Clementine's Paper Bag Geranium Dress

I made this Geranium dress for Clementine last spring when she was 11, almost 12 years old, and she’s just about out-grown it. She wore it to her flute recital and a couple of other times. I found this cotton lawn print at Mood (online fabric shopping at Mood: not for the faint of heart) and used my Geranium pattern with the bodice extension and the zipper instructions from the Geranium Expansion Pack to create the dress.

I used the full width of the fabric for each skirt piece (so 52” wide = 100” total) for an extra-full skirt, plus I folded over the top edge of the skirt and stitched it on paper-bag style rather than the way the pattern directs (your basic gather and attach), since I wanted to snazz it up a bit for her. A paper bag waist is a fairly easy mod to do, but someday maybe I’ll make a new dress pattern that incorporates this style (as Karen is always reminding me when I hack my own patterns: “that is really a whole new pattern, Rae!”).

I also added two small back darts to the bodice to create a little more waist shaping for her in the back. I had noticed this on some of her ready-to-wear dresses and I think it “grows up” the style to add these.

This is probably the final Geranium dress I will make for Clementine. Yes, you read that correctly. Excuse me while I weep into my coffee cup. *waaaaaah* But truly, I can understand it; she’s out-grown the pattern physically, and the style is a bit too “little girl” for her taste.

As many of you have told me from your own experience, this pattern has been the perfect template for so many dresses throughout her life; I’m truly so happy to have made so many of these for her over the years that she has worn and loved. Along with the Flashback tee dresses I’ve made her, and a few shirred sundresses (like this yellow one and the Rainbow Dress), she’s had dresses for just about anything, and I’ve only ever purchased a handful of ready-to-wear dresses for her when she’s wanted something more fancy or sophisticated. If you’re interested in the very first “Geranium” dress I made her, it’s this one. And my favorite one….? Probably this Clementine one. Or maybe this pink voile one? It’s hard to choose.

If you haven’t yet experienced the magic of this pattern, Geranium is available in my shop (for now) in two size ranges in both print and digital formats. Due to the rising cost of printing patterns, we intend to combine the size ranges in print later this year, but the two size ranges are still both available separately (at the time of this writing) in both formats.

The digital pattern comes with layers and copyshop files, metric, and full-color instructions - both diagrams and photographs. The print pattern comes with full sized pattern pieces on high quality printer paper so you can trace the size you need (no tissue!). See all views, tutorials, and charts on the Geranium Page.

And be sure to check out the Geranium Expansion Pack if you want the zipper instructions and/or bodice extension!