To Shirr and Shirr Alot

I was off to an afternoon swim one stinky poo, hot Saturday recently, when I realised I didn't have any cool little casual dresses.  I guess when I do go the coast I generally wear a denim skirt and a little shirt.  It has been on my to do list is a beach dress for about 5 years.

I got on line to see what projects people had done with a basic shirred dress.  I found one and set out using this cotton material I bought at a Spotlight sale.  Even though it's very simple to make, it does take awhile doing 12 rows of shirring on both front and back.  The only thing that didn't work out so well was  the fabric above the shirring. I left about 1.5cm and it kept flapping forward.  In the end I just added some elastic to the top. I just eased it directly onto the fabric with a zig zag stitch.  And ticketyboo it did the trick. 

So all in all nothing fancy, just a good cool dress for very casual wear.  Unfortunately not exactly good for the beach with the exposed shoulders, it is good for going to a friend's place for a swim.