Over the summer, I was in a rush to make this Fibre Mood Agatha dress for the first wedding of 2021 and I completely forgot to write it up until now. Let’s be honest though…most of my blogging was set aside while managing my family during the pandemic! I was still sewing to save my mental state and am trying to catch up now while I have a little extra time 🙂
With the warmer weather approaching and vaccines coming out, I knew this was going to be one of the very first “big” social events for the family. After a year of just sweatsuits and leggings, I really wanted to make something special and use up some fabric in my stash. If there was any perspective gained from the pandemic, it was to use up all the “good” fabric and not let it sit on the shelves!
PATTERN
I’m not sure exactly where I saw this silhouette, but I wanted to make a flowy long dress with flutter sleeves for the midwest heat. After a good bit of research at my typical spots – IG, Pinterest, and Google, I finally found the closest pattern to what I wanted. And that pattern was the Fibre Mood Agatha…However, it was drafted for knit fabrics and of course, I wanted to use woven. In the website description, FM says the pattern can be used for wovens, but I was pretty skeptical. They mention that you “only” need a side zipper and I’m here to say I made a lot of extra adjustments to account for ZERO stretch. Since I couldn’t find any other options, I still bought the pattern knowing I would have to muslin the bodice and be fully committed to a few days of fitting.
Although I measured a US 8, I cut a US 10 knowing that everything would have to be adjusted later on. It gave me a base point to start without going too high and throwing off other fit (like the shoulders and sleeves.) With the muslin, the armscyes are very generous, so I didn’t need to make the sleeves. I just had to sew the bodice and waistbands together. Even after cutting a larger size, I still needed 7/8″ added onto the front and back of the waistbands. Then I slashed the back bodice in three spots (dividing the back evenly) to account for the new waistbands and created a new back bodice piece.
With the help of hashtags, I found Jessica R. (@mom.maker.model) who had made a few woven Agathas. She had some good tips and mentioned she had to add about 2″ to the length of the bodice (towards the side of the bust) to make room for the ladies (I am a B-cup and you would have to add more for any size larger.) Since the bust is gathered, I didn’t have to add more width…but just evenly spread the gathers along the new front waistband. I had to play with the gathers and the added volume a little bit until I found the fit I liked. The V-neck is pretty deep and I ended up overlapping the front bodice pieces by 3/4″ for a little extra modesty. With the added length of both the waistbands, I then widened the skirt opening to match. *The pattern doesn’t mention stay-stitching the waist opening of the circle skirt, but I would HIGHLY recommend it so your skirt doesn’t stretch while making this dress.
For Jessica, she didn’t need to add a zipper, but I definitely had to in order to get the dress over my head! This was such a mental challenge for me because not only was I adding in an invisible zipper, but with the light colored fashion fabric I was using, I also had to account for a lining…and adding pockets! I really set myself up for a challenge…eek! I ended up sewing the invisible zipper to the fashion fabric and then hand-stitching the lining into place.
While adding in pockets is normally not a huge issue (but all designers should add them to all patterns anyways!) I, again, had to account for a slight sheerness of this fabric. The pockets had to actually go behind the lining so they wouldn’t be seen through the front of the dress. I know some of you are wondering why I didn’t use the lining as the pockets. But with the slash style, I wanted to use the same fashion fabric to blend the pockets right into the dress whether my hands are using them or not. To account for this interesting issue, I left openings in the side seams of my lining so the pockets could pop back. I’ve never seen something like this in a pattern and was proud of my MacGyver sewing idea!
FABRIC
I had this Rifle Paper Co. Citrus Blossom rayon challis in my stash for a good year. I’m normally not a yellow person, but these prints are always SO beautiful and I definitely needed the color in my wardrobe. When this collection first came out, I bought enough fabric for a shirt or maybe a short dress….but then I came back to it just a month or so later and bought more. I’m so glad I did because this circle skirt style uses a lot of fabric!
With rayon challis, it is a light and breathable fabric. I love it for the summer since it has a soft cool hand and drapes well. However, it can be slippery and pretty shifty when sewing. So I use my fine pins and end up using twice as many as I would with a quilt cotton. My machine is pretty hardworking, so I also have to switch down to a 70/10 needle when working with rayon.
As I mentioned earlier, I had to use a Bemberg rayon lining in the skirt to keep the dress from being see-through. I cut the lining the same shape as the skirt, but cut off an extra 2″ off the hem so it wouldn’t been seen as I wore the dress. While I was at it, I also added a lining to the waistband (along with light-weight interfacing) to keep it more structured for a lean look. Luckily, this was also in my stash and it’s definitely a good fabric to have around to line lighter fabrics.
Overall, this was probably one of my most laborious makes with the added steps of a muslin, adjusting for woven fabric, adding pockets and also adding a lining. After the wedding and 6 additional months, I can still say that all of this work was WELL worth the effort and I have all of the adjustments ready for a future dress! I’m so happy with the wearability of the FM Agatha. While it’s light and flowy for warm weather, I love that my shoulders are covered for those shots of extreme air conditioning in the summer. Keep a lookout for a new one in 2022!!!
Hugs and Stitches, friends!
Cristy
This post may contain affiliate links. You can read about my Disclosures here. While I am a Fibre Mood ambassador, this pattern and the fabric was purchased by me and not part of any promotion.