Shirred Top Dress

For this project I used 100% cotton fabric, elastic thread, cotton thread and a sewing machine.

Elastic thread ($2.49 at the fabric store)

Hand roll the elastic thread onto a bobbin.

Hand wind your bobbin

Now thread the bobbin into the sewing machine.

Load as usual

Be patient and keep sewing

For the first couple of lines it doesn't look like much.  Just keep going.

It takes a few rows before it looks right

A few lines in it begins to look ok.  Keep sewing.

Fully shirred panel

Before you know it you have an entire shirred panel!  But wait -  you're not done yet!!!

You'll need to wet the panel so that it can contract.

Wet the shirred panel

I wet the panel in the sink and allowed it to drip dry.  (Use could also toss it in the dryer).  While the panel dried, I made and hemmed simple skirt.  I also added a few bright pink embellishments to the skirt.

One the top dried, I sewed it to a matching skirt.

All done!

Shirring is an excellent way to resize clothing.  I recently added a shirred panel to make a dress a little larger.