Hello, it’s been awhile since I’ve shared any make where! My Mom unexpectedly passed away this past winter and honestly the last thing I’ve wanted to do was sit down and sew myself clothes. Figured I’d wait it out and when I was ready my sewjo would eventually return, and it did. Been a weird year with grief and lately I’ve actively started making space for things that bring me moments of joy. Dipping my toe back in here with a new make.

I’ve wanted to sew the Daughter Judy, Rama Top since it was first released. I loved the oversized, casual feel of the tank design and thought it would be such a nice summer piece.

The key to making this design wear nicely is selecting a fabric that has a good drape to it. It will sit nicely on the shoulders and hang as intended. This Minerva, linen viscose works very well with the Rama. The fabric is soft and smooth, yet easy to sew and holds its shape so that it’s not a struggle getting things to line up as they should. It’s a simple sew, but the pieces and facing do require precision for everything to line up. A slinkier fabric would be harder to work with for the pattern- say a straight viscose. The blend is perfect and was really pleasant to work with.

The design is What Abbie Makes Scattered Posies in green. It’s a really pretty fabric with vibrant color. A little hard to photograph accurately, but beautiful shade of green.

The pattern came together even though I will need to do some fitting tweaks on my next one. The darts were very low on this for me and I need to raise them or maybe even try the bodice without darts in the same size. There’s a darted and non-darted pattern piece for the front. The pattern comes in sizes in xs-5x so a wide range of sizes which is great. It does combine sizes to get that sizing, rather than the standard one by one sizing and I think that why I have the dart issues for me on this one. Easy fix though. I find Daughter Judy patterns to be amazingly well drafted and enjoyed this one as much as others I’ve sewn in the past.

The pattern has a split hem on the sides of the hip and the deep v on the front and roomy, lower armholes are a main feature on the design. Very casual, summer, easygoing style that I love. Over a swimsuit on vacation would be a perfect choice.

I’m going to play around with both shortening for a more cropped fit and lengthened for a mini dress version- such a good shape for a dress! Really versatile with some easy tweaks.

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