so appropriate for kids (
The Maggie Mae can be made as a tunic or a dress (the version I made is the tunic) and comes with inseam pockets and buttons in the back. 
This project is a good intermediate beginner pattern. The construction is fairly simple even with the curved bodice piecing. You’ll have to do some pleating and of course buttonholes, but if are comfortable with those things, you can sew one of these up in a snap. Despite that, this project was a little bit of a nightmare for me to sew up (at no fault of the pattern – purely my own stupidity). I just wanted to share the story with you so you know that I have really bad sewing days too. Because this pattern is pretty simple, I was excited to get it done quickly. Well I was finishing an edge with my serger, which I’m still learning how to use, when a corner of the bodice was gobbled up into the serger with the slicing blade on, so SNIP! Off goes a small corner of the bodice. 😦 Then, it literally took me forever to get my pleats looking good – centered, evenly sized and spaced. Unfortunately, there are no pleat markings on the pattern, so you have to figure it out yourself and I don’t know why it took me so long – but I must have pleated, pinned, basted and torn them out 5 times before I got it just right. When I was just about done, I accidentally hemmed the tunic up in a thread that stood out a lot more than I expected and I didn’t like it. As I was tearing the hem out with a seam ripper to do over, I tore a small hole in the front of the dress at the hem line. WTF – is this project trying to kill me!? Have you ever had a project like that? Where everything goes wrong? And to top it all off, I had meant to make this a dress and didn’t realize until I put it on my daughter and her booty was hanging out the bottom that I had used the tunic measurements instead!!! Haha, seriously, I was having issues that day. BUT, despite all that, I still looooooove the way it came out. So all of that to say, even if you’re a complete knuckle head like me, you can still make this adorable top/dress (just make sure you’re reading the appropriate measurements off the chart depending on whether you want to make a skirt or a tunic). 
I made the size 2T for my 2 year old and it fits her pretty well. The only thing that I would change if I make it again (and I’m sure I will), is to lengthen the top bodice piece just a little bit to make the armhole a little roomier. It fits her just perfectly, if not a little snug there. Otherwise, the sizing seemed just right. 
I love that there are sooooooo many possibilities with this dress depending on what coordinating fabrics you choose. I’m already dreaming up combinations for the next one. What colors/prints would you choose? Well lucky for you, you have a chance to win an amazing giveaway prize and trust me, you’re gonna want to win this. {CLOSED}
6 rolls of washi tape that I picked up from Japan this summer. 3 rolls are Lotta Jansdotter!
Seriously – how cool is this? (Don’t worry, I didn’t use the giveaway stamp – I bought one for myself too :)) I picked this stamp up in Japan also, and the image is like a piece of polka dot washi tape. La-la-loooove!
This Washi fabric by Rashida Coleman Hale in charcoal is gooooorgeous and also discontinued, so it’s getting harder and harder to find! Here’s a 1/2 yard for your stash – perfect for any small project.
you and mie 