Happy Me Made May! I’m gonna let you in on a little sewing secret. My name is Basma and I hate shirring. Well, I guess I should specify – I hate sewing shirring. It’s totally cute in garments that others make, but, for me, there are just too many factors that can mess it up. Is your machine’s tension just right? (I dunno.) Is your elastic thread tightly wound around the bobbin, but not too tightly? (I guess?) Is the fabric gathering enough to create the desired effect? (Almost never!) Even if all the settings and adjustments and good luck are on my side, I’m not a fan of elastic thread because of its limited lifespan. Because of this, I’ve been hesitant to do much shirring because every time I try, it’s a big ol’ fail. When I saw Cashmerette Club’s Franconia dress, I fell in love with the design, but that darn shirred waistband gave me major pause. Thankfully, I figured out a way to get the shirred look WITHOUT shirring the fabric!
This started out with me choosing fabric that I had zero plans for but needed to have in my stash. The fabric I chose is a mini check shirred seersucker fabric from Blackbird Fabrics. Using a pre-shirred fabric is just one of the cheat codes in the garment. This fabric has such a unique, shirred texture that I knew it would be great a great choice for the Franconia. If you’re like me and usually choose fabrics before patterns, I try to get enough fabric to make a full dress. That’s about 4 or 5 yards/meters for me, but you should take your own measurements into account. I ordered 5 meters of this fabric and had enough leftover fabric for another project.
The second cheat code in this project is that instead of using elastic thread (boo hiss tomato tomato tomato!), I used ¼ inch braided elastic (huzzah!). Using braided elastic gave me so much more control of the faux shirring and saved so much time. Other than changing from a straight to a zigzag stitch, I didn’t have to change any settings on my sewing machine. I didn’t have to bother with changing my bobbin thread or the machine’s tension, and I only needed four strips of elastic to create the preferred five gathered rows.
The majority of Franconia’s construction is an absolute breeze to sew. Franconia features a super flattering v-neckline, a flowy buttoned skirt, and breezy dolman sleeves. In fact, the waistband is near the end of the instructions. Part of me really wanted to create the shirred waistband before adding it to the rest of the dress, but I decided to follow the instructions instead. I’m not sure how much it mattered though. In future versions, I might make the waistband separate and see how that looks and feels. Are there any sewing techniques that you just can’t stand using? Let me know in the comments!
