I don't remember when I first became aware of Made By Rae's Geranium dress for little girls, but I did decide to have a go with the pattern this spring as part of expanding my repertoire. (Coincidentally, the pattern is quite similar to the Washi dress for adults)
My summer dress sewing for the girls has mostly been the little girl version of the Dottie Angel frock (a great summer dress pattern!) and the Lazy Daisy Jones girls dress pattern (also good, but works better for my girls cut at shirt length). I usually make a birthday dress for each girl, as their birthdays bookend the warmer weather, and I was starting to think about Ponchik's birthday dress, since I will need to make it up soon.
I also had several of my old Dottie Angel frocks in the bin ready to be cut down for them, so I figured they were prime for testing out the Geranium pattern. I measured both girls again and set to work.
First thing, however. I do not love pdf patterns--all that taping! And then the storage is a hassle. Imagine my delight when I learned there is an online place that does cad printing for very little money! They do have a minimum, so you need to print about three patterns to get there, but I wanted two copies of each dress plus the expansion pack, so I easily made it. I had hoped to get Kinko's to print this for me, but they couldn't figure it out.
I used a size 6 for Ponchik, which is on the border of too small. As in, it fits perfectly right this second, but there is no room to grow and I think the neckline is a little high. I'll cut a 7 for her birthday dress if I use this pattern again for her. This is also the In Threes sweater that never seems to go away--I knit two of them for the girls' Pascha outfits like three springs ago? At least. This is the bigger of the two, and Ponchik is just growing out of it. I'm going to make the girls some brownish ones for next fall.
I cut down That 1940s Dress from two summers ago--I was able to use the bottom half of the dress for the skirt without totally deconstructing the dress, so that was a speed bonus as well. The cap sleeves are a little tricky if you aren't lining the dress (I wanted these to be cool and easy for summer, and this fabric is lawn), but I got there in the end. I did a better job on Birdie's dress since I had a better sense of how to finish the curved edges by the time I got to her dress.
Not my best zipper insertion, but it will do for now.
Birdie's dress is a 7, and I cut it down the same way as the first one, preserving the side seams on the original skirt of the dress and just putting in the pleats from the pattern. This is also the Rennie dress I wore quite a bit for two or three seasons and then decided I didn't want in my closet anymore. I'm starting to have a complicated relationship with floral prints. (#clothesarehard) But the print is Alexander Henry and the fabric is pretty hearty, so it will be a good dress for both girls--I think Ponchik will be able to wear it when it is too small for Birdie, although both girls are so similar in size, I can't always count on the hand-me-down.
My only complaints about this pattern are that the bodice is tricky if you are finishing with bias (admittedly, this is my fault and not Rae's, as the dress is meant to be self-lined), and also I don't love that the girls can't get these on and off by themselves because of the zipper. The Simplicity 8101 (DA frock) and Lazy Daisy Jones dresses (S8087) are easy for them to pop over their heads by themselves, so if I make a bunch of summer stuff for them (probably not this year, as I said earlier this week), I will go back to those patterns instead. But the Geranium dress is good for a slightly nicer dress, and the girls always need one or two of those every summer too. I haven't decided what to use for the birthday dresses yet, but it is nice to know that I can easily cut down one of my old dresses to work with this pattern too.
