Happy Weekend wonderful creators on Hive, I hope your weekend is already going great as expected, will you be catching up with friends and family, having fun or simply just resting, most times, I wish I can do all of that during the weekend, but most times, I end up behind my sewing machine trying to bring to reaity someone's fantasy or dream dress.

Today, I brought to life a beautiful shirred/smocking three-step dress my neighbour had always fantasized about having for her daughter and had even shown me a picture of it on the internet, but she didn't have the resources at the moment to get the fabric needed. So after making a two-piece outfit for myself recently, I decided to use what was left to make that dream dress for my neighbour's one-year-old daughter.

As expected, the surprise and happy look on her face when I presented the dress to her, and even the unexpected hug she gave me that almost had me falling down, made it all worth it. So without further ado, let's get right into the making process.

Materials Used

• Ankara fabric

• Smocking thread

• Normal thread

Cutting And Sewing Process

• I started by cutting the upper side of the dress, deducting about 3 inches from the top, since it's going to be like an off-the-shoulder dress. It stops just at the waist length, then the width was obtained by multiplying the highest round body measurement by two. This is because after sewing with the smocked thread, the width will be reduced back to the normal width, even smaller, and stretchy.

• I also cut out the lower part of the dress, it's a three-step flare, and their lengths differ with the longer one below.

• Next, I sewed a straight line, leaving half an inch in between the sewn line, straight to the width length from one end to the other end. Before sewing this part, make sure the smocked thread is in the loose bobbin below the sewing machine, while the normal sewing thread stays above.

• And here is what it looks like after sewing it all through, the width now looking reduced.

• For the lower part of the dress, I placed them on each other starting from the longest to the shortest and sewed them in place around the waist which also also gotten using the original width measurement of the upper side of the dress.

• Finally, I joined the upper part of the dress to the lower part by the waist, and also sewed two straps, which will be tied around the neck. And that completes the making process of this beautiful shirred dress for Elizabeth.

**All images used in this post are mine**

Thank you for reading.❤❤