Shirring!

Today I tackled shirring for the first time!  I'd seen several blogs with tutorials on making dresses and skirts using shirring, and I was excited to give it a try.  It seemed an easy and versatile skill to learn, so I went to Joann this morning and got a purple stretch knit and some elastic thread.  The recommendations by one site were to take the measurement of the fullest part of your body (for me, the hips) and multiply it by 1.25.  The fabric I found at Joann was exactly the width I needed, so I got one yard and figured that would be long enough, and I could hem it if need be. 

Shirring is so stinking easy.  If you haven't tried it, you should!  I loaded my regular thread up top, and hand-wound the elastic thread on the bobbin (don't stretch it as you wind it).  Then sew in lines along the top your fabric with your stitch length at its longest.  As you do more and more lines of shirring, you do need to stretch the fabric out as you go, but it's not at all hard.  Make sure you backstitch at the beginning and end of each row too to secure your stitching.  I also had to make sure to use the correct needle for the fabric I was using.

I used special jersey/ballpoint needles for this fabric, and you can see one of the 10's is missing from the case.  The woman at Joann suggested starting with the 10 and moving to the 12 if necessary, but the 10 was perfect.

Shirring in action!

I lined up the edge of my presser foot with the previous row to keep the rows evenly spaced.

               

I tried on the dress and it could have been a little snugger, but it wasn't falling down.  In the future, I would use my bust measurement for a dress, and use the hip measurement for a skirt.  The length ended up being just about perfect, so I was just going to do a 1-inch hem.  I've never used knit fabric before, and I'm pretty sure I did the hem completely wrong!  Oh well, lesson learned!

Super comfy!  Not the most flattering, but someday I'll learn to make stuff that is comfy AND flattering!

Here's a link to the tutorial I used:

Convertible Dress