It is a truth universally acknowledged, that as soon as someone knows you like to sew, they will ask you to hem or make them something.
I often get asked if I could just “whip up” a dress for someone for an event they are having and unfortunately I will most of the time turn them down. I am not a professional by any means and I will never sell any dresses that I’ve made. I sew for myself as it’s a hobby I love and I don’t want to turn it into a business. In saying that, some friends I just can’t say no to and todays blog is one such case. My dear friend Miss Lexi Heart was planning to travel to Sydney to take part in in the Rockabilly Festival Pinup Pageant for 2023. She had her outfit ordered online and her routine ready to go but the day before she planned to leave, disaster struck, her outfit hadn’t arrived. After a panicked phone call to yours truly, I sent her on a mission to buy some cotton fabric and I promised to make her pageant dress dreams come true.

Arriving at my house armed with 5 metres of rockabilly inspired fabric purchased from Homecraft Textiles, we turned to my pattern stash to discuss options. We decided on the L’Amour pattern from Gertie’s Charm patterns which is the pattern I used for this Valentines Day Katy Keene inspired project. In my original review, I made this pattern into a sweetheart strapless dress so it was going to be a fun experience trying to sew this patten with the halter straps attached. Having decided on our pattern and fabric, I took Miss Lexi Heart’s measurements to the best of my ability and I sent her away for the day as I settled in for an evening of sewing. We were starting this project at 2:30 in the afternoon, her flight was at 10am the next morning and she was planning to pick it up at 7:30 the following day. We can do this right?

We had a plan. We had a deadline and I had one large cup of tea. Let’s get started.

Like all good sewing reviews, I cut out the pattern pieces I needed including lining, underlining and the main fabric. I used the rockabilly fabric for the lining as we would have plenty of left over scraps and a fun lining always brightens my day. This pattern has a lot of pattern pieces but once you baste the underlining to the main fabric, it reduces the number by a little bit. I was very grateful I was using cotton and not something slippery as hand basting would have taken me an age to complete.

Putting the bodice together wasn’t too much of a challenge and I think this pattern would be great for a beginner wanting something more challenging without feeling as though it’s an impossible quest. The trickiest part of the whole bodice was doing the boning channels and having done them before, I wasn’t as put off by this step as I would have been over a year ago. I used metal boning to keep the dress structured and teflon tape for the ends as I personally can’t get the crimp ends to stay on indefinitely. I made sure to keep the boning as rigid as possible so the dress layer flat on Lexi’s body and wouldn’t warp once the dress was graded to fit her curves.

The bodice came together without too much hassle and before I knew it, it was time to inhale some dinner and move onto the skirt. Lexi requested a 31″ long skirt and have it be very full. I cut out 4 panels and attached them together before adding pockets because trust me when I say, pockets are a game changer come pageant day. With the skirt being so full, I took my time too gather it slowly using my dental floss method (full blog on this method coming soon) and once I was happy with it, I attached the skirt to the bodice.

With the dress having the bodice, skirt and pockets assembled and attached, the last few things I needed to do was add a zip, close up the back and hem. It turns out that Miss Lexi Heart hovered between three different dress sizes which meant I would end up having to do some pattern grading. This is really common when it comes to sewing patterns and although I had only done it a few times, I was sure I could make something that fit really well. I ended up sewing the largest of the pattern sizes and very slowly bringing the dress in to fit the measurements of Lexi. As I didn’t have Lexi at my house at the time of fitting, I relied a lot of my dress mannequin which I changed to resemble her measurements as closely as they could. After a bit of grading, the fit was perfect but I wouldn’t know until she actually tried it on. I kept a fair amount of fabric in the hems in order to adjust if needed. I took my time making sure the dress was graded to fit Lexi’s curves and once I was happy with it, in went the zip and the dress was closed up at the back. Sewing zips isn’t a strength of mine and doing it for someone else makes me really nervous. I did my best and so far Lexi has been polite enough not to say anything. Hemming the skirt, although it took a while, was straight forward and just on the stroke of midnight, the dress was complete.

Did I leave it there and go to bed? Of course not, the dress needed a little bit of extra flare which I decided should come in the form of sparkles. Whipping out my hot fix tool, I dove into my stash and added some crystals to the bodice of the dress so they would hopefully catch the light on stage and make the dress a little more special. At 3:30, the dress was officially finished and I dragged my body into bed waiting to woken up by Lexi at my door.

The next morning, I woke with a text from Miss Lexi Heart asking for a matching head scarf which was easy enough to put together with the scraps I had left over and she was at my door for a fitting before my morning cup of tea had ben drunk. Wouldn’t you know, the dress fit like a dream and Lexi Heart was so happy with it. Grabbing her accessories, dress and shoes, she flew out the door and to Sydney to compete in the pageant. I had another nap.

I found this pattern straight forward t sew and follow even though it wasn’t the fastest dress I’ve ever made. I think making it for someone else made me slow down and make sure everything was perfect. If you’d like an extra slice of drama, right before the pageant, Miss Lexi tried on the dress again and the zip broke. Never in my life has a zip broken on me before and although I felt awful as it was a zip from my stash, there was nothing I could do on the other side of the country. Luckily, Lexi found someone who could put in a new zip and she got the dress back within minutes of her having to walk on stage. Phew, talk about lucky timing. Miss Lexi Heart did her absolute best on stage and wowed the judges with her incredible charisma and stage presence. All of WA were so proud of our representative. Although she didn’t win this particular pageant, she still said it was an incredible experience and I’m glad she had so much fun at the event.

Sewing this dress makes me want to sew this pattern with the halter straps for myself and it’s something I want to do next year. Even though I’ve made this pattern for myself, I want to give it another go with the halter straps.

If you’d like to follow Miss Lexi Heart and her adventures, find her on Instagram here.
All photos of Miss Lexi Heart were taken by Kaotic Images. Find them here.

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.