Marshmallow Dress

Hi sewcialists,

I was super lucky enough to get my hands on Cocowawa’s Marshmallow dress early as I pattern tested it ☺. As with all my reviews my thoughts are my own and I won’t be swayed by friendships and free stuff.

The marshmallow is a trapeze dress. This means it should be semi fitted around your neck, bust and upper arms and then flow out from your underarms creating a shape very reminiscent of the swinging 60s. I absolutely love this kind of style and have a few different RTW dresses that replicate the trapeze, but I’ve never found a sewing pattern that I could commit to. If I could I’d marry this pattern.

View made

Short sleeve with collar, no change to ruffle length and 1inch hem.

The fit

My current measurements are 36,33,41 so I fall with in size 4/5. When pattern testing I always make a straight size without any of my usual adaptations to check the pattern instructions rather than the fit, so I made a size 5 and I am happy I did. Although it was tempting to make a size 4 it would have been too tight on the arms (I do have hulk arms thanks to heavy lifting and cake eating)
and in truth I would probably size up on the back and arm next time round.

Other than my own personal body shape I think that the fit would be easy for most and probably need very few changes thanks to its trapeze style.

Any Adaptations?

As mentioned before I pattern tested so pretty much left well alone but I did decide to line the top half of the dress instead of using facings or bias binding. I achieved this by simply cutting out the dress top half of the dress, sewing the shoulder sleeves as you would the facing and then sewing THE WHOLE neckline end to end. It creates the needed clean finish for the button band and you then can tack stitch the bottom of the lining to the shell and carry on with the normal instructions. (If you need more help on this please let me know)

The Fabric

I used a viscose/cotton/bamboo mix spotty fabric from japan, which was brought back for my by a friend about 10000 moons ago. I had been saving it and it fit in perfectly with the pattern style and my monochrome 60s theme. I would recommend using a fabric with drape for this pattern. A lovely tencel or a soft lightweight brushed cotton would be perfect.

Would I make it again?

YES! It is perfect for day to eveningwear and just my mix of cute and stylish. I have worn this dress a few times since making it and love its free, swishy style