TL; DR – Woo for v-necks that actually cover things up, don’t get complacent about shirring.

I got this African wax print (which isn’t actually African, it’s Dutch, because colonialism – learn all about it) a while ago and have been waiting for the right pattern to use it, and settled on Aida from La Maison Victor (yes, I’ve been going all-out on these free patterns). I loved the idea of the shirring at the waist for the dress, to be able to deal with the print .

Once again, it has a clever design for the front bodice, which made it really challenging to pattern-match. I’m not completely sure about the sleeve finishing, how the cuff is built, so I might do it differently next time.

But the shirring…

The first time I did shirring, it went amazingly. I figured, hey, this is really easy! And this time, well, it didn’t go as well. I don’t know if it was because of the stiffness of the wax print fabric, or I didn’t wind the elastic thread on the bobbin tight enough, but it didn’t pull-in as much as I had hoped (even after steaming it, which is cool to watch!).

Overall, this dress turned out better than I had hoped, and I will definitely be making it again, maybe with lighter fabric to see if the shirring works.