Avengers Inspired Sundress

Product Review: Elastic Thread

Part of the reason I started the Eclectic Otter was to give myself motivation to do more crafting and to finish some old projects. This is one of those old projects. After seeing the first Avenger's movie I decided to make a sundress inspired by the Iron Man armor. The fabric I bought was still in the bag with the receipt, dated 5-25-12!

One of the reason that I've put off working on this is that I planned to use elastic thread to sew the bodice of the dress and I didn't really know how that would work. Since I was trying something new I invited my Mom down to sew with me. She's never used elastic thread herself but she has many more years of sewing experience than me and it's always nice to have someone to talk things through with. I also looked at a bunch of tutorials online before hand.

Here's some of the links I checked out:
http://www.sewcakemake.com/2012/01/toolbox-tuesday-elastic-thread.html
http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2010/02/shirring-tutorial.html
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/11/sewing-tip-shirringsmocking-with-elastic-thread.html

To start with you need a piece of fabric big enough to wrap around yourself plus extra to accommodate the gathering. I started with 2.25 yards and ended up trimming a bit off. That leftover bit is 7 inches but stretches out to 13 so I would say you need about twice as long as your bust measurement. The first step it to sew a small hem in one side of your fabric. After it gets gathered it would be way more difficult.

The elastic thread goes in the bobbin and needs be wound by hand, just be sure not to stretch it as you go. Based on the information I found online things vary a little bit based on what type of sewing machine you have. I use a Husqvarna Iris. Getting the bobbin threaded with the elastic is a little tricky because you need to stretch it while you go. We had some trial and error on this. The first few rows we made didn't seem to gather but I'd read that it would bunch more as you added lines. Eventually we ran out of bobbin thread and after we retreaded there was an immediate difference so we had to figure out what we had done differently. In the photos below you can see what the stitches look like on both the front and back sides of the dress. The top two rows are with the incorrect tension and the center ones are after we figured out the trick.

We found that if we but the bobbin in place and then threaded the machine when we let go of the thread the bobbin would spin a little as the elastic relaxed and unthread. So we left the bobbin out of the case, threaded it, and the dropped the bobbin in. Some machines suggest adjusting the tension but we didn't change ours. The only adjustments we made to the machine was to change the stitch length, longer stitches are better for gathering. Usually I sew with a 2.5 stitch length for this project I increased it to 4.5.

 Make sure you sew with the right side of fabric facing up. If you want you can mark lines on the fabric to follow but we just lined the pressure foot up with the previous row of stitching. Also because of the gathers it really won't show much if the lines aren't perfectly even. You may need to stretch the fabric a bit to make sure it is flat going under the pressure foot. Just keep making rows until you get a shirred section large enough to cover your bust.

Then wrap the fabric around yourself and pin it in place. Adjust it so that it's as tight as you want the finished dress to be.

                                         

After that I laid the dress out and trimmed off the excess length. Just make sure the bottom edge is even and mark a straight line across. I wanted this dress to be right at knee length after I added a ruffle so I cut it just above my knees, but you could make it any length. Then trim any excess you have off of the width and sew the side seam together.

To make the ruffle for the bottom you need a length of fabric at least 1.5 times the circumference of the skirt. I wanted to make a really full ruffle so I calculated for twice the length.

 70 inches around base x 2 = 140 Inches

The fabric is 60 inches wide so 140/ 60= 2.333 so I would need a little more than 2 strips of fabric.

Since I knew I wanted it really ruffly I just used 3 whole lengths. I decided that I wanted the ruffle to be about 2 inches long so I cut 3 pieces about 5 inches wide by the whole width of the fabric and sewed them together to make one continuous strip. Iron the seams open to help keep everything relatively flat. Then fold the whole piece in half with the wrong sides of the fabric together.

Divide the loop into quarter and use a pin to mark the edge of each section. Sew around the entire loop on the open side using a extra long stitch setting. When you get to each of the pins lift the presser foot and pull out a bit of extra thread then lower the foot and keep sewing. This will give you an easy place to pull the gathers. With those thread loops it will be easier to work on ruffling the border in sections. The picture below shows one of these loops.

Once you've sewn all the way around pin those same four spots to the sides, center front, and center back of the dress. 

Make sure you are pinning it to the outside of the dress. After I finished sewing my ruffle on I realized it was sewn inside out and had to tear out all the stitches and re-do the whole thing. It was super complicated because I had to watch carefully to be sure I removed the stitches holding it to the dress but not the gathering stitches.

After that pick a thread loop and start pulling. As you pull the thread the fabric will gather. You should be able to sort of push the ruffle along the thread. Keep working from either end until the ruffled section will fit in between the two pins. Add a few extra pins to hold it in place and move on the next section.

Making the Ruffle

One section pinned in place

When you finish you should have an evenly spaced ruffle that lays (relatively) flat against the hem of the dress. Reset the machine to a regular stitch length and sew the ruffle on. Because my ruffle was extra full it was a bit thick at place and needed a little extra help to feed it through the machine but it wasn't too difficult. Then just flip the ruffle down so the seam is on the inside of the dress and its done. 

My plan for this dress actually includes adding straps with a little bit of ruffle, almost like ruffled cap sleeves but because I had to completely redo the ruffle I ran out of time. Hopefully it will let me wear a regular bra and hide the straps as well as support the occasional addition of a small battery powered arc reactor I have that's made to attach to a t-shirt.  I should be able to finish it soon and will post an update when I do.

Overall I found using the elastic thread to be easier than I expected. Once we got the hang of threading the machine it was just like regular sewing. I will add that it took much more than I expected it too. I started out with two spools of Gutermann elastic thread and after we used all of that we switched to Sew-ology brand from Hobby Lobby . Dritz also makes elastic thread very similar to the Sew-ology. I didn't really notice a difference between the brands as far as use goes but the Gutermann is a little thicker.