Shirring spots
Shirring was one of those things, like button holes and zips, that I was a little scared of. I needn’t have been, it’s so easy and a handy little technique for making simple summer sundresses for my girls.
The dress below is a hybrid between the Smocked Sundress in Heather Ross’ Weekend Sewing (as photographed above) and Jorth’s Shirred Dress Tutorial. Jorth has excellent step-by-step instructions (with photos) and a fabulous formula for sizing. Heather’s strap construction makes it much easier for your little one to get in and out of her dress. I love the result.
The navy/grey spotty fabric was purchased yesterday afternoon from Cutting Edge Fabric. I was so keen to get to my sewing machine, and so inspired by the fabric, that for the first time ever I broke the golden rule of NOT washing fabric before using it! I’m usually very law abiding. I’m not sure what came over me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact I’d hadn’t found/made the time for sewing for a whole week?
Miss B decided her new dress was a bit big, so she cut the photo shoot short. She was right. I’ve come undone again with my ‘room for growing’ logic. Oh well, there will be a new a dress awaiting her next Summer.
Such a cute dress:)
Thanks 🙂
This is super super cute! Miss B will be loving this next summer- you’re just awesome at forward planning sewing!
Can you believe that she wore the dress today without prompting? I was of course, very pleased.
It looks great! At least you’ve got a dress to pull out for Miss B at the first sign of next summer!
Thanks Ruth.
My machine won’t shir!! It is too fancy pants. Extremely frustrating!
That’s not fair! I hope it does lots of other fabulous fancy pants stuff to make-up for it’s lack of ability to shir. I’m happy to bring my machine to you anytime you feel the need to shir. A mum at school today planted a little seed about making an adult version of this dress. Watch this space…
[…] B has worn her shirred spotty dress twice in the last week. The ‘it’s too big’ declaration on photo shoot day has […]
[…] sundress #3 was sewn up this evening (see version #1 and #2). This one is a present for a school friend of Miss A’s who turns 7 on Friday. […]
[…] take the best from all the shirring pattern and tutorials I’ve used in the past (see here, here & here) and test out my perceived ‘holy grail’ of shirred […]
[…] take the best from all the shirring pattern and tutorials I’ve used in the past (see here, here & here) and test out my perceived ‘holy grail’ of shirred […]