A message to you, Judy: the Fibre Mood Judy dress

At a glance, the Judy Dress from Fibre Mood book 22 looks like just another floaty dress. But with some subtle details, Judy packs a little extra oomph than the slew of dresses that followed the success of ‘that’ Zara dress.

I made this dress at the request of my very wonderful friend for her birthday. In the name of thriftiness it made sense to buy the whole magazine rather than the individual pattern. I’ve not bought a Fibre Mood magazine before but it’s really good value for money. For £18 you get 12 sewing patterns. Yes, you have to trace them all, but tracing really doesn’t deserve its bad rep. It’s slow, methodical, and satisfying. Just make sure to ADD THE SEAM ALLOWANCE.

There are some very cool designs included. I’ve seen RTW versions of the Kaya dress popping up all over the place, it looks like a great everyday basic that isn’t ‘basic’. I also love the look of the Bernie trousers – a very contemporary twist on classic trousers. The Carry blouse looks like a fantastic oversized shirt, and if a trench coat is on your list, you may want to have a look at Drea… 

The design

But enough about the other patterns. Let’s talk about Judy. 

Judy is definitely not for those shy of a bit of volume. She is an 11. 

The skirt pieces are enormous, the sleeves are gloriously poofy, and the calf-length skirt adds to the overall dramatic shape. Two subtle details give this pattern a bit of edge that take this from being ‘just another’ dress – a dipped and curved waist seam and a subtly unique sleeve head (niche, hey?!). 

Cutting it out

I started cutting and was a bit worried the bodice pieces looked small, but that could have just been in comparison to the volume of the skirt and sleeves. The sleeve cuff looked way too skinny, but I ploughed on, safe in the knowledge I had taken my time with tracing. I cut out all my pieces, and then the horrific reality set in. I hadn’t added the seam allowance. 

This pattern uses a lot of fabric, so there was no option to cut a new version. Instead I decided to sew with a 0.5cm seam allowance and live with the shame of not properly reading the instructions before cutting. However, if you do trace and cut properly, the shapes are all straightforward to cut out, you just need a decent amount of space. 

The fabric

My friend chose a bright blue and pink cotton sateen from Hey Sew Sister. It was slightly thicker than I expected and has a little stretch to it, but thankfully it worked perfectly for the pattern. The colours are amazing in person, and the large scale print looks so good on a voluminous cut. 

Sewing it all together 

The dress is rated 2 out of 5 stars for its difficulty, and that seems about right. It’s a super simple shape, so it was a lovely project to sew. The magazine is printed with illustrated instructions, but you can also find a written step-by-step guide on their website. This project was simple enough to follow along with the illustrations, so if you’ve made a few garments, you’ll be good to crack on with this one. 

The only tricky step was the angled hem on the bodice. I had to unpick one side as the bodice got caught, so this step needs to be done with a bit more brain power than the rest. The shape it creates is brilliant, such a gorgeous touch:

Sewing the sleeves

While I was all gung ho with cutting out and ignoring the need for seam allowances, I did pause when cutting out the sleeves. They are an unusual shape so I cut one out first to test it. After realising my error with the seam allowance, the extreme skinniness of the sleeve cuff made sense. There was no way this was going to fit, so this is the one part of the garment that I re-cut with a seam allowance added. I went on to test one sleeve and it took 2 hours. 2 hours for one sleeve. The gathering, positioning, gathering again for the cuff. There’s a lot of sleeve there, and I like to take my time so you could do it a lot quicker, but still. 2 hours. One sleeve.  Luckily it fit and the unusual shape made sense. The sleeves are set further forward into the bodice than on other designs. It’s a subtle tweak, but creates a lovely shape.

Final thoughts

Judy has an overall simple shape, but with some small yet satisfying details to make it a little bit different. Depending on your fabric choice, you could really up the volume with some poplin or jacquard, or go more relaxed and swishy with viscose. I have it on good authority that the dress is really comfy and perfect for dressing up or down. A bloomin’ gorgeous gift to have made for a bloomin’ gorgeous friend.