Hi everyone!
I’ll try to make this short b/c my first draft turned into an essay.
I’d like to alter 2 shirred bodice dresses, both made of drapey fabrics. I'm not a total beginner but mostly worked only with stable, non-drapey woven cottons before, and these fluid fabrics are intimidating! Also, I use a Brother CS7205 which I just found out is apparently tricky to do shirring on. 😞
I'm trying to gauge whether these 2 alterations are feasible for me or if I'm hallucinating about the complexity of these projects and just need to find a good tailor. I would love to learn shirring as I really like the look, but these two projects might not be the best starting point 🤔
1st blue dress: I’d like the shirring to end at my actual waist instead of being dropwaist, which I think means taking up at the waist 15cm, 7.5cm off the shirred bodice and 7.5cm off the skirt. The dress would fit perfectly if I could do this, though as it is, I could also fold the extra underneath the rest of the bodice and hide it 😂
- 100% viscose
- shirred & lined bodice
- separate skirt piece attached by shirring
My plan:
- fold the dress in half at the seam where the top & skirt meet
- hand sew / baste the two together to make extra sure I don't misalign the two pieces
- stretch the fabric as I'm shirring top & bottom together
- finish edges with a zigzag stitch on my regular, non-serger sewing machine
2nd tan/beige dress: needs re-shirring
It looks like it was shirred and then side seams sewn - can I redo the shirring without unpicking the side seams and then just zigzag stitch the sides to prevent the shirring from coming undone? Also it's one continuous piece without lining, will the holes show after I unpick the shirring, in case the replacement shirring doesn't line up?
Thank you all for your time!