its so realistic i want to shoot birds at it!!
River was to attend a tea party today, so naturally i had to make her a dress appropriate for such a cordial occasion! As i had mentioned before, I've been wanting to smock up some dresses and skirts, so this morning i hopped to it. I shall provide a quick tutorial on how i made the dress on a machine with a drop in bobbin . From what i have read you need a machine with a bobbin case to stretch the elastic thread enough, but that is not the case.
FOIST: Pick out some cute, very light weight material. In my case i used some pin stripe seer sucker. Cut the material, chest width times about 3, and start byt making a tiny rolled hem at the top of the dress. If you have a serger, serg the edge and then fold over about a quarter of an inch, and stitch in place.

You can wind it with you regular machine bobbin winder. Then insert it as per you machines directions into the bobbin.
Now you must tighten the bobbin tension. This is really the tricky part, if you have an older Singer machine you will have to use a penny to turn a dial at the back of you machine, but the newer singer machines have a teensy little screw on the bobbin case itself: the green screw
Use your little screwdriver, put it in the provided notch and turn it till the spring is tightened almost completely.
You must also increase the top thread tension to between 7-9, and thread it with coordinating all purpose thread(or whatever thread you have that matches)
NOW: Sew your first smock or shirred line just under the rolled hem, then each subsequent line 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch under the previous. You will need to stretch you material as you sew to get the desired effect.
This is the back side of your fabric:



I also made my skirt, but i havent taken pictures of it yet, so it will have to wait for another post. I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!! TTFN