Shopping my fabric stash and using Charm Lamour Dress Pattern

If there is any occasion where I have the opportunity to make myself a new fancy dress, rest assured I will ignore all logic and my bursting wardrobe and make myself a new fancy dress. This year for Cooly Rocks On, I knew I would be judging the pinup pageant and handing over my crown so I wanted to make myself a pretty ‘judging dress’ and use only what’s in my fabric stash. Last year my gown was a dress I made inspired by A Court of Thorns and Roses, so this year, I wanted something that was spring garden-themed, whimsical and feminine. Like most sewing adventures, this garment creation was rife with twists, turns, international adventures and more so let’s see how it all unfolded.

Having made a few gowns for myself, I am always wanting to try different styles, shapes and textures. For this project, I dove deep into the ‘fancy’ section of my fabric stash deep within the cupboard and I started pulling out options. Not wanting to use some of my more lavish fabrics, I opted for a combination I have been excited about since I purchased the textiles way back in 2022. Whilst shopping in Kuala Lumpur’s fabric district, Chow Kit, I ventured into Jakel Mall and found both these fabrics and I’ve loved them ever since I first saw them. The fabrics in question were 4 meters of an Italian wedding satin (Italian Heavy Zandra Vomo Wedding Plain 45″) in a soft green tone; this fabric feels like polished cotton or very lightweight satin and I’ve never used anything quite like it before and wish I had more of it. The second textile I plan to use is about 4 meters of soft pink tulle covered in a heavy scattering of light pink embroidered roses and leaves with a scalloped embroidered edge.

These two fabrics gave me the image of that iconic Givenchy rose dress that Audrey Hepburn wore in the film Funny Face. Taking that idea as my inspiration, I tweaked a few things and ended up with a pretty simple plan. I was going to make the bodice using Charm Pattern’s Lamour Dress which I’ve used before here, here and here. I wanted to go a strapless sweetheart neckline which meant that I would be using steel boning for extra support as I didn’t want to be pulling the dress up all night. For the skirt, I wanted a large circle skirt for extra twirl factor. When designing and sewing the gown, I always had multiple petticoats on my dress mannequin and I also wore several on the day so I could always gauge the general silhouette and shape I was going for. For this look, I wanted the hemline of the skirt to be at a modest cocktail hour length as I thought tea length might be a bit much (plus I didn’t have any longer petticoats and I don’t like that awkward jellyfish skirt drop that happens when your petticoat is too short for your skirt).

Now let’s chat details. I wanted the rose embroidered tulle to be over the top of the skirt allowing for the roses to be really present. The bodice would also have the roses but I had to decide between a few options.

• A) Cut out the rose tulle for every bodice piece and baste them on top of the green. This is great because it adds a random scattering of roses and allows me to be picky with my floral placements. However, the embroidery is quite thick in certain parts and with so many more seams going through the embroidery this could mean a lot of messy unpicking and possibly damaging the tulle itself or if I don’t fully unpick I might be left with really chunky seams that aren’t straight. Once boning is added it might be super thick and lumpy along certain points. Or it could be perfect.
• B) I could make the bodice in the green satin only and then drape the embroidered tulle over the top, tack it down and it could be this gloriously structured and sculpted thing of beauty. Or it could be an absolute mess because there’s so much space between flowers and how do I deal with that it’ll look weird and chunky and uneven. Or I could use the edge of the tulle with the embroidered scallop go along the neckline of the bodice and try really hard with the draping options…maybe if I buy new sharp pins and really go for it!
• C)The bodice is made with just the green satin and then I painstakingly cut out a bunch of roses from the tulle before hand sewing them onto the bodice in a somewhat pretty scattering. This could look really pretty but because the tulle background is completely gone, the tone of green that is in the bodice versus the skirt is quite different. As the tulle has a soft pink hue, the skirt being covered in a thich gathered layer of it means the green tone will be more muted and the dress could have an accidental two-toned look which I’m not really a fan of.
• D) Finding a professional and paying them to do it. So much less stress but I should be challenging myself and I’ve got to learn stuff somehow.

Well let’s just start the adventure and we will see how it all pans out. Starting this sewing quest, I knew it would be smart to start by cutting out the circle skirt as that will use up most of the fabric. I was so glad that I could easily fit a full 35″ circle skirt into the four meters I had. Before I fully decided on the 35″ length, I actually spent ages studying the pattern on the rose tulle, I was certain that I would be gathering the tulle and needed to be mindful of the pattern as in some parts, the embroidery was really thick and I didn’t want too many gathers to go through these parts. Whilst looking at the rose pattern, there was one section that only had a thin stem going parallel through the design and it happened to be around the 35″. That is how I landed on my final skirt length of 35″ and it worked out really well in the end. With my circle skirt pieces cut out, I pinned my circle skirt to my dress form to let the bias drop whilst I worked on everything else.

Moving onto the bodice next, the Lamour dress calls for quite a few layers; each bodice piece needs to be cut in outer fabric, lining fabric and underlining fabric. The outer fabric was easy, it’s the green Italian satin that the skirt is made from. For lining, I decided I wanted to use something fun that was left over from a previous project as a happy lining can really make you smile some days. After digging in my cabbage pile I pulled out some sage green cotton with daisies on it from this project, ironically I also had it for last years Cooly Rocks On, and decided it was perfect. For my underlining, which is a layer I will baste to the underside of my outer fabric for extra structural and strength support, I wanted something lightweight and soft and I decided to sacrifice some very soft lightweight cotton I got from Mood (if you know you know). As the fabric was all one soft green tone, the pieces could be tucked into a thin strip along the top, cut carefully and I could still keep a good piece of the fabric for future projects. There are over 12 fabric pieces going into the bodice alone without even thinking of the tulle.

Looking at the leftover green satin, I knew I had enough to cut out a new bodice several times over if I really needed to. This was a good mental safety net as I pawed through my options with the tulle. I decided to go ahead baste the underlining to the outer fabric and sew up those pieces. I’d also sew up the lining (the green daisy cotton) into a single bodice piece until I needed to actually make a decision about the tulle. There was still boning channels and boning to add to the lining so I took this time to keep mulling my options. At this point I had ruled out option A of cutting out each piece out of the tulle because it would be way too bulky. Currently, I had my dress as three main pieces; the bodice outer layer, the bodice inner layer and the circle skirt. It was all chucked onto my dress form as I figured it might be time to play with option B, draping.

Adding multiple petticoats and a hem to the circle skirt once it fully dropped, (although I’m now questioning how well because … well you’ll see), I stared at the dress on the mannequin for a while. She was actually stunning just as a green satin dress and it made me want to make a gown that was a little more quiet in it’s fabric choices for later. This time, she was destined to embody a magical rose garden so I turned my attention to the tulle. There was much pinning, pulling, stabbing, stitching, staring, lamenting and decision making happening for the next little while. There were many veriations including one that had two tiers of rose embroidered (using the left over tulle perfectly may I add!) but they were vetod by the husband and I stuck with my original idea of the single tulle layer, he may have been right but I’m also still not convinced otherwise.

At one point I decided I wanted to lay the full circle skirt on the floor and I was going to lay the roses over the satin and see just how beautiful she would look when twirling. Golly gosh I am so glad I did because I didn’t have enough tulle to cover the skirt. When buying the fabric back in 2022 I never thought I’d make a 35″ circle skirt so I didn’t account for this hiccup. I had a large portion of my satin skirt that would not have tulle to cover it and now I’ve got this awkward chunk missing. This is where options came up for how to proceed (all of which were badly sketch and then explained to the husband in a mad trauma dump whilst he was just trying to watch television one evening).

• A) Cut out the chunk of skirt that doesn’t get covered by the tulle and turn the full circle skirt into a 3/4 circle. This would mean the skirt wouldn’t flare out as much when moving and it might get a little squishy with many petticoats underneath. I also wasn’t willing to give up twirliness.
• B) Cut out the roses one by one and spend the rest of my life sewing them on to this skirt perfectly because if something is just a little bit off it’ll haunt me forever and I’ll never unsee it. Yes I actually had a decent amount of time, more than a month and a half before Cooly so it was possible but…my back already hurts.
• C) Fly to KL and hope that they still have this exact same tulle in stock, buy more and then complete the dress.
• D) Adjust the tulle so the piece of satin that isn’t covered by the tulle, is at the very back of the dress. Cut out the green satin that isn’t covered by the tulle. Go out and but a soft pink similar fabric that would compliment the dress and embroidery. Add in a gathered panel in a soft pink colour to fill the gap, hem to fit. Sew a belt in the same pink satin. Sew a large bow that I can attach (possibly thread along the belt) which would sit at the back of the dress so the pink satin panel we sewed into the skirt now looks like the ribbons hanging from the big butt bow. Think if the Audrey Hepburn Sabrina bustle gown had a baby with the Betty Drapper bow dress. I wanted it to look like this bustle of pink bow prettiness.
• E) Change the whole tulle overlay for something else. Reshop the stash or buy something else.

None of these options were overly simple and I wasn’t compromising the fullness of the skirt. As if the universe was looking out for me, I got chatting with a friend who lives overseas who asked if I wanted to catch up which is code for “cheeky getaway?!” and the idea was for her to come visit me for a little while. Three days later, when we were about to buy the tickets, the prices skyrocketed and after much chatting about where else to go, we ended up deciding on Kuala Lumpur. Oh and she also sews and has a degree in fashion plus she’s super stylish so when I asked if she was ok with me going to get some fabric, she was on board. Making sure the girl maths was correct, going to KL I had two possible options that worked the best; I a) find the tulle fabric in a huge stroke of luck and fly home and continue the plan or b) when I realise I can’t find the tulle, I instead buy a complimentary pink fabric of the same type as the green (yes I brought a sample of everything with me) and proceed with skirt option D. Getting home from KL would leave me with just under a week to get the dress finished and pakced before we had to leave for Cooly. This is absolutely achievable as the steps are all pretty straightforward and it was only the bow shape that was worrying me. So, let’s go to KL!

The day finally came when we got to the shiny storefront that is Jakel Mall in Chow Kit. This multi-story mecha of materials would house the future outcome of my dress which had at this point taken on a fantasy quest life of it’s own. Upon entering the store, I knew where the satin had come from and I was hoping they were still there. Alas it was and I instantly found my green satin and therefore found the pink satin options. Knowing where the satin was meant that I could now theoretically find the tulle if it also was in the same section. It wasn’t but by this stage I had already had a store assistant run off with my sample to see if he could find it. I was shown by someone else where the tulle was now kept and they too took off to see if they could find the pink roses I was searching for. At this point I had two store assistants searching, my friend and myself were hunting, oh and did I mention my Dad decided to join us for the last three days which we were super excited about because that just means more food and snack time! So 5 people were all searching for the rose fabric and it was indeed gone.

Whilst chatting out the option of either adding the pink bow bustle on the back or finding new tulle, there was a moment I so badly wished to go home with this one particular tulle fabric option. She was the softest tulle mesh I’ve ever touch which was a light grey tone (perfect for over green) and she was covered in hand-embroidered orange and yellow flowers. To top it all off she was a stunning border print so the flowers were more condensed along the bottom and got sparser towards the top; that would look stunning on a gown. To add even more magic, she was already covered in Swarovski crystals for that little bit of extra sparkle. I was sold, she was mine, we are going with this orange flower tulle that sparkles. I was going to even think about finding a different green satin and starting from scratch basically because a sage green would look even better. Then I asked the magic question of “how much is it per meter?” and had my dream eviscerated when he responded with 3000RM or $1000AUD per meter. A grand for a meter Mon are you kidding?! I timidly put it back talking about how I’ll think about it as I made a beeline back to satin section or at least until my credit card stopped screaming. Pink satin it is!

Once I was home from my whirlwind trip around Malaysia, I returned to my enrichment enclosure (sewing room) and revisited my dress as it currently hung. I had a bodice front made from green satin, lining ready to go fully boned, and a green satin circle skirt. To begin the process of creating my skirt, i decided to cut my tulle into the length I needed, gather it using dental floss and seeing how far along she sits along until she can’t cover the green. So I laid out my tulle, started marking the points I wanted to cut along and then finally went ahead and cut the tulle holding my breath the whole time. Opting out of dental floss, I gathered the tulle using two basting stitches as I figured it might allow me to hold the gathers down a bit rather than them slipping over dental floss. Laying the skirt on the floor, I pinned the waistline of the skirt to my tulle gathers and … the tulle fit.

Wait, what? How? When I laid the hemline of the tulle along the bottom hemline of the skirt she didn’t fit. How does she fit now? Well, I guess she might still not fit but without the excess tulle that I had now cut off, I could see that the twirl of the skirt would not be impacted. So did I just panic, create a situation that didn’t exist, waste time, buy unnecessary pink fabric and can now just continue as if nothing happened? Well, I guess I have some pink satin fabric for another time. Alright then, I guess we just carry on.

The tulle was sewn onto the satin skirt to become one piece and I finished up the hems. Well actually I was really tired and my tulle french hem was backwards and I only noticed once in Cooly. But sure enough, the tulle could cover the satin skirt and the gathered hemline was not too difficult to sew even with the embroidery. Our skirt could chill for the time being as I returned my attention to the bodice and what to do with the rose tulle. Draping didn’t achieve the look I wanted and after sewing over the embroidery which got a little wonky sometimes, I decided to go with bodice option C which was to cut out the roses and sew them onto the bodice. Around this time, my Dad had to go to hospital for some surgery so when I went to visit him, I spent the time cutting out the individual roses with some embroidery scissors and chatting to him.

With my bodice on it’s way to completion, I began by pinning the roses to the outer fabric on my dress form. Once I was finally happy with the placement, I tacked them down with pins and I removed the bodice from the mannequin. Before hand sewing, I put small blobs of glue on the back of the roses and adhered them to my dress. This wasn’t to permanently hold, but more so it didn’t move about or warp whilst stitching as many of the stems were thin and moved about. Making myself a big cup of tea and putting on an audiobook, I grabbed my invisible thread and started to sew my roses to my bodice. Long story short, it took forever because I was trying to be neat, it was really awkward to sew and I didn’t know how to tackle the shapes and I just didn’t enjoy it. I did a full rose patch before I decided I was going to just go rouge on the sewing machine using the invisible thread. So very slowly, I just sewed around the edges of the roses and leaves making sure to not leave any spots not tacked down. With the thread being, well, invisible, I was able to cut across section for extra support. I think this was the best outcome because it was neat, quick and I got the hang of it down quite well. This method also allowed me to go back and do part I omitted as well as redo the piece I hand sewed just incase.

With this part done, the rest of the bodice came together really quick. The lining was attached and I let some of the embroidered roses and leaves stand out for a touch of whimsy. The bodice was then tidied up along the edges before I added it to the skirt. Hurray, she is officially in one piece and so close to being done. For the closure in the back I opted for a zip which I luckily had in my stash and I whacked it in. With a quick final press and attaching my label, my rose garden fantasy dress was complete!

The day of the Cooly Rocks On Pinup Pageant finally arrived and I was able to wear my new creation. Along with two petticoats, pink satin shoes, some vintage jewellery and my winning crown, I was all dressed up and ready to hand over my title. The dress was dreamy, she twirled beautifully and I got many compliments on her which made me feel amazing. I loved the rose tulle in the skirt and knew that next time, I’ll wear even more petticoats. The slight two-toned difference in the dress between the bodice and skirt did bother me and I do wonder if a belt would make the dress feel more cohesive in the future.

The pageant itself was an incredible event with a huge crowd. Held at the main stage all the contestants did such an incredible job, I’m pretty sure judging was harder than actually competing. I know my fellow judges also were blown away by the skill, professionalism charm and talent on stage, this one was bound to be a nail biting photo finish. As the event was held outside, I’m glad I packed a light pink cardigan to match as it kept the chill away. Getting to wear my dress for the judging was such a dream and the epic adventure she took me on was completely worth it.

There is a little bit of an issue with the fit that we should address. She was a little large in the bodice especially around the bust but I have been a little sick and lost weight due to illness however I’m already heading back to a healthier weight. I’m hoping within the next few months she will fit me better once I’ve recovered a little more. There is also the question of sewing in pockets which I wish I had done but I think I was just so overwhelmed with the tulle actually working along the skirt that I just forgot pockets existed.

The main issue I have with the dress is I believe the hem of the two skirt fabrics don’t sit at the same level. Sometimes when I moved around I could tell the skirts weren’t level but I couldn’t tell if it was because the hems were just unever or because the tulle layer was a tighter fit and caused a little bunching sometimes. It can be seen in certain photos and I hope one day to unpick the whole hem and resew it neater and at the corect length.

To showcase the dress, I decided to shoot some photos right before the pinup pageant started. They were taken near one of the beach entry points as I wanted the stunning beach in the background plus it was very crowded everywhere else.

My rose garden gown was a real darling to wear. I love how soft, feminine, romantic and pretty she is. The process of her creation was a real adventure and she posed so many unexpected challenges. Although stressful, it was fun getting creative with my problem solving and it feels as though this dress has gone through so many versions of herself before her big debut. All the challenges in this project gave me so much more experience for future projects and also some really fun side quests that took me on a literal adventure. It was also fun to bring along so many fellow adventurers be it friends and family who I asked opions from or those who went to stores to get bits and bobs with me. This dress really was a vintage sewing adventure.

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.