i realized as I was sewing this that it had been a while since I made a new dress for Em – over two months in fact! it felt sooooo good to sew a special dress for my gal!
she has a lot of fancy events coming up – dance recital, school Christmas program, mother-daughter date to The Nutcracker, plus the usual Christmas Eve festivities. and since her legs just keep getting longer and longer somehow, a new dress was definitely in order.
the pattern is Rae’s Geranium Dress, a classic, great-fitting design that can be either a nice everyday dress or go really special when sewn in a fancy fabric. it’s my third Geranium Dress (here are one and two, plus she has the tunic Delia made) but my first time sewing View A with the gathered skirt and flutter sleeves. i think those features give it just the right amount of fancy.
the bodice is a 4T and the skirt is a 5T – the other two times i made a 3T bodice with a 4T skirt length for her, but she sized up!
i wanted the skirt to be suuuuuper full, so i cut the front and back skirt pieces each selvedge to selvedge and gathered it all up. then i added a chunky 1.5” hem; which with the empire bodice and muted color scheme makes her look like a vintage doll to me.
also, TWIRL FACTOR!!!!
the skirt fabric is Confetti Sparkle in Cream, compliments of the fine people over at Dear Stella. this dress is what came to mind immediately when i first saw that gold dot fabric, it’s just so festive and beautiful! my original inspiration was this mini boden dress.
cream confetti sparkle is available online from my sponsor Drygoods Design (plus a couple other colorways), so get it while you can! did you see the navy Hanami dress that Cherie posted yesterday? SO cute.
the cream bodice is a Moda Bella solid from Bolt, and the flutter sleeve edges are finished with a double zigzag of gold metallic thread, which i also used to topstitch the neckline and button placket to bring the gold up to the bodice rather than letting the skirt have all the fun.
after getting some good advice from instagram friends, i decided to go with a “four calling birds” button motif. these perfect little birdies are by Incomparable Buttons and were were sent to me by Jess (thanks girl!). i think they have found their perfect home.
just some nice subtle details on this festive Geranium, which made it really fun to sew and hopefully fun for her to wear, too.
Christmas dress done…
now on with the festivities!
skirt as top 
So beautiful! Really wish I had time to sew a few things up for christmas now….
This is such a gorgeous dress, I really like the pale colour, it’ll be suitable for parties in Spring too or even weddings and the gold makes it very festive
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what a lovely dress 🙂
This. is. gorgeous. What a lucky little girl to have such a talented momma!
All of the gold (and dots) makes me so happy! And a genius idea to finish the sleeves with the zig zags, I love the sort of frayed look it makes. It is all beautiful!
Adorable!!!
oh! so pretty! it suits her just perfectly. em and cherie’s girls should party together!
very sweet 🙂
do you ever play the game of guess what sewing pattern was used? I guessed the Geranium, then scrolled down to see I was correct! Woohoo gold stars for me 🙂
that confetti fabric is super cute!
Such a beautiful dress! Cute curls, too! I’m sure the girls will want to put on a “show” at Grandma’s on Christmas Eve and with this dress, no need to change into tutus! Fun!
This is beautiful!! Great job
oh kristin, i love this dress so much! every detail is perfect!
It’s beautiful, the perfect holiday dress! I love that you used gold thread too, fancy! 🙂
This dress is beautiful! Love the gold stitching. Perfect fancy dress for all her festivities!
Beautiful! I love the gold polka dots!
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Beautiful dress and fabric and pictures! Love the gold thread on the sleeves. I need to make a flutter sleeve version(!); none of the five I’ve made have flutter sleeves.
So lovely! The perfect Christmas dress.
So pretty! Perfect Christmas dress without all the red and green!
Such a gorgeous dress, Kristen! I really have to get myself some of that gold dots fabric….
I’m in love with this dress-been crushing on gold hard lately…so I am going to have to get my hands on that fabric! I love the gold thread on the flutter sleeves-perfection! also, I really love that we mention in every other post these days, using something that the other has given us. (if that sentence didn’t make sense it’s because I just spent 7 hours in a car, lol) It make me so happy! 🙂 HUGS to you and Em in her beautiful dress! I’ll have to show Sadie tomorrow!
so beautiful and festive! the gold dots really add the “special” factor that a holiday dress needs – you nailed it!
so great! tea dyed with modern gold dots. I’m also stalking your christmas motif all up in there…..
Beautiful. Love it’s muted colours and simplicity
I love how you finished the sleeve fluttery bits. It’s perfect!