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Shirred Circus Dress

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 The inspiration for this whole circus party stemmed from the yellow and white fat quarter that I used in this shirred circus dress.  I carried that striped fabric around the store, holding it up to bolts of fabric, until I found the blue floral print – a match!  This dress is great because you can sew it up in less than an hour and it takes a relatively small amount of fabric.  I recommend pairing two contrasting patterns and colors.

  I’ve put together a tutorial for you and I’ll give you the measurements that I used.  The pictures and instructions correspond to a second dress that I made, hence the red skirt; this one is about a size 5.  (I actually didn’t like how the second dress turned out – the prints on the fabric were too similar in size – I separated them and ended up with the cutest shirt for Olivia, and I’ll sew the red dot into a skirt.)  This is going to be an “adjust for your child” sort of sizing, okay?  I’m estimating that the circus dress turned out to be about a size 12-18 months and I’ll give you the measurements that I used to help you guesstimate your own sizing.

Size 12-18 months
Cut two skirt pieces (by halving a fat quarter) – 21″ wide x 9″ (the length of the skirt)
Bodice – two pieces 14″ wide x 11″ long
Sleeves – two pieces 10″ wide x 5″ long
Finished width of neckline – about 6 1/2″ across
 
Size 5T
skirt – two pieces 20″ wide x 13″ long (in retrospect, I should have 
used wider pieces, but I was scrimping on fabric)
bodice – two pieces 17″ wide x 14″ long
sleeves – two pieces 12″ wide x 6″ long
Finished width of neckline – about 9″ across
 
1/4″ seam allowances
 
Alrighty, so cut your pieces.  Stack the bodice pieces and fold them in half (bringing the sides together).  Stack the sleeve pieces and fold them in half.  Cut an armhole from the bodice and sleeve pieces.  If you’re not sure of the sizing on this, grab a shirt from your daughter’s stash, turn it inside out and use that armhole shape as a guide.  
Next, match the armholes of the sleeves with the bodice front, right sides together and sew.  Match up the other side of the sleeves to the bodice back and sew.  Serge seams if you wish.  
 Your bodice should now look like this:
 
Next, turn right sides together and sew down the sleeves and sides.  Serge if you wish. 
 
Set the bodice aside and stitch together the skirt pieces along the sides.  Serge.
 Sew two rows of gathering stitches around the top of the skirt.  
Put a pin in the center front and center back of the skirt; place pins at the center bottom in the front and back of the bodice as well.  This will help you gather your skirt up evenly. 
 
To attach the skirt to the bodice, pin right sides and raw edges together at the sides, and pull up bobbin threads on your gathering stitches until the skirt matches up with the bodice.  Match your center pins in the front and the back and spread the gathers evenly all the way around.  Pin well.  
Stitch between the two gathering stitches using a regular stitch.  Remove pins and gathering stitches.  Serge if you wish and press seams AWAY from the bodice.  
 
Let’s finish the top of the dress and the ends of the sleeves.  I used a rolled hem with my serger, which took all of about 30 seconds – awesome!  
 
Now, we’ll add some shirring.  If you’re not familiar with shirring, it’s easy and oh-so-satisfying, so give it a try.  You can read specific instructions for shirring in my Simple Shirred Top tutorial.  For this dress, I shirred:
one row around each sleeve end – 1/4″ from the rolled hem.
three rows around the neckline – beginning 1/4″ from the neckline
four rows around the waist – beginning 1/4″ above the skirt seam and not stitching through the seam allowances (that’s why you pressed them down).
 
 
Now, steam that shirring and watch it shrink up – that’s the best part!!
 
To finish the hem of the skirt, I added trim, which is my favorite way to finish a skirt or dress – it’s so quick.  Serge the raw edge of the skirt bottom.  Line up the trim, matching raw edges, and stitch it down all the way around the dress.  
Then, turn the trim under and press the hem of the dress (if you use a synthetic trim, be careful that your iron doesn’t touch and melt the trim).  

Topstitch along the edge (not shown).  DONE!!

 Other posts for Vintage Circus Party include:

 

More Shirring Projects to Try

1

Simple Shirred Top (a tutorial)

2

The Mille Feuille Dress Pattern

3

Dorothy Dress Tutorial

4

Country Girls Dress and Fabric Line by Riley Blake

5

his work shirt to her school dress

his work shirt to her school dress

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 Yes I did.  I chopped up one of my hardworking man’s old dress shirts and turned it into the cutest little dress for Grace.  My interest in such a project was piqued by others in blogland and by a darling little dress I saw in the kids Garnet Hill catalog.  I didn’t take pictures along the way because I did it at night and I honestly wasn’t sure it would turn out.  But if you want to give it a go, I scribbled some lines on a photo for you.  If you try it and get stuck, shoot me an email and I’ll tell you what I did.  Here’s the basic rundown:

 
  • remove upper collar, topstitch lower collar closed again
  • remove pockets
  • chop up shirt into basic A-line dress, leaving collar and buttons intact (be sure to cut front and back together, they’ll be connected at the top)
  • use sleeve fabric to cut out two new sleeves – here is a great little tutorial on how to sew a puff sleeve and here is a standard sleeve pattern that you can download and use that tutorial to sew for this dress.
  • sew front to back along side seams 
  • hem bottom
  • attach new sleeves
  • sew rows of shirring across front; I sewed 9 rows about 1/4 inch apart each – be sure the two sides of shirring match up when the shirt is buttoned closed
  • sew on cute bows (or not!) 
 If you’re lucky, your cute little model will have as much fun in her new dress as mine did!

The Sunset Dress

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I was ushering the kids to bed a few nights ago, hoping to set out some fabric for sewing projects the next day.  Olivia was asking for a new dress and she had picked out some stunning fabric a while back that I was itching to use.  Then, the idea for this dress came to me.  I could see it so clearly in my mind, I got excited to see if I could make it work.  Instead of sending her back upstairs when she asked for water, I whipped out my measuring tape and started doing some kind of funny math while measuring her for the criss-cross bodice.  I finished the dress in a couple hours without any pattern.  I am super proud of this dress right here.  And super jealous.  I really want it in my size…
See the shirring detail on the back there?  LOVE it! 
 Olivia really prefers to wear the sash with it, but it could be worn either way.  I love her face in this photo.  She saw my camera and just started posing with this “I know I’m lovely” expression.  Cracks me up.  I much prefer this type of posing to the typical run-and-hide scenario.

 

late afternoon at Great-Grandpa’s

I don’t intentionally dress my children in clothes that I’ve made.  I get kind of embarassed.  But I also try not to persuade them one way or the other and Liv and Addie selected home-sewn outfits.  I was glad that Grace was wearing a store-bought dress when we initially set out for my Grandpa’s this weekend, but then she found her “summer dress” buried in the car and put it on after splashing in the little pool.  Fun for a late afternoon photo….

  • fabric is Jennifer Paganelli
  • inspiration for this dress:  here and here

Simple Shirred Top (a tutorial)

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Alrighty!  This top is a very simple, very quick sew.  I think it would also be a darling little dress.  It requires a small amount of fabric and no pattern to sew this simple shirred top. 
The measurements I’m using in this tutorial are for about a size 3T – adjust as needed.  For Grace’s shirt, I felt that the finished shirt was just a little wide, so I made some adjustments for the purposes of this tutorial.  If you’re using a light cotton, I would recommend measuring your little one from one underarm to the other, and then multiply by 2 to determine your fabric width.  Measure from her collarbone to desired length and add 1″ for hemming to determine the length. 
 
Begin with two rectangles of fabric, measuring width x length. For a 3T, cut two pieces of fabric 18″ x 13″.

 

Now, stack your rectangles (perfectly) and fold in half along the width.  Cut a curved armhole so it looks like the following picture.  If you have a sleeve/armhole pattern you want to use, go for it, or you can just wing it!  It doesn’t have to be exact.
Next, unfold and separate your two rectangles.  Hem the top edge: turn and press a 1/4 inch, then turn and press another 1/4 inch; topstitch close to the edge.  Do this on both rectangles.
Now, place your two rectangles right sides together (line up armholes).  Sew up the side seams and serge or finish as you please.  You’re just going to sew from the bottom of the armhole to the bottom of the shirt.  Leave the armholes for now.
 Turn your shirt right side out and hem up the bottom.  For a quick hem, I serge all the way around the bottom, then turn and press the serged edge and topstitch.  Hem how you like (but you may need to adjust length of cut fabric if you want a fancier hem).  
 
 Next, you’re going to do your shirring.  Wind bobbin with elastic thread.
  I use my machine’s bobbin winder to wind the bobbin and it works great, but I’ve heard it’s a little different for everyone.  The most helpful resource I’ve found on shirring can be found here.  In addition to Disney’s post itself, the comments are full of useful tips and information.  So, once you have your elastic thread in your bobbin and your regular thread in your machine, start stitching rows 1/4-inch apart.  I just line up my presser foot with each previous row so that the rows are 1/4 inch apart.  Super simple!  Don’t forget to backstitch at the beginning and end of each row.

 

 Stitch rows all the way down to the bottom of the armhole on the front; this is what it will look like at this point:
Repeat on the flip side.  When you have reached the bottom of the armholes on both sides, shir several additional rows going all the way around the shirt.  Now, hit your shirred rows with some hot steam from your iron.  I LOVE watching the whole thing scrunch up, don’t you?
Now you just need to finish the armholes.  I made some bias tape with a contrasting fabric, but you can certainly use packaged double fold bias tape.  You’ll want two length of bias tape about 24 inches each.  Turn in and press each end of the bias tape. 
Line up the center of one piece of bias tape with the side seam at the base of an armhole.  Wrap the bias tape around and pin.  Work your way out on each side, pinning the bias tape to the unfinished armhole edge.  Stitch your bias tape closed, one end to the other, encasing the entire armhole and finishing the straps.
That is it!!!  Tie those straps into a cute bow and stick it on your girl! 
 
At this point, I’d love to show you a picture of Grace wearing her little shirt and apron-front skirt, but she’s a busy girl and I don’t have a single still shot showing the outfit.  We’ll have to settle for an in-action collage…
 
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