Vivid for Vacation

Three years ago, in January I arrived to Malta for the first time. However, it was not for holiday but for work with some of my colleagues yet we did manage to squeeze in a quick weekend road trip around the island of Gozo. I remember it being quite sunny despite the cold month of January and also being very quiet and peaceful exactly because of the cold month of January! Now, three years later, we received a wedding invite to Malta happening in June. I was really excited to go back during the hot seasons and potentially experience a different side of the country. As I imagined streets were much busier, restaurants livelier and weather much hotter. It was a great location for this occasion and we had plenty of fun events coming up.  We met family and friends of the bride and groom, went out for the hen and stag do, celebrated the couple and danced away in the wedding.

L-LMDINA

We spent a day in L-lmdina towards the end of our stay. It is definitely a must see city if you visit Malta. I was amazed by its beauty, its narrow streets, endearing balconies and flowers all around. It really feels like as if you traveled back in time, just right into the medieval era. It was built as a fortress-city which remains largely untouched and that’s where its magic lies – you get a real sense of how much history those pavements and walls could tell.

WINDOWS OF THE WORLD

I have recently read about a photographer, Andre Goncalves who travels around the world and captures the character of cities in its windows. His work is brilliant and it reminded me of Malta as one thing that definitely stood out to me is the similar architecture of windows and little balconies. I also took couple of shots as I found this characteristic really interesting. Check out his work, you will be amazed how it demonstrates the identity of cities.

WHERE TO EAT IN MDINA

We had dinner in The Medina Restaurant that is apparently one of the best restaurants in Malta. Service and food was amazing. I was especially happy as being a vegetarian, I often find it really difficult to discover new and interesting tastes in restaurants since vegetarian dishes are mostly the same in many places. I was definitely satisfied with my choice this time!

There are also couple of tearooms in Mdina providing a break from your stroll and offering a nice tea or coffee to enjoy. If you also want to eat, be mindful of the time as food is not served until 7pm in most of the places.

MAKE THE LOOK

On the fashion note, I had couple of dresses in mind to create for this holiday and I think I was a bit over ambitious in my imagination but I did manage to finish two dresses and a skirt. For the Mdina trip I was wearing one of these – that is a vivid purple dress decorated with an Indian style trimming. If you want to know how I made it, you can find instructions and pictures below 🙂

MAKE THE LOOK – PURPLE INDIAN DRESS

What do you need to make this look?

• 04/2013 Burda issue #116 Pattern
• 1,5 metres purple jersey
• 2 metres Indian style trimming (purchesed online from Minervacraft)

After having the pattern pieces cut out, I started to compile the front of my dress. The front top has some darts and once those are taken in sew together the front seams as shown on picture.

Next, moving onto the front skirt, fold and pin down the top part of the skirt as the pattern marks suggests.

Once done sew together the front top and skirt parts.

Hem the neckline with the cut out front hem piece.

Next, compile the back top pieces together.

On the back skirt piece, first take in the darts and sew together the centre seam line leaving the marked distance for the opening at the bottom of the skirt.

Make sure you hem the opening too.

To finish the back part of the dress, sew together the top and the skirt. Hem the neckline the same way as you did in the front.

To achieve a clean finish for the shoulder seam is a bit trickier. Not really difficult, it just requires a bit more attention. I tried to take photos of it whilst I did it but I am afraid they are not so helpful, looked a bit messy. 🙂 Hence I rather link a video that helped me to learn how to get an all in armhole and neckline facing.

Now that you have the the shoulder seams stitched together, time to decorate the neckline with the Indian style ribbon.

Measure the ribbon against the neckline and cut it into pieces as the neckline changes direction. You will need to sew together these pieces to create the very same form with the ribbon. Keep measuring against the neckline to make sure you get the right size. Once done sew the ribbon in the top and bottom edge at length to the neckline.

Do the same, for the waist line too and repeat it in the back.

Now that you finished with the decoration, you only need to stick together the side seams. Use a zip if you need to. I made a mistake and stitched together both sides thinking that I have a stretchy jersey fabric. That was all true but the trimming did not allow much stretch in the waist hence I had to use all my yoga magic to get myself into that dress. I will need to correct that at a later point.

And voila.. your dress is ready to wear in the beautiful streets of Mdina. 🙂

Also, if you are interested, I put together a short travel video back then of the places we visited in Malta in 2013. Enjoy! :*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtYf6KPxwBg