You may recall that I mentioned how keen I was to do more shirring.  Well I’ve now finished the 5 shirred Xmas dresses and am very happy with the results.  Of all the tutorials I came across during my research for this project I found the one on Jorth’s blog was the best for working out volumes of fabric and basic construction.  I must say some of the others were very confusing for such a simple dress.  So if you want to make one yourself visit her blog :- http://jorth.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/shirred-dress-tutorial.html.

I must confess I did make some modifications of my own.  I decided to French seam all the seams for a nice neat finish and to add extra strength.  I also did away with the elastic casing across the top above the shirring; I don’t think it needed it and I replaced that with my super tiny hem instead; you can see my test one on my previous post.  I also decided to do bow ties over the shoulder instead of a single piece and I made a border around the bottom of the 3 bigger dresses; that was a result of underestimating how much fabric I would need rather than a brilliant idea!  (I do have a habit of buying fabric before patterns and then trying to squeeze it all in).  All in all I’m very happy with the results.  Still think that tiny hem is exquisite.

I do hope they all like them; I know I do 🙂  So onto the next thing.