Sometimes it’s just easier to lead a blog post with a photo of the garment in question. This is the Designer Stitch JoJo dress.  Aren’t all the colours in that print absolutely divine!

From the pattern website: The JoJo will be your go to garment for whatever the occasion – easy to wear, stylish and chic with a touch of FABULOUS-NESS about it. This garment offers something for everyone regardless of the season you are in. The JoJo Pattern offers a number of styling options and combinations.

1. Square Box Length
2. Thigh Length
3. Tunic Length
4. Full Dress Length.
5. Thigh or Tunic Length with attached Lower Skirt

All of the above styles are completed with choice of
1. Wide Open Turtleneck
2. Standard Turtleneck
3. Deep Cowl Neck.
4. V Bound Neckband
5. Hood.

With 3 sleeve lengths – ¾, ⅞ and full length including option of separate cuffs to attach to sleeve at ¾ and ⅞ lengths.

Oh my goodness, that’s SO many options!  There are lots of tester garments that you can see on the website if you need some ideas about what you might prefer.  I went pretty much all out and chose to do the tunic with attached skirt version of the dress, with the deep cowl neck, and sleeves with long cuffs attached.

I possibly did make this one size too large. There’s a lot of fabric there! I also needed to add elastic to the waistline seam to keep the top bloused and the skirt up in place. It was very quick to sew – construction pretty much all on the overlocked. If I sewed this version again I would double the cowl so that it was self-lined – it took some fiddling to keep the reverse from showing.

That’s very much a deep dolman, almost batwing, shape! This is a difficult shape to wear a coat or jacket over, so check the weather forecast before you put this style on. The fabric came to me from a Restash event. It’s a stretchy knit with a lovely crepe type of finish, which made it very easy to work with. Not slippery and slidey!

As much as I like the colours, I’ve passed this dress on to a new happy home.  Too much collar fiddling on my sloping shoulders.  Sizing down should definitely help with future makes.  It’s a great pattern, as Designer Stitch patterns always are.  Instructions are extremely clear, and the drafting is top notch.  Ann knows what she is doing – it’s always apparent to me when using pdf patterns if the designer has actually studied fashion design and pattern drafting and has years of experience in the field, as she has.

I’d like to sew this up again, but sometimes I get decision paralysis when a pattern has quite this many options!  Maybe a V necked, 3/4 sleeve dress option would be good for transitional wear.  Let’s wait and see!