A new make – a hacked version of the Fibre Mood Giulia dress from the latest edition of Fibre Mood (affiliate link). If you’re active on Instagram you’ll probably have seen someone you follow sharing something to celebrate the launch of the new issue.
The Fibre Mood vibe
Fibre Mood really feels like fashion to me. There’s a strong aesthetic that comes through every single time and when I look at the magazine I really feel like I could be looking at something off the high street. There are photoshoots with professional models, and the whole thing just has a different feel (obviously) from the one-woman indie companies. I really really loved the promo vid from this issue and have shared it with just about everyone I know. So I’m embedding it here as well in case you missed it.
Fibre Mood Giulia dress
Back to my make. It’s a simple dress, side slits, drawn in at the waist with elastic, back pleat detail, grown-on sleeves. Here’s the line drawing:
Fabric and construction notes
- Pattern modifications: a top instead of a dress
- My measurements: 32.5 / 28 / 34
- Size: Small
- Fitting changes: none
- Fabric: Tencel™ twill, 150gsm. Read my blog post about Tencel™ (trade name for lyocall here
- Needle: universal 70/9
- Neckline: bias tape as facing finish (watch my tutorial on how to do that here). I love me a tidy finish!
Giulia dress vs Giulia top
My original intention was to make the dress and add some embroidery to the shoulder or neckline. I wanted the back pleat detail to be noticeable, and that the side splits and gathering at the waist (created by the elastic) would be enough to visually break up a solid coloured dress.
Alas, when I pinned on the skirt, this was not to be. There were a few issues:
- Colour too close to skin tone. Copper / chestnut is not a colour I have ever dared to wear before, because I really feel like I’m blending into my clothes. I have a yellow-based skin tone to think for that. Orange is great, but beige, lighter yellows and brown tend to be more tricky. So to have a long-ish dress was a bit too much. And no time to embroider as planned!
- Long dresses make me feel short. My height is 164cm so I’m not *that* short, but I don’t wear heels and long dresses sometimes make me feel overwhelmed.
- Cold weather = (for me), jeans and dungarees, less of the dresses.
Hack and freestyle as you go
After I worked out that a dress was a no go, I wasn’t going to waste the fabric and leave myself with a half-done garment. So it had to be a top. I levelled off the hem – it was shaped for the purposes of attaching it to the dress – see the pattern pieces here.
Then it was too short, so I added a hem band. To hem band or leave cropped was definitely something I ummed and ahhed about. Mostly I worried about whether a hem band would look like an afterthought. But I added it anyway as I’m not a huge fan of wearing crop tops, then added needed a little side split as well for a bit of interest.
Overall, I’m happy with the result. Doing what you want and “make it yours” is the best thing about sewing, right? To see my other makes, follow me on Instagram here. For sustainability commentary, see my posts here.
Till next time
Kate xx