All Black Geranium

A friend of ours is due to have a baby daughter at the start of next month, and knowing how keen he is on his rugby there was an obvious choice for a present for the new arrival. To welcome her to the team. I'm sure her Mum will hate me for it, but the thought is there!

So, I started by cutting a stencil out. Trust me. Don't do it! Such a fiddly motif! Then as I was applying the second coat of fabric pain The Boy got a message... "Shes on her way!". Perfect timing or what! Luckily the Geranium dress is a quick sew. Especially the 10th time :) Sadly I had to photograph it really rapidly for my records, as I was hemming it before baby yoga on Saturday morning and the new father was potentially coming round when I was out, so these are on the sofa in the dawn light!

See why her mum might hate me?

Hopefully the (black) flutter sleeves and the white underskirt take the edge off!

For all the fiddling, the Fern turned out quite well. Its not the smoothest, clearly stencilled not screen printed, but the overall look is exactly what I was hoping for.

The dress is fully lined, which gave me a headache attempting to figure out how to make the opening in the back work. In the end I sewed the outer and inner dress together, leaving the opening clear, then sewed the outer and inner together around the opening, leaving the top 1.5cm on each side open so it can be attached to the bodice. Once turned the right way round and clipped and ironed it seemed to work. 

It was all sewn up as rapidly as I could justify, as we were due to see the father the next day (all going well with the birth) so it needed to be ready to go! And there was me patting myself on the back for starting it early. Thats babies for you!

A little sewing dare

So, this dare was set unknowingly for me by The Boy.
I saw this fantabulous surfing space robots poplin in Spotlight, but the Boy said it was too Boy for our neutral baby, so I decided to girlyfy it. Regardless of what the baby turns out to be I'm sure it'll find a home somewhere.

So Voila!

A teensy tiny 0-3 month Geranium dress in the top length, and some of SeeKateSews Baby Bloomers to go under. I'm sure that this will get worn at most once, if ever, but I really enjoyed the process of making it. 

To add to the included ruffles of the bloomers I added an extra orange bias tape ruffle across the bum.

I didn't close up the elastic holes and cut on the extreme side, so they can be let out or taken in as needed once I have someone to try them on!

I think these might be boyish enough to work regardless of gender, though I'm sure The Boy will disagree! I will admit that the other pair I made are a little too far on the girly side due to the massive rufflebum:

This will be a summer baby, so will probably live in singlet and nappy covers or onsies for the first few months of its life, so thats where My sewing focus will lie.

But sometime you just have to give into the dare!

1st Birthday Geranium Dress

Remember this little baby girl? Well, she just turned one!

We went to her birthday party on the weekend and one of her presents was a new dress. I think Made-By-Raes Geranium dress is a great base to work from, so I bought it for future reference!

I found this pretty poplin at Spotlight, in colours that I thought would suit. I went with the cap sleeves, neck notch and pleated skirt, then added piping to the bodice and also to a band around the bottom of the skirt.

The back is closed by hammered in snaps. They give a very professional finish, though they are a bit scary at first! As you can see, I hammered them in wrong the first time, too far from the edge which would make the dress too small. They came out eventually, but left a bit of a mark. Nothing too obvious from afar though.

The inside is all nicely finished, with the bodice hand sewn down hiding bodice seams, french seams on the skirt, and an "overlocked" finish to the band (trimmed and zigzagged).

The parents liked the dress, and bubba seemed drawn to the pattern, so I'm calling that a win!