Today I’ve got the Fibre Mood Giulia Dress in this gorgeous Atelier Brunette modal from their latest fabric release!

Are you familiar with the great sewists dilemma?

When you have a fabric that you think would be wonderful as two different garments and you just can’t bloody decide which one to make?

That was this project all over.

Part of me was envisaging a simple boat neck dress with elastic waist.

The other part of me couldn’t get the idea of another Elodie Wrap Dress out of my mind.

Now, I had just about settled on the Elodie Wrap Dress, partly because although I had a clear idea of what I wanted for the elastic waist dress, I couldn’t find exactly the right pattern.

Then, the night before I was due to cut it out, the Fibre Mood Giulia Dress popped up on my instagram feed.

It was almost just what I’d been looking for!

So now I was completely in two minds.

Elodie Wrap Dress or Fibre Mood Giulia Dress?

As an Elodie Wrap Dress, I had no doubt it would look more polished and fancy. But, the reason I kept thinking about the elasticised waist dress, was that I really wanted something a bit more casual. Something that I would also wear on the weekend without feeling like I was too dressed up.

So I decided that it was the sewing goddesses giving me a sign by popping that photo up on my feed and decided to make the Fibre Mood Giulia Dress.

Nah, I’m definitely sure it was a sewing goddess. Algorithms and the kind of photos I’d been looking at previously couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with it!

Fibre Mood Giulia Dress

My Fibre Mood Giulia Dress is a size Large.

I did make a couple of small hacks to the pattern to make it conform to the vision I had in my head.

The Fibre Mood Giulia has a more rounded neck, whereas I hacked it to be a boat neck.

Boat necks really truly are my favourite kind of neck line. I have quite wide but very sloped shoulders, so I think that the sharpness and straightness of a boat neck feels quite balancing on me.

But speaking of “hacking”, I did a bit of a hack job on my alterations and decided it was fine to just kind of eyeball it all. So I just kind of guessed at altering the neckline. At the front, I’m happy with how it turned out, but at the back, the neckline is definitely more “miss” than “hit” and I have not succeeded in boat-necking it at all. I guess if pattern designers could just “guess” at how to make patterns, it’d be a whole lot easier!

I also widened the channel for the elastic and have used a wider elastic than the pattern calls for.

Finally, I added in inseam pockets.

This project was very easy to sew and came to gather super quickly. It’s definitely do-able in a day.

It is a simple pattern but there is actually quite a lot that I like about it. It has a great sleeve – long and roomy, just like I like my sleeves. It has a very subtle but cute pleat detail at the centre back. I like the method for finishing the side split and hem, which includes a sweet little mitred corner on the inside.

I’m also really happy with how it looks in this fabric.

It hits the sweet spot I’d been hoping for. Pretty dress, but not so pretty that I’ll want to keep it for special occasions.

And I’m really hoping it’ll look good in the Costa Rican jungle on my upcoming trip!!

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