Shirr Madness

 

It’s the shabby chic shirred madness summer top!

Once I started shirring, I couldn’t stop.  It’s just so easy and turns out so stinkin’ cute! 
  

Here’s how I made a cute summer top for my daughter out of a shirt I had in my closet:

(Don’t be alarmed at the difference in colors of the shirts.  I did not dye anything.  I just worked on this a little bit at a time, and photos were taken at different times of day, when the lighting in my craft room was either great or nonexistent.)

Cut the top of the shirt off, right below the armscye (that’s a fancy schmancy word for arm hole.)

Set the top piece aside, as we will be working with the bottom so that we can use the existing hem.  I’m all about little shortcuts.

If you have a serger, serge away at the edge that you just cut.  If you don’t have a serger, you can fold the edge over and run a zigzag stitch around the entire length.

Now get your machine ready for shirring.  There are some great tutorials out there such as this.  You can also check out my other shirred project.

I did 12 rows of shirring and then my favorite part: blasting it with a steamy iron and watching the elastic crunch up tight.  Don’t worry - it will stretch nicely back into shape.

Now get the top portion of the shirt and cut off those armscyes.

Now we’re going to make the strap for the shirt.  I cut two strips that were each 2 inches wide.

So, now you have four strips of fabric (two from the front, two from the back of the shirt.)  Sew the right sides together to create one long strip.

Take the long strip of fabric, fold it in half longways and right sides together and sew.
Finish off one end of the strip and leave the other open so that you can turn it right side out.

You can use a dow rod or a safety pin to scoot the fabric around to turn the tube right side out.

I decided that I wanted my strap to be thinner, so I folded it in half and sewed again.  You can skip this step if you are happy with the width of your strap. Next find the center of your strap and create a loop that looks like an awareness ribbon.

Find the center of the front of the shirt and stitch it in to place.  I did this by hand because I didn’t want to change the thread in my sewing machine (lazy) but you could easily run a few forward and back stitches over this by machine. I decided that I wanted something shabby and chic for the front of the shirt so I made a fabric flower using the very few pieces that were left of the original shirt.

I cut out a variety of squares in all sizes.  I didn’t measure or cut straight lines – I just winged it!

   Fold each square into a triangle and then fold again to get the start of a flower form.

Stitch the point at the bottom with a needle and thread.

Place each piece onto the shirt, one by one, and stitch.  I was very random and haphazard about where I placed them.  I wasn’t looking for a pattern or specific flow…
I also did nothing to prevent fraying.  With washing, the flower should begin to fray, creating more of a shabby look.

I continued placing pieces until I ran out of fabric and was happy with the flower.