I've just finished Pauline Alice's latest pattern,
the Malvarosa. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a drop waist so when this was released I was very quick to buy it.
This Malvarosa is made up in Liberty of London
Ranga A, which is from the Liberty Art Fabrics AW 2013 Seen Collection.
From the Liberty website:
This collection was Inspired by William Morris’ poem; ‘Iceland First Seen’, the Liberty design team travelled to Iceland on an exploration of the senses in search of their own ‘Earthly Paradise’. A sense of sight, the most complex of all the senses, is what took the team there. 'Iceland first seen' was written by Morris depicting his feelings for this wild Northern landscape, a fitting title for a series of designs inspired by sight. Ranga shows a townscape of hand painted Icelandic buildings.
The Malvarosa is a lovely simple pull on (no buttons, no zipper yay!) dress in either short or 3/4 sleeves. For this version, I' chose the short sleeves, but I'm keen to give the longer sleeves a go. The sleeves on this are very cute and have a sweet little built in 'cap' which is part of the bodice pattern.
I made up the 36 but thought the armscye was too big so ended up taking it in down the sides just over an inch rather than the 5/8 " seam which helped reduce the gaping. You can see that it is still a little bit gapey, but is ok. The way the dress makes up means that this type of adjustment is super easy as the skirt is added and then the side seams are sewn.
Both the neck and arms are finished with facing. I put in a few stitches to hold them down as there is a risk that they flap out.
Lastly the pockets in the skirt are a really cute feature. I feel like mine might be hanging a little bit - so next time I make it up I'll make sure when I attach the pockets I will keep skirt piece firm. I also wasn't sure how to finish the seam nicely at the skirt attachment. I ended up overlocking the pocket tops (once they were sewn onto the skirt top and then overlocking the whole thing once the pockets and skirt were attached.
I'm just looking now for some lovely hot summer days as this will be a perfect Summer dress and the unexpectedly Christmas-y fabric will definitely make it a perfect Christmas dress.
