I was doing some red dyeing for a Christmas stocking for an expected grandchild, when I felt the dye pot wasn’t quite exhausted so I began tossing in old tablecloths. They came out pink, so I thought I’d made Misses G and E a dress each. I wanted a gathered dress for twirling so got out my box of patterns many of which were given to me by Jenny and Sally.

I had a shortlist and settled on the Geranium dress, but I think I’ll work through the others as they are all lovely.

I began with Miss G’s dress. There are so many options with this pattern but I settled on the flutter sleeve and round neck. Oh yes, and the pockets!

This is a very quick sew. I used some cat fabric for the lining of the bodice.

I added a unicorn to one of the pockets. I cut it out of a piece of the fabric I marbled with my friend Claire, and zhuzhed it a bit by using variegated silk embroidery floss for the mane and tail. I blanket stitched it to the pocket and allowed the hooves to drop below the pocket. Had I thought about it, I might have had more overlapping the pocket.

After some consideration I removed the “You are loved” label and instead added “Party Dress” to the horizontal seam, which seemed much more appropriate.

the pattern called for three buttons and I found the perfect ones in my Mum’s stash.

This is the cutest dress! It has four of Miss G’s favourite things – pink, cats, pockets, and unicorn.

I took it to her house whereupon she immediately wanted to put it on. I felt that it was a little big in the bodice so brought it home and moved the buttons in a centimetre.

I love that her hands went straight in the pockets.

I decided that Miss E needed one immediately so went home and cut it out. It took just a few hours to make. I didn’t put pockets on it as she’s just on the brink of walking and I felt they might get in the way.

Instead I resized the unicorn and blanket stitched it on. I reworked the design to add a mane and tail in the marbled fabric rather than use the embroidery floss.

I cut the unicorn on my cricut and it was designed for cardstock. I had to block up holes and the tail is taken from a fox pattern that I had. I used the tail with some reworking to make the mane and welded the whole thing together. I used chain stitch and back stitch to give the mane some definition.

You’ll immediately notice that the second dress is much paler than the first. I think it’s a different fabric composition (cotton vs linen) as the cloths were dyed at the same time.

I again used the flutter sleeves, round neck and Party Dress label. I hand stitched the bodice lining and the hems. Both dresses have already been well washed as I didn’t want the pink staining everything in the machine. I tried not to iron them too much as their Mum prefers wash and wear. They seem to do ok with a good shake before drying.

I lined the second dress with dog fabric.

and the buttons, once again, came from my Mum’s stash.

That horizontal seam does line up. I couldn’t face taking another photo!

I’m now going to make one of these for a newborn. which should be interesting as the pattern is tiny.