Shirred Summer Top

Cute little girl wearing her new Summer top, hopefully one of many more to come...

This fabric comes from an old pillowcase that was amongst my 'score' yesterday.

I used my rotary cutter to open up the pillowcase to form one big rectangle, trimmed off about 8 inches from one end to use as the straps then hemmed the top and bottom, sewed up the one and only side seam and shirred 4 rows at the top, made up the straps and sewed them on! I use my iron to steam up the shirring and make it shrink up nicely rather than pull up the elastic and risk breaking it. I also individually tie off each line of shirring in knots, both the cotton threads on the front and the elastic threads on the back, then trim the ends and stitch down over these knots and through the side seam so its not that visible but still secure.

One standard size pillowcase seems to make the perfect size top for Lilly who is 6 years old but wears size 8 to 10 clothes.