The prinCESS turned 5 and needed birthday dresses, so I got to sewing more Made By Rae Geranium dresses, this time without the sweetheart modifications like these. These photos are a bit old…March-ish, but that does not diminish the cute factor.
These are both French-seamed, with sewn down pockets (ever see a kid get frustrated trying to find a sleeve or pocket? yeah. that.) The modeling is ALL HER. She is all about fashion, sewing, posing, purple, pink, and rainbows. Both are Alexander Henry fabrics and if you love them, buy them. They’re selling out everywhere. I picked mine up locally at Modern Domestic, but they do sell online and just got in the kitty version with black and white colorway! I would look fabulous in that fabric.
Creepy eye thing going on – but the pocket shot had to be done:
She picked out these buttons herself. They have butterflies on them. <3
Surprisingly, she’s been favoring the cat versions. They remind me of some oversized sweatshirts I had in the 80s, so of course I love them. And I’m totally a cat person. She also picked out the purple flower buttons.
I really love the neckline options of the geranium dress, but when trying to showcase a unicorn or giant cat head, I couldn’t justify cutting out a notch.
You can’t handle this cute. Really. She does this all on her own.
I think I saw a rumor that Rae is drafting sleeves and extras for these dresses, so I’m excited about that. I’m sure I could do it myself, but, meh. Time is precious with this one. I’d rather take more photos of her.
This is going to be a photo-heavy post on the WHY you might want to modify the Sweetheart dress patternwith the Geranium dress pattern, and HOW or WHAT changes you will want to make. I’ve now made 6 original Sweetheart dresses (3 of the original 6 above), 2 Geraniums, and 1 Sweetheart/Geranium hybrid.
AHA moment
I literally got the lightbulb moment while making both dresses at once for upcoming birthday gifts – learn from my scribbles and bad iPhone photo.
loop to shank button option
Above you can see an almost 4-year old girl in the original Sweetheart 6T dress. Granted, we run tall/big/90th percentile in my family, but you can see some of the common issues here with the pattern. Now that said, girl is going to be 5 in a month, the issues are even more glaring. They’ve become fussy special occasion/church dresses.
So, without further ado, here’s my list:
Broad shoulders/swayback don’t work with a loop-button option. A shank button (or add a shank knot to a regular button) and a button hole works better for us. Your mileage and patience may vary.
The width from shoulder to waist opening isn’t large enough to get both shoulders in/out without struggling and tears parental help.
Armscye is too short – this doesn’t help with getting it on, and it’s almost armpit rubbing….and IS if wearing a shirt under it.
I hate gathers. They’re so much more of a pain than just putting in measured out pleats. Gathers seem easier and lazier, but really after you put in your basting rows, spend forever making your gathers even, do whatever your preferred way of keeping them in place is…you could have measured out and divided pleats. Bah.
No pockets.
Too long. Trying to get her to pull down her tights/leggings/underwear AND hold up a dress while she shimmies on to the pot? And you KNOW she waited until last minute to go to the bathroom… The struggle is real. Avoid it.
The whole finishing the armhole after the fact is just a fiddly, wonky mess. No likey.
Disclaimer: I know, I know, some of y’all really hate criticism of any kind and think it’s all negative. This is my opinion, I mean it in the nicest way, and all that jazz. Shannon did a great job, I still love her heart-template and commend all her work. I still recommend buying Shannon’s pattern as she did all of the heavy lifting already. I’m looking at the Sweetheart pattern now as more of a Geranium-add-on option. ok? ok. moving on.
Here’s the HOW.
detail of opened up back
The biggest problem is getting that darn thing over the head/shoulders. I used the Geranium split-back skirt with pleats and pockets, and split the heart all the way down the bottom. It was like sewing the Geranium back, but instead of straight down, i sewed around half-hearts shapes on both sides, cut out and clipped, clipped, clipped curves FOREVER, pulled right side out through the shoulders and the back was nice, neat and complete. No more finishing from the shoulders on the outside.
larger over the head span
Compare the photo above with the diagonal line showing the NEW over-the-head ease compared to what you can see from the girl-in-the-dress photo – WAY more room, amirite?
armscye increase
I cut an inch off the armscye directly on the pattern, and it made all the difference in the world.
alteration lines
So far, this is where we are at, and you can compare the original on the right, with the modified on the left.
Original Waist
Now, the original gathered waist and the length are optional flavors. Here’s the original above, and….
modified waist
…with pleats and pockets.
modified waist with marks
Because I didn’t use contrasting fabrics, here’s some marks above to show pleats, pockets, and other alterations.
clean insides
And last, but not least, are the finish changes. French seams, as before in my case, because little girls don’t like anything itchy or pokey. I added inseam pockets, THEN I sewed them down. If you’ve ever seen those tumblrs like Reasons Why My Son Is Crying, you know that if the kid can’t find their pocket because it floated to the back, it will end up being a meltdown.
Also, not photographed, there is a tack-stitch at the top of the skirt split…because you know they’ll yank that thing on and off, and it will split. AND I’ve started shortening the original 6, but I’m not likely to go in and split the backs after-the fact. I think I’m going to just ship them to a younger, smaller niece and move on. Lessons learned.
