So I was itching to make something new, and recently I had a sudden desire to do some shirring. It looked simple enough and I had some elastic thread on hand. So, I dug through my stash and found a drapy polyester fabric I'd bought several yards of online at $1.99/yd quite a while ago, and figured I could play around with it. I've seen a lot of dresses in stores lately that are basically just shirred on top, and long and flowy on the bottom...I even bought a couple! I figured something like that couldn't be too hard to make, it's just a big tube that's shirred on top. So I started out with the plan to do just that...but then, I was worried that the fullness I wanted on bottom would be hard to achieve, as I'd read that sometimes it's difficult to get the shirring as tight as you might want. So I decided to do some pleating in back, and shir a panel in the front to give it enough give to pull on. And besides, I just love the look of pleated stripes, how the hidden stripes cascade out from the pleats like a special surprise. :-)
I then added some sleeves, basically a long rectangle of fabric hemmed on the edges, and then ran a few rows of elastic stitches on one side so would ruffle up a bit and stay on my shoulders. Finally, I sewed a coordinating burgundy belt as an accent to make the dress pop, but also to help shape the dress in front, to pull in the fabric high on the waist.
Et voila. :-)
It's not hemmed in the pics, so it's a couple inches shorter now, but I do love the result! The best part is it was fairly simple to make, no cutting complicated shapes, just a long tube sewn together and pleated and shirred for shape. :-)
