In a recent post I mentioned that my friend had sneakily taken photos of some frocks in London she thought I'd like. Here is the one that I decided to try and copy:
...and here's my version, made from stash cotton jersey. I bound the neckline and armholes in white stretch bengaline left over from making white collars:
Here she is with a temporary flounce I whipped up quickly. I want to make one in a wider stripe, in a knit fabric (this is just a scrap of leftover woven rayon). I like the flounce on it, it makes it all fancy like:
This was the first time I've ever done shirring. Can I just say - addictive? Oh yeah. There's a danger that I will be shirring everything from now on.
I used Simplicity 2995 for the basic frock and just marked where I wanted the waist to be and shirred away. 4 rounds did it. It transformed what was basically a sack into a saucy little frock.
I read this tutorial to learn how to do the shirring. It really is just sewing with shirring elastic in the bobbin. The longer the stitch, the tighter the shirr. And I like my shirring tight!Betty dressform is modelling the frock, because this is a summer frock and we are in the midst of a sunny but very cold week of winter here.
Although I could wear this with a slip and warm tights of course. It doesn't get too cold in Sydney compared to the rest of the world. But, I am a wuss, so this is what you get.
Update: It was warm enough today to do a photo shoot, so by popular demand (well, Moggy asked) here's Shirrley on me:
