How to estimate fabric needs to shir it
DeeDee7
| Posted in General Discussion on
Can anyone help me with estimating the amount of fabric I will need to Shir the bodice of a narrow strap dress. I want to copy a picture of a taffeta dress, however I do not want to gather so much around the rib cage so that the chest part of the dress is way too wide. Do I sew the top and bottom sections separately after shirring them to their respective sizes?
Replies
I made a shirred bodice a couple of yrs. ago--used 3-4X size needed and cut it bias so it would stretch around curves. On a pressing surface I pulled the gathers "flat" and pinned into the surface while I steamed the shirring in. This bride was pencil thin but so afraid she'd look thick but wanted shirring!
Thank you for your help! I am now wondering if you can recall the pattern you used-I cannot find a pattern with a shirred bodice-I have checked sewingpatterns.com, vintage pattern sites, etc. with no luck. Thanks again.
I used Vogue 7852 as a guide for the amount of fabric needed for shirring. the pattern shows quite a bit of shirring but using a silk chiffon DID NOT LOOK ANYTHING LIKE THE PATTERN! It looked downright skimpy. I did have to put a seam in the bias to get 4x length of bodice but the shirring hid that.
I used sheering on the bodice of 6 bridesmaid dresses last year using Simplicity 5238. I think it was about double the length of the finished piece. Each of the top five pieces for each bodice were done separately.
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