I sewed a version of Fibre Mood Agatha when it was first released a couple of years ago and that dress, well, frankly, always makes me feeling as though I’m channeling my inner Marilyn Monroe.

I’m a feminist but … I love wearing a dress that makes me feel like an objectified sex symbol!

Any other fans of The Guilty Feminist podcast out there? I feel there is so much fertile ground for sewing themed “I’m-a-feminist-buts”! I’m a feminist but … I spend far more time creating my wardrobe than I do smashing the patriarchy. I’m a feminist but … my life will be complete if only I buy this one last fabric!

So, short story, I love my first Fibre Mood Agatha Dress and have been meaning to make a new one for a while but I find it challenging to find nice knit fabrics.

Now speaking of nice fabrics, this crazy leopard printed linen, (Yes, I repeat, that’s leopard-printed linen), comes from Zyga who sell 3 metre coupons of the leftover fabric from their collections at astounding prices. This one was 35 euros for 3 metres!

When it arrived, I absolutely knew that I needed to turn it into a last-minute dress to come on my recent vacation to Mexico and Costa Rica.

And as I was trawling through instagram for inspiration as to what pattern to make with this fabric, I noticed someone who had sewn the Fibre Mood Agatha Dress in a woven (sorry can’t recall who it was!).

Since I adore my Agatha dress, this kind of blew my mind.

I checked the magazine and saw that Fibre Mood does indeed suggest that the pattern could also be made in a woven if you add a zipper!

Since I love my first version of the Agatha Dress so much, my mind was instantly made up.

This leopard print linen was destined to be a Fibre Mood Agatha Dress in a woven.

Agatha Dress in a woven

My Fibre Mood Agatha used the pattern I already had traced out from two years ago, so it was a size 14, but I had to make some modifications to make a pattern designed for a knit to work in a woven.

To make it work in a woven, the first step was to add a zipper into the side seam. As the Agatha Dress has a funny little half-circle sleeve which isn’t actually a true sleeve in the sense that it doesn’t meet up at the underarm but just joins the bodice, this made it super easy to add a zipper into the side seam. I used a 22cm long zipper, which was what I had on hand.

As I was a little scared as to how it would fit me given that a woven has less “give” than jersey, I also eyeballed in an extra cm or so at the waistband on each piece while cutting out (so I gave myself an extra few centimetres in waist ease in total).

What I foolishly didn’t count on is that not only is woven fabric going to have less give across the body, it is also going to have less give vertically.

When I first finished the bodice using the original pattern pieces, the bodice pieces in a woven did not even cover my nipples! It was ridiculously too short.

So, in my Tim Gunn “make-it-work” moment, I used scraps of fabric to add one inch in length to the bodice.

Sure, us sewists can see that I’ve patchworked in enough fabric to actually cover my boobs, but will “normal” people ever notice? I doubt it!

So, I can confirm that, for my body, you can make Fibre Mood Agatha with a woven but, in addition to a zipper, I highly recommend giving yourself a bit of extra room in the pattern pieces – both horizontally and vertically.

Now, as I had altered the bodice, my waistband didn’t fit anymore, but I luckily had enough leftover fabric to cut out a new modified waistband.

What I did not have, was enough fabric to recut this huge circle skirt, which no longer met up with waistband.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

Well, you know how linen has rather loose fibres? How many times are we told to stay stitch after all?

Well, I picked up my skirt piece and used that time-honoured method of just stretching the hell out of it until it fit my extended waistband.

It’s not sophisticated. I’m not proud. But it worked.

I’m a feminist but … I endorse the use of brute strength to achieve fashion goals.

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I really love this dress and now that I’ve mastered the modifications, I feel that the ability to make Fibre Mood Agatha in a woven, really opens up doors, since there are so many more lovely woven fabrics out there!

I actually prefer wearing the dress in a woven, compared to my jersey one, as the latter is really quite heavy to wear (too heavy to pack in a suitcase), whereas in linen this Fibre Mood Agatha is light and breezy.

Pocketing it

Also, a small little note. Since I added the side seam zipper, I decided to do things the easy way (remember, I was sewing to a holiday deadline!) and just put in one side-seam pocket, so that I didn’t have to mess around with installing the other pocket near the side seam zipper.

My quick little word of warning is that I find the pocket piece which comes with the Fibre Mood Agatha to be comically small. I increased its size for both of my versions and would recommend doing the same if you intend for you pocket to be useful.

And if you don’t need a useful pocket – well, why the hell are you even bothering with a pocket in the first place?

And, since this dress was made on a last minute, I’m-going-on-vacation-again-finally-and-want-to-feel-fabulous whim, here it is at Chichen Itza!

When I was finally reunited with my luggage after falling victim to “2022: the summer of lost luggage”, this Fibre Mood Agatha Dress was the first thing I pulled out of my suitcase and wore.

Which only makes me love her all the more…