My favorite outfit as a kid was a handmade shirt and skirt set that my mom made me for a violin recitals. It was a shirred white top with peasant sleeves and a long, tiered, black lace skirt. She braided my hair on top of my head and stuck small roses into the braids. I felt beautiful, like Frida Kahlo. For both my mother and me, that outfit is the quintessence of my style. Since then, I’ve been trying to recreate and modernize that look.

Skip to 20 almost years later, and shirred clothing has just come back in fashion (but like, why was it ever out?) and I am here for it!

For those who don’t know, shirring is a sewing technique; sewing rows of stitches next to each other using elastic thread. This scrunches up the fabric, making it elasticized and form fitting and gives the fabric a ruched, texture and effect.

Instead of making a two piece set like the shirred top and tiered skirt, I wanted to join them and make a dress. Thats when McCall Pattern Company released their Summer 2019 collection. With it came M7946 with a square neckline and big peasant sleeves. Instead of being shirred, however, the bodice of the dress is cinched in with three rows of elastic underneath the bust. But surely, I could shirr it!

Keeping with the black and white theme; I used 3 yards of this black and white, flower print viscose from Harts Fabric .

Here’s what I did:

I cut a straight size 14, making no adjustments to the pattern except for lengthening the sleeve 2” (I always have to make this adjustment). I sewed the side seams and sleeves on first before shirring the bodice. The neckline is made by sewing down a casing and inserting elastic. I finished the neckline and started shirring right under the elastic casing, continuing all the way down to the waistline.

I added two tiers to the bottom of the dress. The first tier is a strip 1.5x the circumference of the bottom of the dress and the second is 1.5x the circumference of the first tier. Both gathered tiers were applied on top the right side of the fabric. Before sewing the tiers down, I took a lot of time adjusting their lengths to get the proportions just right.