Fall Florals

I picked up this dress a while ago and there it sat....waiting.  I have several projects that are patiently tucked away just waiting for motivation, time, and inspiration to transform them into something new.  I loved the floral pattern and color of this dress.  It originally had elastic shirring at the bodice, but it was completely stretched out and formless.  It was also rather long in length.

You can see from the following picture that the elastic shirring was completely stretched out.  I also wasn't crazy about the white elastic thread showing through.

I started by picking out all of the old elastic thread.  I then filled a bobbin by hand with elastic thread.  Using regular thread on top, I set my machine on the longest stitch length.  Without backstitching the beginning or end, I proceeded to sew rows of stitching across the bodice, leaving enough thread tails to tie off later.

When I finished stitching the rows, I turned it to the back and pulled the top threads through to the back.  A straight pin worked well for this.  I then tied knots at the beginning and end of each row of stitching.

Now my dress had some shape to the front!  I wore my pocketwatch necklace from this past post.

I cut 6" from the length and added a new hem.

With the 6" strip I cut from the bottom of the dress, I cut it in half so I had two pieces that were each 6" by half the width of the dress.  With each strip, I put the side seams together, stitched them, gathered the top edge, attached it to the sleeves, and added elastic.  I'm really loving the sleeves.  They're fun, and a nice length for Fall.

And, with a little Photoshop magic, I'm in the middle of a beautiful Fall forest instead of my backyard!

I like to link to these great parties!