Hello everyone!!! I am so excited to be back to write this blog! Today I will be going over how I hack the Honest Swing Top and Dress pattern to have a shirr back. I pick this pattern because Easter was coming up and my daughter needed a Easter dress. I also bought some of that bunny fabric from walmart that you have been seeing everywhere, lol and this dress is made for woven fabric so this was a effect match.
I started by cutting all the pieces out, but instead of cutting two backs I cut 1 and added .5'' to the top. I did this because since i will not be lining it I had to account for heeding the top.
Now to shirr you must use elastic thread, I got this from Hobby Lobby and it has been the best one for me. I hand wind it to the bobbin and the reason I hand wind it is because it needs to be loose, not too loose, but not stretched out.
Now you have to change the tension and the stitch length on your machine, I put my machine at the highest tension and my stitch length to a 4. Now when you start to sew make sure you take your time, you should see it shirring a little after the first round. When you finish that round I pull it a little and cut both thread. I sew the next line about .5'' away from the first line. The more rows you have the more shirring you will get. I did my last line about .5'' from the bottom.
Once I finish that I took my back piece to the ironing table. To get your shirring tighter I set my iron to steam and steamed the back piece, this will tighten the elastic thread giving you that shirring look. I went over a couple times to make sure I got it all.
Once it is completely shirr I begin to attach the bodice, since I did not line the back i attach it a little different. I placed the back bodice to the front bodice RST, I moved the lining to flip over so that it is right side of the lining facing the wrong side of the back bodice, I then serger it all together. So i sandwich the back bodice in between the front bodice and front lining with RST. Now you have your completed bodice :) Attach the skirt and sew done the straps and you are done.
For gathering the skirt I used a gathering foot and I love using it on my wovens.
Thank you for reading my blog today and I hope this encourage you to try the shirring method.
