When I was a little girl getting a birthday dress was better than getting a new baby doll.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These days I do not have a lot of time to sew personal projects. I look for garments I can make in a couple hours. This dress was inspired by a dress my old Sew Dayton business partner, Jesy Anderson, used to wear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought my fabric locally at a cute little shop in the heart of historical Miamisburg called The Little Shop of Stitches.

I chose large print because I like a good puzzle. I knew it would be hard to pull this print off and not make it look like a patch work quilt. Cutting up this fabric felt like it would delete the purpose of it being all one piece of rainbow or umbrae print. As usual I looked at dresses online and asked Facebook friends what they thought before making the dress decision. I settled on simplicity. I did not want this dress to wear me nor did I want it to look like too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My plan was to use some of the 10 spools of elastic thread I own using a method called shirring. Shirring is where you put the elastic thread in the bobbin and sew with it to make the garment pull closely to your body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cut my dress out almost twice as big as my measurements. 60″ bust and waist and 80″ skirt. I also cut the entire dress out on the cross grain to keep the print horizontal. I felt this would be ok because the garment was going to be so much larger than my body. Then I pinned it up and wore it out into my living room where I asked Jeffrey if he liked my new dress?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally it was to be a zero waste dress. So much for that because I wound up omitting the bottom ruffle. I just felt like it was out of place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shirring would end up taking a while… and in the end, even after adding more and more, I still only used one spool. The back of the dress was a bit goofy as I have little shape there. I wound up shirring it also in a sort of art deco pattern.

I also made a little video on my Youtube channel about shirring.

 

Finished pictures. I’m working on my photography skills. Jeffrey was kind enough to help me with this shoot taken at Moraine Farm in Kettering.

Behind the scenes~

Last week we were on vacation, we stayed in Dayton and enjoyed the many things to do in our hometown.

Thank you for reading,

Tracy McElfresh

Dream It! Sew It!

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Tracy McElfresh
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