My first sewing challenge of 2025 was to tackle a project I have been dreaming of for very long time: a dress with a fully integrated bustier. And for Valentine, what else than the so appropriately-named Lamour dress by Charm Patterns?

Pink & Red for Valentine

I am the lucky owner of an extensive collection of party dresses. But while I sew most of my daytime dresses, all of my party ones are store bought. Why will you ask? Given that most of my sewing is actually dresses, I should really be an expert by now… But combine difficult fabric with the technicalities of a structured bodice and here is a perfect excuse to buy yet another Marchesa Notte gown…Oh well…

What I really needed to break my sewing block was a challenge. So I invited loads of friends to a “Pink and Red” Valentine party and promised myself that I would make the dress for it if I found the right fabric. And so I did – a perfect pink and red brocade, not too stiff for a dress and super Valentine appropriate.

Before giving you more details about the dress, I cannot resist showing you a few pictures of the party decorations, another really fun part of party-planning.

And here are a few pictures with my Valentine. I always intended to make him a traditional bow tie. He also requested a cummerbund (a tuxedo belt). I could find no pattern I liked, so I ordered a very cheap belt on Amazon, dismantled it to draft a pattern and used the back elasticated part and… TADA!

Lamour dress pattern review

I am in love with Charm Patterns…

I am a huge fan of the Charm Pattern dresses (well, actually, of all their patterns) for several reasons:

• First, their nostalgic 1940-50’s style is all I want for my wadrobe.
• Second, they fit me to perfection, even more so thanks to the (very wide range of) bust cup options.
• Third, the written and video instructions are fantastic. I was dreading the application of boning so much that I watched this specific section of the video even before buying my fabric… It was so well explained that it convinced me to go ahead!

I love Charm Patterns so much I am actually a patron on Patreon . For a very reasonable monthly fee you get access to a treasure trove of exclusive past pattern and a new one every month. This is definitely a great motivation to try new patterns and I hugely recommend becoming a patron if you are not already one.

… and even more in love with the Lamour dress

Anyway, back to the Lamour dress. Here is the enveloppe, as well as the drawings of all the bodice and skirt options offered.

Do not fear boning the bodice!

As you can see, this dress is basically made of a boned princess seam bodice; and either a sarong or a circle skirt. For my dress, I went for the most basic bodice option – plain vanilla strapless, shash-less, decoration-less. I was absolutely terrified to mess-up and it turned out all very easy actually!

The main bodice has 8 pieces of fabric, which are interlined for structure. You can pattern-match if you want to spend ages cutting, which I did and seemed in restrospect very unnecessary. The lining uses the same pattern pieces, but you add boning to the seams to guarantee perfect hold.

Why did I dread this bit for so many years? It was actually very fun to do, it is invisible from the outside and and it works so so well to prevent the bodice from moving at all!! You can twirl and dance without any worries.

Add a big skirt for more puff

For the skirt, I could have gone with my all-time favourite full circle skirt. However this Valentine dress was the perfect opportunity to use another pattern of my stash, Vintage re-edited Vogue V9106.

The skirt has a circle shape, but is extended at two levels to add gathers and create even more volume. I am delighted with the effect.

I obviously fully lined the skirt but no need for gathers for the lining, a full circle skirt was perfect.

Only a tiny fit adjustment needed for the bodice

As for adjustments, I cut a size 4 with D/DD cup for the bodice (my usual for Charm Patterns) and I made a toile. This helped me adjust the bust princess seam so that it would perfectly follow my bust curves, but frankly nothing drastic. I went for a size 10 for the skirt (my usual for Vogue) and made no change whatsoever.

Conclusion

I can’t believe how well this dress turned out. I am beyond proud by how perfectly professional it looks and very keen to put my bustier knowledge to good use – I alreay have another project in mind for the summer.

After my first version of the B6018 pattern in a quite stiff silk dupion, I was keen to try and sew a second, more floaty version. Here it is!

I fully reviewed the B6918 pattern (which I adore), as well as explained in details how to make a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) in a previous article. Here, I am going to solely focus on fabric effects.

For this version of the dress, I used a bright red, medium weight, cloqué polyester fabric from The New Craft House. I was so attracted by the fabric texture and its wonderful bright and at the same time deep red colour, that I broke my personal no-poly policy. The texture is definitely more visible on close-up pictures.

I definitely achieved my purpose of a floatier effect for the lower part of the dress, where the skirt falls and moves very nicely.

However, I am not that thrilled with the bodice. I did really struggle to properly iron my seams, I find it is really visible and it really annoys me when I wear the dress. The collar in particular is a complete miss. I am not sure wether it is because of the drape of the fabric or simply because it is poly, I can’t remember ever having such a struggle with floaty silk. What do you think?

In any case, this dress in completley wearable, especially ahead of Christmas in my Mother Christmas outfit…

One of my New Year resolutions is to come back to my beloved blog, after a long absence. So let’s start with my latest make of the year: the M6742 dress by McCall.

An easy dress to sew

Although my 18-month absence from this blog does not mean I completely stopped sewing, I have less time to commit to this hobby these days – new and bigger house, new garden, 4 teenage kids, 2 cats, more exercise and new interests I am trying to pursue. So to avoid sewing another version of yet again the same pattern, I decided to pick something straightforward.

M6742 is classified as an “Easy” pattern on the enveloppe and it truly is. There is no waist seam, meaning that you are dealing with less pattern pieces than usual – 5 in total (which you use for both the dress itself and its lining), and large ones so no fiddling about.

Beware adjustments! – a toile is a must!

That said, the pattern does not have bust cup options, so if you are not a standard B cup I would strongly advise you make a quick toile, to check the fit. This really does not have to be complicated, I used a cheap cotton fabric and I cut my pieces just below the waist and cut the front piece in 2 – this way, no closure is needed at the back, you pin the front and you can make all your adjustments much more easily.

For me, the main adjustment was to add ease at the bust (I am an E cup). I am not particularly good at doing this with princess seams, so I basically made my sewing allowance smaller accross the bust. Not an exact science but it somewhat did the trick.

Dress specifics

• Fabric: I have been obsessed with the green colour lately (which frankly is a shock to my pink and blue self) and stumbled upon this gorgeous brocade from Sew Me Sunshine (sold out I’m afraid). It is the perfect weight for a dress, not stiff but heavy enough for the winter. I never wear cotton or silk in the English winter (too cold!!) and I hate polyester, soI find brocade a good alternative to wool.
• Sizing and adjustments: I cut a size 10, my usual in McCall, and appart from the bust adjustment just discussed it fitted well.
• Modifications to the pattern: I added sleeves to the dress, using another McCall pattern; and I lenghtened slighly. I also lowered the front neckline, as it was really unpleasantly positionned initially.
• Likes and dislikes: on the positive side, I really like the perfect fit and flare shape, the fact that there is no interruption at the waist (not easy to find for this shape) and the easy nature of this project. On the negative side, I wish there had been bust cup options to save me the trouble!

Conclusion

Very pleased with this dress, and a second one has already been sewn so see you soon….

After a long absence (nearly a year…), I am back to my beloved blog. Lots of changes, most importantly … a new sewing room! So if you are after fresh sewing room ideas, read on.

Why away so long?

Well, a lot happened in a year! We finished building a house and moved in, which seems minor when put on paper but was a huge life challenge . The fact that we knocked down our previous home to build a new one and moved for 18 months to a rental I hated did obviously not help…

That said, all is good now. I am still buying furniture like there is no tomorrow but we are laregely settled, so time to go back to sewing and blogging!

A new sewing room: from concept…

I was lucky enough to have a sewing room in our previous house, but it doubled (well, tripled) as our family office and guest bedroom, so no room for a cutting table or an ironing space. Also, I had designed the sewing space when I had far less fabric and only one single machine… Ah ah ah, these time are long past!!!

So the new sewing room needed to include:

• a proper cutting table;
• lots (and lots and lots) of storage room for fabric;
• a large desk to accomodate 4 machines (sewing, embroidery, overlocker and xx)

It also needed to double-up as my personal office. So even more desk space! And did I mention I am a bit OCD? So as much as possible hidden from sight please.

So let’s look at the original sketch I drew:

… which over the months translated into a 2-D plan:

… and after more months into 3-D visuals:

… to reality

And now the sewing room in the flesh – come in!

I am a pink and purple girl so I deliberately forced myself to chose neutral colours for the furniture so I could go crazy with paintings and accessories.

The huge desk space is perfect and I definitely use 100% of its capacity. The three under-desk drawer units allow me to have my needed accessories handy.

I have a storage unit above the desk, which I adore. The first section is for all my sewing notions and the other three for my sewing patterns, all neatly stored in plastic jackets and then in classified folders.

I wish the cutting table was a bit longer and wider, but at 1×1.85m (40x73in) it is not bad and the absolute maximum I could accommodate in the space.

The large drawers underneath the folding table and directly facing it are all for fabric storage. I have 12 in total and I try and split fabric by composition. Despite my extensive stash, there is still a lot of room left for future purchase. Not sure it is such a good thing…

The tall units allows for extra storage and are not full either, yes!! You can see that this is where I store my mini ironing table and my iron – no matter how much I use them, I definitely cannot bear the constant sight of these!

I am still thinking about a few additions for this room. I have just ordered a full-size mirror and a corner hanging unit to be able to hang my just-finished makes (instead of pilling them on the mannequin). I would also love a small round rug and a lounging chair but all in its time…

Ideas to furnish a sewing room on a budget

If you would like to reproduce the ideas I’ve used for my sewing room but don’t want to spend on custom furniture, here are a few suggestions – coming directly from what I used in our rental house.

For the cutting table, I used 2 Tornviken IKEA kitchen islands – you can have them side by side or back to back to create a large cutting space; and they have storage underneath for sewing notions.

For the desk, I used the Lagkapten table top (in 200x60cm but it exists in smaller lengths), combined with one Alex drawer unit and the Hilver desk legs. I liked this desk so much that all my children asked for a similar one, so we now have them scattered around the house.

And for fabric storage I used the Platsa cupboards with the Fonnes doors. They are in no way as good quality as the Pax system, but much cheaper and easier to assemble (or disassemble, as I seem to be continually doing). All these have now been reused in the basement of the new house.

Ready to sew!

So now that I have introduced you to my new sewing space, I’m ready to show you all my backlog of creations of the past year. Still figuring out how to do this without boring you to death though so suggestions welcome!