One of the most iconic ball gown styles from the 1950s is the cupcake gown; generally named due to the ruffles adorning the dress, this ball gown style was very popular for special occasions such as proms, weddings and evening dresses. Today, cupcake gowns are still highly sought after and something a lot of vintage clothing collectors hunt for. The cupcake style is iconically unique to the 50s and has a soft youthful vibe and something I’ve always had a soft spot for yet never really owned. In an attempt to further expand my sewing skills, I figured it was time to create my own cupcake gown and it just so happens that the Pinup Prom was coming up.

To be honest, I’ve been wanting to learn more about sewing vintage style ball gowns for a while and the idea of creating my own cupcake dress has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while. However, being quite the busy person, the idea of creating so many ruffles and the sheer amount of time it would take was something that put me off so I shelved that idea for a later date…until one night where I found the perfect fabric. I have officially entered my sage green era; it’s a colour I am hugely gravitating towards at the moment and have used it in recent renovations, in new garments I have purchased and sewn as well as little pieces here and there. One night when I was browsing Etsy for the perfect fabric for another project (coming soon), I stumbled upon some stunning sage green tulle fabric which was pre cupcake ruffled. Oh gosh, I’m going to sew a cupcake gown aren’t I?

Of course I am. So here we are, ready to sew a new cupcake gown just in time for the Pinup Prom. Now there are many different styles of cupcake dress but for this particular gown, I want it to be the fan favourite style where the bodice has ruffles on a shelf bust, plain waist bodice area and then full cupcake ruffles over the entire skirt. Although I’ve used this pattern before, I knew the perfect pattern for my prom dress would be the Liz Dress from Gertie’s Charm Patterns which we used in this project last year. I feel bad reusing this pattern again as I have another project at the back of my mind where I will use this pattern again but it’s honestly a wonderful pattern that I really love sewing it. Like last time, I will sew the size 6 with the c cup bust. I will be taking some artistic liberties with this project in terms of playing with the ruffles but we will get to that later.

Although I’ve briefly mentioned it above, let’s take a closer look at the fabrics I plan to use. Starting with the most exciting; I have 5 yards of sage green ruffle tulle which I got from the Etsy seller LaceFun. I have shopped from this seller before so knew they had good quality fabrics and I personally love how they always include a few sample swatches of their other fabrics. This ruffle tulle is really wide and also has a small scattering of sequin throughout the ruffles to give it a little extra sparkle.
Finding a matching fabric took me a little time. A few months ago, I went to one of my favourite fabric stores, Homecraft Textiles, as they always have a great range of plain coloured fabrics. I found some green cotton which at the time I loved and thought it would work really well under the skirt (cotton was better for the budget than something like a satin or silk) but when I took it home, I realised it just wasn’t going to work. After browsing online for the next couple of weeks, I couldn’t really guarantee the colour match so I went back to Homecraft Textiles for one last ditch attempt. It turned out that this was a great idea as they had a new range of satins at a great price and I found a perfect sage green match. I purchased around 5 meters and went home very happy.

We have our pattern, our plan, our fabric and currently around 4 days to get it all done. Sew, let’s get started. Of course I started by cutting out my pattern pieces and this particular pattern has a lot of pieces required. The outer layer, in this case the satin, is to be underlined which adds more things to be cut out. I counted at least 51 pieces that I will be needing for the bodice alone! As for the skirt, I cut out a circle skirt and let it hang up for a few days to fall on the bias. I didn’t worry about the tulle at this stage as I figured I’ll add it to my dress as needed.

With all my pieces cut out, I started sewing the skirt. I sewed my circle skirt together which was basically two straight lines and then I set up my mannequin. I added two petticoats to my dress mannequin so I could see the shape take place and I put my skirt over the top of the petticoats. The colour looked incredible and very luxurious which is exactly what I wanted. After a bit of playing around with the ruffle tulle, I decided to gather the tulle and then attach it to the top of the skirt waistline. I could have just sewn the tulle straight onto of the skirt but I thought the tulle added a nice fullness.

I was very happy to find out that I could use my sewing machine to gather my tulle by sewing two basting stitches parallel to each other before pushing the fabric along the threads. After pinning the two fabrics together, I sewed it together and let it chill out on my dress form as I sewed the bodice together.

Sewing the bodice underbust section was super simple as it was just a bunch of straight seams and two darts on the back pieces. With that done, I started to focus on the shoulder straps, the bust cups and the lining. The shoulder straps on the Liz dress are quite a unique piece; they wrap all around the bodice starting at the back seam, going over the shoulders, then under the bust before wrapping back over the other shoulder and finishing back at the back seam. After underlining my front fabric piece I sewed the lining to the strap, trimmed the seam, flipped the piece right side out, ironed and then basted the strap. The strap is then attached to the underbust section, draped over the shoulders, then sewn along the back seam.

The last time I sewed this pattern, I made a note to myself that I should take the shoulder straps in by about a half inch as they fall down a fair bit which can get a bit annoying. I made sure to bring the straps in this half inch. With the strap attached, I could now turn my focus to the bust cups. The Liz dress bust cups are normally pleated but as I was planning on sewing some of the ruffle, I just used the plain lining pattern piece to cut out my satin. I accidentally sewed my cups wrong and then fixing them up, when I had my lining and outer fabric sewn, I went about planning to add my ruffles.

I started by attaching one row of ruffles just under the seam allowance on the outer bust cup pieces. I realised that I could easily use the sewing machine to attach my ruffles and seeing as I was on a time crunch, I was happy to save some time. With one row attached, I then attached my lining piece to the outer fabric as I thought this would save me from catching the ruffles by accident when they were denser and fluffier. Once attached, row by row, I pinned a row of ruffle up against the previous row, sewed it down my machine and then moved onto he next row. This took a little bit of time as I kept making sure that my rows were evenly spaced but it was getting really bulky towards the end.

I will note here that if you plan on sewing something similar, do not add ruffle to the side seam allowance. This caused lots of issues for me further down the line but I will cover that in just a bit.

Once by bust was sufficiently ruffled, I attached it to the bodice and I could see my vision coming together. At this point, I did wonder if I added too many ruffles as it gave me Austin Powers Hair chest vibes. I decided to press on and add the lining. Here’s where it all went downhill very quickly. Sewing the lining wasn’t difficult, attaching it to the bodice however is a different story. This is hands down the hardest part of this pattern as everything needs to line up perfectly and you need to be very careful not to catch the straps in the lining. Unfortunately, this step was my absolute undoing and it all went horribly wrong.

I think with all the fabric and pieces in this bodice, it got a little too bulky which was very visible under the satin. Secondly, I kept catching the shoulder straps in the lining which caused warping, pinching and pulling in all the wrong places. To make matters worse, when I tried the bodice on, it was unflattering, there were too many ruffles, there were loads of puckers along the underbust seam and the arm holes were two different sizes. One arm hole was fine and the other was way too small because I caught the strap in the lining which caused the armhole to pinch a little. Feeling very defeated, I called my mum (thank goodness for timezones as there was no one else awake I could talk too) and we both decided it was best to start again and go in a different direction.

I planned to start my bodice again from scratch. I cut out all my bodice pieces again but this time I planned to ommit the underlining to get rid of the extra bulk. I decided not to take in my straps by the half inch that I had done previously as I was worried that this caused the arm holes to feel odd and although I know I could have fixed this issue, I was getting so tired and I was also getting really stressed as at this point, I had one day before the prom and my dress was just a skirt. I decided to get rid of the overly ruffled bust and instead, I was going to add a ruffle trim.

To do this ruffle trim, I attached three rows of ruffles together, sewed them onto the outer bust cups, then attached the lining. Once I turned the cups right side out, the ruffle edge sat perfectly. From my previous attempt, I learnt about my seam allowances so I made sure to keep the sides of my cups ruffle free which was a really good idea come sewing everything together. At this point, I also realised I had no more time to add boning to the bodice (it was 2am at this point) so for this project, no boning sadly.

Sewing the lining to the bodice made me a little nervous but it turned out so much better than the first. With my bodice finally complete, I was finally able to attach it to my skirt. This did unfortunately cause another hiccup but it was the last issue I had to deal with for the rest of the sewing process. Having previously gathered my tulle before I attached it to the satin underskirt, I thought I had attached the tulle right on the seam allowance but it turns out I was a little off meaning that when my bodice was attached, you could see all my gathering stitches. I started to very slowly cut out the thread but it took me half an hour to barely do two centimeters so I ended up unpicking the bodice from the skitr, repinning the bodice along a different seam line so the stitches were hidden, and then reattaching the bodice to the skirt.

The final things I had to do was to sew in a zip and finish up the hems. I did notice that my back waist seams didn’t line up and this is because I had to redo some of the waist stitches to hide the original gather threads but at this point, I just had to keep going. I would have normally fixed this kind of issue, especially one this noticeable, but I was really tired and had lost all the fun I had for this project. Regardless, my dress was done and it was time for a good nights sleep and then getting ready to go to the Pinup Prom.

For a pattern I had sewn a few times before, I honestly wasn’t expecting so much to go wrong. I knew there would be a bit of trial and error when it came to using a ruffle tulle but looking back now, I understand why I made the mistakes I did. Although this dress wasn’t the exact vision I had, I still really liked the outcome. The dress fit really well despite the shoulder straps still needing to be brought in by about half an inch on both sides. I do wish I had had time to add boning to the bodice as with the satin, it does bunch a little when I move and boning would add a really good, strong structure to the garment.

I’m really happy that I changed my mind about the original ruffle bust. Looking back now, I do think I added too many ruffles and although the ruffle trim was a bit removed from my original plan, I think it looked fine once it was all done. If I had a chance to redo this dress, I think I would have changed my original pattern. As much as I loved this pattern originally, I think something strapless would have been cuter but I got so many compliments on my dress that I’m not sure what to think to be honest.

I really do still love the colour of the dress and I adore my fabric choices. After lusting over cupcake prom dresses for so long, I am so excited that I finally have one and I made it myself. In my next attempt of such a pattern, I will definitely be adding pockets though. Despite all the challenges I had when crafting this prom dress, I am really happy with the outcome. I felt very cute on prom night.

The Pinup Prom was a delightful event and I loved seeing my friends dressed up so glamorous. It certainly was a night to indulge, let loose and have a little fun. I was very comfortable in my dress all night and after seeing everyone so dressed up, I already have ideas for next years dress (I clearly haven’t learnt my lesson).

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.