SHIRRED DRESS SUCCESS - Vintage Butterick 6355, an Interesting Vintage Pattern for a Delightfully Wearable Spring Dress
After two (three??) months of not sewing at all, I finally got over psychological hump of sewing in a new space and made myself some purple floral pajamas (post on that project coming soon!). But then I stalled again, knit a sweater, rearranged my sewing room several times, pulled hundreds of patterns out of their storage boxes and recklessly spread them on the floor, rearranged more furniture, and then set up my sewing machine in an entirely different room. Are you exhausted? I am exhausted.
Maybe you remember that I placed an order with Storrs London right when we moved into our flat. I have been curious about their fabrics for a while now, but decided I’d wait until I was actually living in the UK to buy some. I selected this print with this vintage shirred dress pattern in mind, so after all that waffling about which pattern to sew, I settled on this dress.
I’d been searching for a vintage shirred dress pattern for quite some time before I finally scored a copy of Butterick 6355. The envelope and it’s contents are in very rough shape, possibly the most brittle pattern in my collection, so I have transferred it all to a larger plastic bag for storage. At some point, I showed the pattern to my Aunt Liz, and she told me she had a dress exactly like the illustration on the far right, in the early 70s. That fully convinced me to continue with this pattern.
The back of the envelope description is accurate: "A line dress with elasticized bodice or midriff has jewel scoop neckline and puff sleeves or full, full length sleeves with elasticized wrist and middle arm. Two inches above or below knee or above ankle."
Patterns with shirring are usually pretty simple. There is no need for darts because the elastic thread is creating the shaping. This pattern is no exception, but I was pleased to see shaping for both the waist and bust at the side seam - oftentimes with current patterns, you just get a rectangle that stretches over your body, whereas here, you’re getting a dress that actually fits over your curves.
The different views have their own tissue pieces for the bodice and sleeves (view A calls for a zipper up the back….which could likely be avoided by increasing the neck opening, but I’d have to double check that suspicion). For my dress, the pattern pieces are: Front, Back, Sleeve, Facing (I eliminated the facings, more on that later). Your first task when making this dress is transferring the shirring lines to the right side of your fabric. This is easy on the front and back, because they are just straight lines, spaced 3/4” apart. The shirring lines on the sleeve are curved, though, again to conform to your body better (your arm is not a perfect cylinder). To transfer the curved lines, I made a few pinholes in the tissue along the curves and rubbed chalk through the holes. I then connected the dots with a continuous line.
To mark the shirring lines, you want a marking tool that will last long enough to guide your stitching, but will disappear soon after - because your markings are on the right side of the fabric. I marked notches with my yellow tailors chalk - this is waxy and I used it only inside the seam allowances on the wrong side of my fabric. I needed those lines to remain after all the handling involved in shirring. For the shirring, I used regular chalk. For some of the straight lines on the bodice, I used my Clover chacopen. This is a good tool for straight lines, but it does not last very long, so take that into consideration. I also used my regular old tailors chalk triangle (this is my favorite marking tool in general). I found it easy to remove any remaining chalk by gently rubbing (dusting?) the area with a scrap of my fabric.
I’ve gotten a lot of requests for a dedicated post about shirring, so I’ll save most of my comments for that. But here you can see one of my swatches. You must make shirring swatches!! Every fabric is different so there will almost always be a few tweaks or adjustments to your machine’s settings. I prefer Dritz brand elastic thread because you get a big spool (this one still has thread left after using 5 full bobbins on this dress), and it is inexpensive ($1.99 at SIL thread in the NYC Garment District). I hand wind my bobbins with NO stretch - that may vary for you and your machine, but no stretch is what works for me.
I mentioned on instagram that I don’t think this pattern is suitable for someone’s first ever attempt at shirring OR for someone’s first foray into using vintage patterns. The reason for that is the instructions. If you follow them to a T, yes, you will have a successful project. But I think along the way you will think, “WHAT?” and “why am I doing this?”. There’s also a pretty high likelihood you knick your bubbly shirred fabric with your shears as you follow the directions, which will no doubt send you into a spiral of despair.
The pattern comes with Guide pieces. Let me explain. Your Front and Back pieces are quite wide when you cut them out of your fabric. Then, you shirr them and they shrink up. Great! But how do you know if they shrunk up too much, or not enough? You compare them to your Guide tissue. Isn’t that smart? After checking my shirred pieces, I stopped using the Guides. I was extremely careful not to stretch the curved armscye or neckline seams (areas that are vulnerable to stretching in any pattern, but much more so once the fabric has been shirred. You could also stay stitch, which might help if you were using a wobbly rayon. But I decided to mess with my fabric as little as possible.
The pattern asks you to cut the Guide out of your nice (in my case expensive) fabric, and sew it down to your shirred pieces. Then, trim it all away, even the seam allowance, leaving only 1/8” of fabric at the seam line. This is actually a really clever way to stabilize seams! But it’s fussy work, there’s risk of overhandling your fabric or stretching your seams while you do this, and a beginner might think this is a normal construction technique, when it’s actually unusual.
I lowered the front neckline 1.25” and the back neckline 3/4” - I think this got it closer to looking like the envelope illustration. I also eliminated the neckline facing and replaced it with single fold bias tape. I did this because: 1. I hate neckline facings that flap around inside a garment and get rid of them whenever possible, and 2. the two rows of stitching required to attach binding like this seemed like a smart way to stabilize the neckline and prevent stretching over time.
As long as I’m on interior finishing; I French seamed this dress. French seams are nice - I’m not an enthusiast, but use them when called for - and IMHO this is a case where a serger does a better job. I backstitch all my shirred rows, and they get enclosed within the French seam, but when you need to trim a French seam, there’s a risk of clipping one of your elastics. A serger has 2 needles, increasing the chances of catching and encasing those seams. My biggest gripe is that French seams feel bulky with shirred fabric, because you are encasing thick elastic threads. And, last complaint, I swear, French seams make it difficult to alter a garment later. I ended up taking in 1” at the side seams (on the flat) from the waist down on this dress. It fit fine without this alteration, but it’s a very full skirt, so I opted to remove 4” total from the circumference.
As always, Lantern sculpture by Jason Sho Green
The only other adjustment I made to the pattern was to the sleeve. At first I considered removing the puff at the shoulder, but then realized it would make a pretty ordinary dress without it. So I kept that puff. But the bubble at the sleeve hem was asking too much of me! I shortened the sleeve 3” and baby hemmed it, no elastic casing. This created a lovely bell shape! Not great for layering, but delightfully witchy.
On the left: The baby hem at the sleeve. On the right: the 3” hem that the pattern calls for in the skirt. I love a nice, deep hem!
I love how this dress turned out. I’m going to wear it until it’s threadbare! It’s extremely comfortable due to the stretch, and this fabric is a pleasure. Storrs fabric is a wonderful quality. I can only compare it to Liberty Tana lawn, they are similar, but not the same: Storr is just a whisper heavier, with a drier, more papery, “cottony” hand. It is both crisp and soft, feels great and is a pleasure to cut and sew. It would make a beautiful collared shirt.
This was a long post for such a simple dress! But I think the pattern deserved a full investigation, and I have to give it credit for getting me excited to sew again when I feel overwhelmed when making even the smallest decision these days. I will likely sew it again, probably with a different sleeve, and in a nice bright color.
If you’re itching to try shirring, an easy place to start, with a readily available pattern, is McCall’s 7946. The pattern calls for elastic inside of casings, but you can read here how I swapped that out for shirring to make a wildly wearable easy breezy dress. Have you tried shirring? Do you love it or hate it? I love it! XO, Martha