You may notice that this is not the dress I was supposed to be making for little Annabelle (who, by the way, is nearly four and really not so little anymore). Anyhow, I took a slight detour from the other dress. This little number has been peeking out at me from a box under my workspace where I keep various WIPs. I started it last summer and have gone back to it once or twice since then, but kept getting hung up on the shirring. I read through half a dozen tutorials with folks declaring how easy it was to make a shirred dress, but still found the elastic thread to be a tricky sort of thing to work with. So, the other night I decided to give it another look…and eureka! After a bit of fussing with the bobbin thread tension, I too was in pure shirring bliss!
While some tutorials stated the opposite, I found that I had much better results with the elastic thread wound nice and snug around the bobbin. Not incredibly tight, but no looseness either. You can see the difference in that picture up there. The elastic thread should look like a nice straight line pulling the fabric together.
It’s just the tiniest bit too big for her still, but I’m hoping she’ll be able to wear it by the end of the summer. And if not, there’s always next year. :) I’ll take too big over too small any day!
And I started a new knitting project. Nothing big. In fact, I’m still not sure what it is. I was following a dishcloth pattern, but soon realized that it was wayyyy to big to be a useful dishcloth. So, I’ll just keep knitting along until I decide what to make of it. I’m thinking it might make a good mat to put our pets’ food and water dishes on. Seems to be just the right size for that, but we’ll see. In the meantime, it’s just the right thing to help me feel productive while I watch old movies.
Have a great weekend!
