So I was inspired by the many many reviews out in blog land of Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. It’s the first time that I’ve earnestly thrown my hat in the ring for a free copy. Alas, I never won one, so Weekend Sewing has the distinction of being one of the half dozen books I will buy this year. Let’s talk turkey first… I mean, project. My first one was the Smocked Sundress. I had a friend who recently started sewing in earnest sew some shirring like it was nobody’s business and felt duly chastened for being an elastic thread weenie. I am now no longer said weenie and think of myself more along the lines of shirring goddess, ok, not quite more like a shirring competent (loses a little something, no?).
Here is the finished product.
And on the model:
About half-way through, I decided that my “guestimate” of what the size would be for my six-year old was perhaps not quite right, so I added a little insurance policy to the mix and brought in Erin’s Sunny Day Dress tutorial from House on Hill Road. Between the two patterns, I picked and chose lengths between stitching, dress length, and which shirring method looked less like my needing a double scotch afterward. (Hint: while I love Erin’s results, this made me cringe and I used Heather’s much easier technique). I did however use Erin’s view C for the straps–I don’t want to spend my whole summer hearing “mama tie this please”.
Tangent: Sadly dearest bunny’s first public wearing of the dress was at the funeral of my grandfather last weekend. Yeah, I get that white isn’t appropriate, but you go find a navy blue dress last minute in any mall in america the end of spring BEFORE fourth of july stuff is out. She wore it with a simple forest green cardigan and was entirely appropriate. Sad, but cute as a bug isn’t really the goal for the whole funeral thing.
Oh, and I embellished the straps with a fun built in stitch:
And a close-up of the shirring for posterity’s sake:
I think I would also follow Erin’s easier method of just hemming the top of the dress before shirring. Heather had a great idea to be able to put the end of the straps inside the hemming after you have shirred, but shirring isn’t really fun to manipulate and has the very worst ability to listen to me as I prod it into place.
More on Weekend Sewing. Yummy pictures. I think I want to make nearly everything, especially for bunny. But I get held up/put off by the fact that the patterns are for size 4 at the largest. Now, you and I both know that I can size it up, but as I mentioned before–I’m a weenie. I’m also lazy, and that makes me gripe a little bit that the patterns didn’t go to say size 6 or 8. Sigh. I’m itching to try out the flower girl dress–for which I already have fabric, but I see this happening realistically toward the end of June–after my billables are done (8 days!!!!!!!!!) and after my recuperation trip (Distant, tasty location!!!!!!!).
May 26, 2009 at 12:24 pm
It’s simply adorable. Great call on abandoning the ties. I can’t wait to see more of Bunny’s summer wardrobe. I am slated to finish my apron at this week’s sewing class and I’ll send pics if not too horribly embarassing.
June 4, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Hi,
I am trying to make this dress for my daughter and would appreciate any advice you may give. I stitched the elastic thread on and ironed it with water, but it didn’t smock up. I used a stitch length of 13/4mm (I think).
I have Weekend Sewing, and followed the directions. It didn’t mention anything about stitch length. I come back to this, because I cannot think of anything else that went wrong. I sprayed the fabric and ironed it on the the right side first, then when that didn’t work, I tried the elastic side.
The dress is so cute and I love how you used straps instead of ties. My daughter hates ties. Thanks in advance for any advice!
June 4, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Set your stitch length to the longest setting, use the elastic thread wound very gently in your bobbin with regular thread on top. The first row of stitching puckers just a bit. When you are doing subsequent row, I didn’t pull the fabric straight and taut as I sewed, I let it bunch from the first row (within reason) and just stitched that way. What else, I stitched in a back and forth pattern so that I didn’t have to cut the thread at the end of each line, and I used the distance recommended by House on Hill Road between rows of shirring instead of Weekend Sewing’s. WHen I was done sewing, I took it to the ironing board, liberally sprayed with water and then steam ironed that thing to within and inch of its life and it bunched right up.
Does any of that help?
June 4, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Thank You, Thank You Thank You!!!! My stitch length was definitely too short. Who knew? I mean, you did
. I also didn’t let it bunch. I also ironed the fabric to within an inch of it’s life. Did you iron on the elastic side or the thread side? Do you want to hear something funny? THis morning a friend recommended a jam recipe from the House on Hill Road blog. I had never heard of it before today. Again, thank you!