Made by Rae – Geranium Dress with Eyelet Trim

I know there aren’t a lot of people here for the baby clothes, but this was just too cute not to share. This is a dress that I made for my sister’s baby who is due in a couple of months.

Since I’m so far away and won’t be there to help her, I really wanted to make her something special. When I asked her what she wanted me to make, this is what she wanted; it’s a blessing dress.

She originally sent me an inspiration photo from Pinterest with some details that she loved, and I knew I could easily modify the Made by Rae Geranium Dress pattern.

She loved the square neckline, double frills with fabric lace for the sleeves, back bow, and double layered skirt for added volume. Everything was an easy modification, but the ruffles took a little bit of brain power, and I didn’t want to mess them up.

My local fabric store had so many fabric lace options, but I went with this one because it was simpler. It has a kind of scalloped raw edge when you first buy it, so I trimmed that part to be straight. Next, I cut a piece of white fabric the same length and a about 1/2″ narrower and then finished one of the long edges for the front gathered piece.

The inspiration image had really beautiful gathers, but I didn’t know which gathering ratio to do. I did a little bit of research, but I couldn’t figure it out until I actually did it. So, I started with 1:1.7, but I think I trimmed it to 1:1.5, otherwise there was just too much fabric.

Once I got that right, I used a washable marker to draw a line from the front to the back to follow for the gathers. I sewed them on right sides facing and then ironed them back towards the armhole and topstitched. I’m a little bummed that the front left side went a little flat and doesn’t have as many gathers, but after so much stressing over it, I feel like I did a pretty good job.

After the ruffles were sewn to the main bodice fabric, everything else went much quicker! By some miracle, I had exactly the right amount of fabric lace leftover to sew it to the top layer of the skirt. It was sort of an afterthought, so I did my best to make it look nice from the inside and outside (note the second row of stitching I had to do a little lower).

The last thing she wanted was a bow to tie in the back. since baby clothes are so small, it was hard to fit it in the bodice. So, what I did instead was make the ties and then just sew them right onto the side of the dress: half on the bodice and half on the skirt, along the side seams.

The real trick is getting that perfect bow, which took a few tries while I watched a video of someone teaching it over and over. Haha.

I have family visiting over the next few months, so I’m planning to send it back with them since my sister is not in a hurry to get it. I’m SO happy with how it turned out, and I can’t wait to get tons of pictures of her sweet baby wearing it.

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