Very Basic Shirred Dress

Finally – I’m still having some glitches on the computer, but I’m going to dive in anyway – ready to get started on shirring?!?

Lets start at the very beginning, the most non-threatening approach to shirring you can get…

The easiest and most basic way to make a shirred dress – buy fabric that’s already shirred!! It is most certainly not the least expensive way to get the end results (Jo-Ann’s has their preshirred fabrics for about 25 cents an inch – not outrageously expensive (especially with a 40% off coupon!) but not the cheapest fabric in the world either. The other drawback to fabric that is already shirred is that it’s not easy to find! I searched and searched online to provide you with a link and this is the only one I found! The fabric is ridiculously expensive and (in my opinion) not really cute! However it makes for very quick and easy garment construction that can be used in a number of ways, so, we’ll start here and work our way up to actually shirring our own fabrics and making clothing that way. Shirring can be very intimidating – especially to the beginning sewer, so I want to really ease into everything on this topic allowing us all to get our feet wet first and then slowly wade out into the deeper waves!

To make a dress or top using preshirred fabric, you need only two measurements, -) the bust/chest measurement of the person the garment will be for, and the length from the underarm to your desired hem length of the garment. When you have your fabric cut, as for the exact measurement as the chest measurement, if you’d like a looser fitting garment you can add and inch (for children) or two (for adults) but you don’t want to add more than that or the elastic won’t stretch at all and the garment will hang exclusively by the straps.

Measure down your fabric from the top hem just above where the shirring starts, down to your desired length (this is the measurement from the underarm to your desired length) making sure to add at least an inch (I’d recommend and inch and a half to two inches) to allow for a hem later.

Cut, or tare, your fabric at the length needed , if it has a cute border, you can save it to make the straps later, or, if you’re cutting off enough as scraps for another project.

Carefully line up all the elastic threads, seams, and other stitching as close as you can and pin the fabric right sides together using as many pins as you need to keep everything lined up.

Using a straight stitch, make a 1/4 inch seem down the length of the garment making sure to adjust and line things up as you go – especially important right where the shirring stops and the fabric flares back out.

Turn, measure, and iron up a half inch from the bottom of your dress.

Repeat this time making a one inch fold (or your desired hem width – I like big hems)

Stitch (I like a double stitched hem) along the upper edge of your hem.

At this point, if you made the dress tight enough, you could stop there and have a tube top/dress that would stay rather well because of the elastic shirring.  However, if you, like me, prefer a strap of some sort, there are a couple different options.

1) The most simple is to use a wide ribbon cut to length, heat seal the ends, and stitch in place – shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes or so!

2) use the border print, or another fabric and sew a simple pair of straps – which is what I’m going to show you here!

For my daughters dress I cut a piece of approximately 15 inch long fabric into a five inch strip.

Then cut that in half – in the end, this will make straps about 2 inches wide (I like wide straps with my big hems :-p)

fold each strap, right sides together, in half lengthwise and iron.

sew down the long side of the straps (the open, unfolded edge) using a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

turn right side out using your preferred method.

Iron flat

Cut to length needed (keeping in mind you’re going to fold in the ends, and lose some length when you attach it to the dress, I’d factor in another 1/2 inch to an inch), tuck ends in about a 1/4 inch and top stitch all 4 sides.

Then you just need to sew the straps to the top of the dress along the top hem.

A dress like this can be sewn in under an hour – even if it’s the first time you’ve done it.  The same technique can be used to make a skirt, a top, a bathing suit cover up, lots of things – thats the best part about shirring.

Come back tomorrow for an alternate to the straps!

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