Elastic Shirring with Kenmore 1803
Shirred sundress with serged rolled hem ruffles, sewn on my BabyLock Evolve serger (sergers sew rolled hems much faster than a sewing machine, but a sewing machine can sew a rolled edge as well, with the right presser foot, and a satin zigzag stitch.)!
Batiste is perfect lightweight fabric for shirring and ruffling a soft, summer sundress! This is best with very lightweight woven fabrics, and all edges will need either serged, or enclosed in a French seam, to prevent unraveling. Heavy or stiff fabrics will not shirr properly, and while some light knits may work, I have not tested this shirring method on knits.
I FINALLY finished it! My granddaughter grew so fast, and I'm so slow, I had to redesign the dress, to make it wider, and shirring doubles the amount of fabric required, so I had to make a complete center panel that provided more shirring top, and a center skirt panel, so you can see I had to cobble together 5 rectangles of fabric, more shirring, then French seam them together, to make the center panel, and French seam it in place.
The center panel tuck, mimics a peplum, just below the waist, which I really love!
For bodice - cut a rectangle
Chest measurement X 2 (or 3 if doing tight shirring)
Chest vertical measurement from where you want the top of ruffle, down to the waist, and add the amount of seam allowance desired, at waist, + 1/4" to allow for trimming the top edge slightly, when serging the rolled hem, at the top edge of bodice.
If you want the bodice to extend below the waist, include the amount desired, in your bodice vertical measurement.
For the skirt, measure from waist, down to the skirt length desired, and if a poofy skirt is desired, add a couple of inches to the length, to accomodate that, plus 2 seam allowances (to attach at waist, and to attach ruffle).
Ruffle rectangle is depth, 2 1/2 inches x the edges of all areas you want edged with ruffle x 2 for a regular ruffle, x 3 if you want a very full, curly ruffle.
Because I also used my ruffle to create the elasticized shoulder straps, include the length of shoulder straps desired, x 2, plus seam allowance, front and back for each shoulder strap.
Skirt center panel 5 inches wide, from the waist, to the length you want, plus 2 seam allowances. I made my center panel slightly shorter than the skirt sides with ruffle, you can make them the same length, or slightly shorter.
Your center panel does not have to have strips sewn together, like mine, it was pieced due to running out of fabric, and my granddaughter growing so fast, over the time it took me to complete the dress!
SEWING ORDER-
My very first sewing step, after cutting out my fabric, was serging a rolled hem the entire length of all ruffle strips, as well as the bodice top edge, and the center skirt panel hem.
Remember to dot SEAMS GREAT seam sealant on all rolled hems where you want to cut them. Let it DRY before cutting, to prevent rolled hem from coming unraveled.
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| Completed shirred sundress! It looks like a summer ballgown. |
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| I did not do any ironing, during this project, I am just not always up to the extra effort, so yes, it would have looked even better, if I had ironed it. You can see how many pieces of scraps, that I sewed together, to make the skirt center insert. |
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| Kenmore 1803 sewing machine sewing rows of elastic shirring, for my granddaughter's sundress. At first, I thought I wanted them spaced further apart, shirring 4 or 5 rows, before deciding to also shirr between the rows. I serged the top rolled hem, first, before shirring, on the BabyLock Evolve combination coverstitch/serger, using 2 thread rolled hem, with dark yellow heavy Signature Tex 120 thread in my lower looper, regular serger thread in the needle. |
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| My rows would probably have been straighter, and more even, if I had drawn chalk lines, but I just "eyeballed it". Here, I am shirring in between my first, further apart rows of shirring. |
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| Shirring completed! Now to decide how I want to add the yards of ruffles, with rolled hems! Possibly adding ruffles to the shoulder straps, in addition to the hem! |
Yards of elastic shirring, can be sewn quickly, and easily, even on vintage sewing machines, using a STRAIGHT STITCH. I sewed 9 rows of shirring on a very lightweight, soft cotton batiste fabric, to create a sundress for my 4 year old granddaughter.
BOBBIN- Wind the elastic thread on the bobbin, by hand, but do not stretch it, while winding it. Load your bobbin in the bobbin case, the same as usual.
Stitch length- 6 stitches per inch
Upper tension- 6 on my Kenmore, tightening tension, with a long stitch setting, is what gathers your shirring tighter, just like sewing a ruffle. Lower tension will gather less.
UPPER THREAD- Use regular sewing thread on the top, it will show on the right side of your fabric, so either contrasting thread, or thread which matches your project. Choose your needle according to the weight and type of fabric you are sewing. You will be using a straight stitch.
Turn your handwheel by hand, to pull up your bobbin thread, as usual, just remember not to stretch the elastic thread, or it will spring back down, under the needleplate.
LOCKING YOUR SHIRRING ROWS- To avoid the elastic thread getting caught in the bobbin hook, I discovered that stitching 2 or 3 stiches forward, raising the presser foot, and scooting my fabric back 2 stitches, lowering the foot, then stitch right over the first stitches, then continue shirring, worked best, at both the beginning, and at the end of my rows of shirring.
Reverse works, too, but I did have my elastic thread get caught in the hook, twice, causing a thread jam. So I used the locking stitch method described above, at the beginning, and end, of each row of shirring.
TO CLEAR THREAD JAM- just snip needle thread above the eye of the needle, flip the 2 black bobbin hook levers apart, and pull out the bobbin hook, bobbin case, and the bobbin race cover out, then remove bobbin from bobbin case. The elastic thread, after being stretched, when let go, can relax (spring) back into the bobbin tension spring area, basically thickening under the flat spring, so it is hard to pull it.
Disassembly, and reassembly of the bobbin hook and bobbin and case, solves the problem.
(Once finished with all shirring, remember to reset your machine back to the normal tension setting, around 3, and stitch length to 10 or 12 stitches per inch.)
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| Yards of ruffles to attach to the hem, and possibly shoulder straps, laid on top to help visualize effect. |
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| BabyLock Evolve serger 2 thread rolled hem Stitch setting D Stitch width R Stitch Length rolled hem setting |
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| Straps 18" long piece of 2.5" wide rolled hem on one long side 12" strip of 3/8" wide elastic secured at beginning of strap, fold fabric raw edge over elastic, leave a gap of 1/4", fold 1/4" under, and straight stitch the fold. This allows the elastic to be gathered slightly, giving a ruffled sleeve effect to strap. I sew about 3/4 of the strap length, then pull elastic, to gather sewn area, so I can sew flat. At end of strap, stitch elastic end, to secure it, with the gathers along the middle of strap. |
