Here are the instructions for making your very own Beach Dress, as promised yesterday. It really is a dress for hot weather- mine is made from lightweight fabric, is knee-length and ties up at the nape of the neck. But I think you could also make it from a stretch jersey cotton or a fine wool fabric and wear it over warmer layers if you like. Ironically, today is the darkest and rainiest we've had this summer- so I'm sorry that some of the photos are rather dull. Hopefully you get the picture anyway.
You will need:
a length of lightweight fabric- cotton voile or lawn work especially well. I'm using some vintage silk-blend fabric sent to me by a kind reader (thanks, Jo!)
sewing thread to match
a spool of shirring elastic.
a length of narrow elastic
scissors, sewing machine, pins, etc.
1. Cutting out your dress:
Basically, you'll just be cutting 2 rectangles or squares of fabric, exactly the same dimensions, plus two long straps to make your sundress.
First of all, determine how long you'd like your dress to be. I chose to make mine knee-length, so I measured from my chest to my knees, and wrote down that measurement (35"), then added another 2 inches to compensate for the hem and shirring lines. So my total length measurement = 37".
Next, work out how wide you'll need to cut the fabric. To do this, I measured around my bust circumference (35") and added another 2" for seam allowances so my final width measurement was 37". So to cut out my dress, I cut two squares of fabric, measuring 37 inches each. I suppose the wider you cut your dress pieces, the more 'full' the dress will be below the shirring lines, so a bit of lee-way is fine. To make the straps, cut two strips of your fabric, about 32" long and 1.5" wide.
2. Next, finish around the edges of each dress piece using zig-zag stitch or an overlocker (serger.) I left the selvedges as they were, and finished the fraying edges.
Sew one of your side seams, and press the finished seam to one side.
Press a narrow channel along the top of the dress to fit your narrow piece of elastic, and sew this in place.
3. Now you need to do some shirring. This is the fun part! Take your spool of shirring elastic, and an empty bobbin spool. Begin winding the elastic onto the bobbin by hand, stretching it tightly as you do so. (It took me a while to learn this tip- all my previous shirring efforts were futile because I didn't realise it needed to be tightly wound!) Place the wound bobbin into your bobbin case and thread the machine as usual. I like to set my stitches to a fairly narrow setting for shirring, but you can experiment with what suits your machine and fabric. Start sewing about a machine-foot-width away from the top channel you made earlier, and sew in a straight line until you reach the end of the fabric piece. You should find that the shirred fabric gathers up in a most pleasing way as you go. Continue working in this way until you have sewn about 9 or 10 rows of shirring, evenly spaced apart from each other. (You could do more or less shirring, depending on your bust size.) It should start to look a little like this:
and this on the back of your work:
4. When you've finished shirring, measure around your chest where you want the sundress to sit and cut a piece of narrow elastic the same length. Thread it through the channel at the top of the dress and sew the ends together. (You might want to adjust this elastic so it's not too tight or loose around your chest.)
Now you can sew up your other side seam. Use smallish stitches to make sure the lines of shirring, and the top piece of elastic are really secured in the seam. Hem the dress. (I did this by pressing the bottom edge in just a tiny bit, then folding this inside again half an inch, pressing well, and finally stitching into place.)
5. Make your straps by pressing in the edges of your cut strips, folding them together, pressing again and sewing down close to the edge. to make a neatly finished strip. Sew the finished straps in place where you'd like them to be, inside the front of your dress. (I machine-stitched mine about 3" in from each side seam, and also secured them with hand-stitches right at the top of the dress.)
6. I wear my dress with the straps tied like a halter-neck but you could sew down the straps at the back of the dress too, if you prefer. Or even crossed over at the back. Now you should really wait for some warm weather, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, otherwise, head straight to your nearest river, beach or picnic spot in your lovely new sun-dress.