Continuing on with my Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant sewing saga, find part one/day wear sewing post here, today we are met with part two and how I made my talent round outfit. What’s the talent I did on stage you ask? Wallpapering. Yes, I did wallpapering for three minutes on stage at one of the biggest pinup pageants in Australia which means my outfit also had to be just as ridiculous. For my talent round, I wanted to go for a more typical 50’s house dress as I pictured it as a lady of the house decorating her home which landed me upon Simplicity R10646 which was a delightful shirt dress. Having never made a shirt dress before, this was the perfect chance to give it a crack.

Our shirtdress pattern, Simplicity R10646 also goes by the code S9164 so I believe I may have a very recent version. This pattern is originally intended as a costume to make the iconic I Love Lucy chocolate factory outfit (and even includes the hat and apron) but I can see the potential it has to just be a wonderful shirt dress. This pattern can also be used to make an I Love Lucy house dress as it’s been recommended to be sewn using polka dots and helps you place rick rack along the apron pieces for the iconic Lucille Ball look. As I’ve never made a shirt dress before, I thought this would be a good pattern to try as it’s intended for beginners. The pattern features a front working button placard, a darted bodice and a collar and sleeves with cuffs. Attached to the bodice is a gathered skirt with an invisible side zip. For my own convenience I will be adding a pocket. I plan to sew the size 12 as this would fit my measurements best (I always sew one size smaller than the pattern recommends).

With our pattern chosen, it’s now time to turn to my fabrics. Although I haven’t posted about it much on my blog (posts are in the works at the moment however), I have been really into wallpapering my house. It’s gotten to the point where any plain white wall breathes a sigh of relief each day I don’t search up wallpaper options (I’m looking at you boring hallway). Due to my radical decorating throughout the house, I have quite the collection of wallpaper scraps and leftovers which is where I dove into to find which wallpaper to use for my talent demonstration. The plan was to make a board, prop it up on an easel and have half of it already wallpapered. I would put up a left over strip, matching patterns on stage for my demonstration which means I needed a piece of left over wallpaper that would fit my board first. The reason I’m telling you all this is because most of my wallpaper came from Spoonflower which also gives you the option of buying your chosen design on a wide range of media such as curtains, cushions, bedding and of course fabric. This means that I could potentially match my wallpaper demonstration to my outfit and bring the whole look together in pure cohesion.

Deciding between my spare bathroom wallpaper and my linen cupboard wallpaper, I landed on my linen cupboard which was this stunning retro-inspired pattern featuring moths, mushrooms, stars and moons from the designer Lauren Liza Designs. I chose it because it’s bright, bold and distinct pattern could be seen from far away and I wanted to make sure that the audience could really see how well the pattern aligns. With my wallpaper chosen, I sneakily broke my fabric-buying-ban as this was a special occasion and I ordered 4 meters of Retro Celestial Butterfly design on Spoonflowers signature petal cotton. Once it arrived I decided to add some contrast to my dress design by adding a solid pink neck collar, sleeve cuffs, belt and fabric covered buttons. The plain pink fabric I chose for the contrast was just some dusty pink Euro cotton I found whilst in Bali a little while ago.

Sew, let’s get started. Whilst cutting out my fabric pieces, I noticed that there was no back neck facing piece which I thought was odd but I haven’t sewn many collared garments so I figured I’d work something out later. There must be a method in the madness. When assembling the bodice, it came together quite smoothly and I didn’t really meet any issues until it came time to adding the collar. The collar had specific cuts which were designed to be sewn around so the finish was clean but personally, I think just having a back neck facing piece would have been easier. I was a little intimidated by the concept of having to hand sew some parts of the collar but I got there in the end. There were some steps that caused me to vocally express to no one in particular that I was confused and frustrated but I eventually figured out what they wanted me to do. I’d recommend taking this pattern really slow and if you’re a visual learner like me, getting someone to read out the steps and you just folding and moving the fabric around to try and figure out what the pattern wants.

Adding the sleeves was easy to do and a nice change from all the puffy gathered sleeves I’ve sewn recently. The process of adding the contrasting cuff to the bottom of the sleeve was interesting to me and not what I was originally expecting I would have to do. I found that I learnt a lot from this pattern and I’m glad I gave it a go. When it came to adding the buttons, I ended up deciding on creating my own fabric covered buttons using scraps of the plain pink fabric; this helped me use up left over fabric and I got very good at covering the buttons in the end. Using pink thread, I made the button holes on one side of the bodice front and I ended up deciding to swap the placard over and even though they would be sewn on wrong for buttoning up, I though the fabric pattern placement looked better so this is something I wouldn’t repeat in my next creation of this pattern. With my buttons and button holes complete, I moved onto the skirt.

My skirt was made up of 4 panels of fabric measuring the width of the fabric width and 28 inches in length. I sewed the panels together to create one very long rectangle and then used the dental floss method of gathering to gather my skirt. With my bodice being fully closed at the back and having buttons at the front, the join for the skirt was on the side of the dress. I made sure to leave this open and before I combined the bodice and skirt together, I added a pocket to the opposite side as a pocket will always come in handy. Attaching the skirt was pretty straight forward and although my floss snapped at one point, I was able to salvage everything before utter disaster. With my skirt attached I moved onto hemming the edge of the skirt which didn’t take me long; I just run it through my overlocker and then fold the hem over once before sewing it down. With that done it was just down to adding the invisible zip and I was lucky enough to have one that was long enough in my stash. Adding the invisible zip was a little nerve-wracking as it’s not a skill I’m over proficient in but I’m trying harder to sew outside my comfort zone.

After making my dress, I was lucky enough to have a square piece of fabric left over which was the perfect size for a headscarf so I out it aside as to not lose it and I planned on hemming it a little later. When it came time to finishing my scarf, I could not find my square piece of fabric and to this day I cannot find it so I think it may have accidentally been scooped up and lost somewhere in the abyss of my sewing room cupboard. I knew I still wanted a head scarf to complete my look so I ended up just using my plain dusty pink cotton and I’m so glad I did as it really tied my look together.

To pair with my dress, I also decided to make myself a belt. For this I used some belting fabric, created a fabric tube with my pink cotton and then covered a belt buckle. This is the tutorial that helped me when I got stuck and I do plan on creating a separate post about belt making very soon. Creating my own belt in a matching fabric really made my outfit feel cohesive and more put together. It didn’t take long to do, no more than about half an hour, and it gave me a little bit more confidence in my sewing ability. This was only my second attempt at making a belt, the first was for my Pushing Daisies dress, and I already see that my skills have improved.

Sewing my wallpaper dress took me a few days as I made sure to focus on just a few steps a day. All up she took about 4 or 5 afternoons to complete which for a simple dress seems like a lot of time, at least compared to my usual sewing speed, but I think by slowing down and really making sure my dress was as perfect as I could get it, I was left with a garment I was very proud of. The fit of the dress was absolutely perfect and I have to say I loved the overall look when I put it all together. This dress gave me loads of confidence when it came time to go on stage for round two of the Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant and the feedback from the round made all the stress over sewing this dress worth it. Receiving comments about how the wallpaper and dress matched was so much fun and I loved seeing my vision come together. My talent round went really well and although I have a huge fear of public speaking, once I got started I remembered to have fun, show off my wallpapering and entertain the audience of well over a thousand people.

Sewing Simplicity R10646 /S9164 was the right level of challenge that I needed to learn some new skills and create a garment I’ve wanted to for quite a while. For well over two years I have started sewing shirt dresses but never finished one so to actually sit down with time, a goal and a vision and bring it to life felt very rewarding. In the end I enjoyed the process so much that as soon as I finished making this version, I started a second version of this pattern which somehow has become one of my favourite makes of the year so far (blog for that one coming very soon). If you’ve been wanting to sew this pattern, I’d highly recommend it and just keep an eye on some of the wording when it comes to adding the collar and facing as that’s the only part that tripped me up. This dress has made me want to try different shirt dress patterns and I’m sure I’ll make at least another one or two before the year is out.

I’d like to give a special thank you to the amazing staff at the iconic Pink Hotel in Coolangatta. They very kindly let us shoot around the property which gave us these amazing shots. Pairing this outfit with the background of such a unique hotel was so much fun and being shown some of the wicked room styling was truly a wonderful experience. Just look at this amazing view from the rooftop, oh and did I mention it becomes a bar in the afternoon?

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. This page contains affiliate links/codes which aid in funding future reviews but do not cost you any more to use.