If you’ve seen a few of my previous posts or have been around my social media recently, you may have seen me post about the incredible weekend that was Cooly Rocks On for 2024. Part of this amazing retro event is the Pinup Pageant which has been dubbed the ‘Viva Las Vegas pageant of Australia’. As the current reigning pinup queen, I wanted to share a little behind the scenes of each of the three rounds we had to complete as part of the pageant. Recently, I made a personal goal for myself to part take in a pageant where I had made each outfit myself in an attempt to really push my sewing skills and gain a little sewing confidence. Cooly Rocks On 2024 was my big chance to really make some incredible outfits so I wanted to share them here with you. This being part one, I will be discussing how I made my daywear round dress using Charm Patterns by Gertie’s Liz Dress and Gertie’s Yellow Rose cotton sateen. We have previously made this pattern on the blog before but for a Pinup Prom event as well as an Easter dress so it’s nice to give it a go for a pageant this time.

As I’ve already sewn this pattern twice on the blog, I don’t think I need to do a full review and overview of all the steps so instead I will be just looking back and reflecting on the process. If you’d like an in-depth review, I would recommend checking out my Easter Liz Dress also using Gertie fabric, and my cupcake prom Liz Dress if you’d like a more elegant interpretation of the pattern.

As already mentioned in this blog, the first round of the Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant is daywear and I decided to do a little bee keeping routine. As a lover of the cute little pollinator, I wanted to have a fun routine where I checked in on my bees, I had a little beehive prop and of course, I collected some honey before being chased off by bees on stage. It took me a little time to decide on what patterns and fabric/design to sew and at one stage I think I had 8 different ideas but in the end, I opted for the Liz Dress pattern from Charm Patterns as the shelf bust is iconic of 1950s fashion and it’s a dress that always looks stunning. This pattern includes a shelf bust, shoulder straps that double as an underbust strap and a cute pointed collar along the back neckline. With such a design, I had the opportunity to play with fabrics and contrasting colours but I was still on a self imposed fabric buying ban so I only had the chance to use fabric I already had.

I didn’t have any yellow/white gingham but I did find some plain yellow cotton which I could have added appliqués to. After another browse through my stash I found about 3 meters of Gertie’s Yellow Rose Cotton Sateen which was from Spotlight a few years ago and since I spotted it, I knew that would be the correct choice. This fabric has a border print with a range of yellow roses and rose buds of various shapes and sizes throughout the pattern so I had to be smart with my pattern placement. I started to place my pattern pieces around my fabric and I aimed for the underbust/shoulder strap to have a heavier pattern of roses on it. Then I took a step back and I was hit with deja vu. Where had I seen this design before? After a quick google I found and remember Kara from The Dressed App blog who also sews incredible vintage outfits and I saw her make of the Liz Dress using this fabric. I realised I had had the same idea with the pattern placement and in good conscience I knew I had to change a few things around. It was too late to use another pattern as I had already cut into my good fabric so I decided to use some plain light yellow cotton to create a contrasting underbust/shoulder strap piece instead. The plain yellow cotton was also added to the top gather pieces of the bust cups for a little extra added flare. I didn’t want to copy Kara’s idea and although we sew the same patterns with very similar fabrics, I was really glad I could create something a bit different even with the same base pattern and fabric. I highly recommend checking out her make as it is stunning and she even made her own appliqués too!

This pattern has a lot of pieces, especially in the bust and from my previous attempts, I decided to omit some of the extra layers which were originally placed for more structure. As I knew I would be wearing a good pinup bra with this dress, I didn’t need the extra bust support and although I added the interfacing where needed, by eliminating a few layers I was really pleased with how it came out. For the lining of the bodice, I used some plain white cotton which I think came from an old bed sheet that I’ve been cutting up over the last few months. One of the most important parts of this bust design, is the pleated bust edge as it’s paramount that the pleats match up as closely as possible. I did decide to go back and sew the pleats a few times just to make sure they were as perfect as I could get them because it’s can come down to details come pageant day. Although I’ve sewn the Liz Dress a few times, this being my fourth attempt, I haven’t played around with a contrasting solid block colour for the bust and I have to say I love the results and want to do it again. The solid yellow for the shoulder straps and along the pleats really made the dress unique and fun and now I am browsing my fabric stash for the next colour way I want to try.

At this point it’s worth mentioning that I decided to sew a size 6 with the c cup bust as I find this is the best fit for me. I will point out that no matter what I try, the shoulder straps slip off my shoulders and even though I’ve tried to take them in, it hasn’t always worked out so I will be doing some research before my next attempt. When I wore the dress on stage, I did use double sided tape to stick it to my shoulders as otherwise it would have fallen off several times. As I sewed this dress over a two days, I mainly focused on the bust for the first day as there was some filling to get done. Using the cotton sateen which has a little stretch in combination with the plain yellow cotton which had no stretch caused a few weird puckers which I wasn’t able to fix. I also noticed that I think the bodice length was a little too long for me as it had some warping too. This could have been due to pattern placement and trying to get the best fabric print per piece and not focusing on the fabrics bias causing such warping issues.

If there was one part of the bodice I wish I could have made slightly better it would be the back zipper join. Personally I think the alignment was slightly out and it wasn’t the neatest I’ve ever done. A lapped zipper would have been better but it’s not something I am particularly good at sewing yet. The shoulder strap edge along the neckline of the bodice wasn’t overly symmetrical when finished but I’m sure the next time I sew it, it’ll be better. Unfortunately the back zipper is really exposed and it looks a bit shoddy; I have added this dress to my pile of “fix this later” items and hopefully I can fix it up soon.

When I was originally cutting out my pattern pieces, I used a fabric marker to create a skirt section out of my fabric to ensure I had the longest piece of skirt I could. Normally I enjoy a full skirt so having only 3 meters to work with meant that every little length counted. Once my skirt piece was marked out, I could line up my bodice pieces as needed. The more projects I do, the more I wish for a proper gathering foot but alas, it was just me and some dental floss to get the skirt together, gathered and then attached to the bodice. In my intense focus on getting all the pieces together and the gathers straight, I somehow forgot to add pockets so I will eventually go back and add them in at a later point. With my skirt attached and no real issues to report, I just had to hem and add a zip which meant my daywear dress for Cooly Rocks On was done and dusted.

I am pretty proud of how my dress turned out in the end. For the daywear round of the pageant, I paired her with a white petticoat, a white belt, brown seamed stockings, yellow Honiara shoes, some beehive pearl earrings and a boater hat. The whole outfit put together was really cute and I loved how it looked on stage. If I had to change anything I would have considered a different necklace as I just wore my simple green amethyst pendant which isn’t vintage but I adore it, and I might have added a yellow rose to the outside of the hat to pull the yellow roses through the whole outfit. I had a lot of fun with my routine and my dress was a success. Its worth adding that right before I went on stage the zip in my dress burst and before I even had time to freak out, I owe a huge thank you to Miss Roxie and Miss Polly Rose for fixing it up for me. I wanted to mention this as things do go wrong and I could have worn a different dress as a backup but I’m so glad the zip could have been fixed unlike my Featherington gown zip. Is there something wrong with all the zips I’m recently buying, because I’m noticing a pattern?

My beekeeping Liz dress was exactly what I wanted it to be. Looking back at all my early notes there were so many directions this outfit could have gone in but I’m really happy with the final result. With the contrasting yellow cotton, I think I made this dress unique to me and it has inspired me to try this contrasting combination again with different fabric. A shelf bust has always been a dress design I’ve loved and the ability to create my own means that it’s a pattern I can go back to time and time again. Sewing another Liz Dress was a dream and if I have time later on in the year, I might go back to this pattern a little later.

Coming soon to the blog will be my talent round outfit which was the second round for the Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant. Of course, if you’d like to have a sneak peak of any of my outfits from Cooly weekend and the pageant itself, check out this blog link here. I will of course be linking all my pageant round sews here as they come out so please make sure to come back soon. For now, I will leave you with a few more images from the pageant and Cooly Rocks On weekend in general as I got to wear this dress a few times.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.