Make a shirred dress: Cassie Dress

The Cassie Dress is one for the cottagecore lovers out there. If you’re after a really pretty make, look no further than Cassie, with her fully shirred bodice, bound neckline, gathered tier skirt and gently puffed sleeves.

Choose between two sleeve lengths: just above the elbow, or full length with an elasticated hem. Cassie is midi length, but you could omit the second skirt tier to make her knee-length, if you prefer. Additional elastic is sewn in at the waist, to ensure your pretty dress maintains its shape.

With no closures and the shirring in the bodice, you get the versatility of a woven fabric, with the comfort of a knit!

The Cassie Dress sewing pattern and Workshop are exclusively accessible with a Stitch School Premium Subscription. To see more pics of Cassie, head over here!

What’s in the Class?
In the Stitch School online Workshop, we’ll go through every step of making the Cassie Dress, with special focus on the shirring technique. We’ll show how to set up your machine, talk about bobbin tension, stitch length and troubleshooting. You will sew a shirred panel first, then cut out the bodice pieces, essentially creating your own fabric before putting the dress together. We’ll talk about different shirring patterns you can try, other than the standard parallel lines you might be used to, show you some examples, and even explore the jazzy stitches on your sewing machine, like flowers and stars. You’ll be a shirring expert by the end of the class, and be able to apply this new skill to other patterns too. Why not use a fun shirring stitch on the cuffs of the Aida Dress or the back of the Siena Dress? After the shirring is done, we’ll construct the Cassie Dress and cover all the important points, like handling shirred fabric, setting in puffed sleeves, binding a neckline and hand-sewing it in place, and the gathering for the skirt panels.

Sewing Level
The Cassie Dress sewing pattern and Workshop are aimed at Confident Beginners.

Fabric Suggestions
Lightweight woven fabrics such as cotton lawn, cotton voile, viscose, rayon, or crepe.

Sizing & Fabric Requirements
Cassie is sized between UK sizes 6-30 and is split into two different blocks: sizes 6-20 (B cup) and sizes 18-30 (D cup). See the size chart below for details on fabric requirements:

– Cassie Dress, size chart 6-20
– Cassie Dress, size chart 18-30

Like all our patterns, the sizes are nested to make it easier to grade between the sizes, depending on your measurements.

What will I receive?
The downloadable pattern file included with the Cassie Dress Stitch School Workshop contains:

• printable pattern (in both tiled print-at-home and copyshop format) in all sizes
• fully-illustrated printable instruction booklet
• copyshop permission letter

The Cassie Dress pattern is either 41 A4 pages, 37 US letter pages or 2 A0 copyshop pages (sizes 6-20), or 54 A4/US letter pages, or 3 A0 copyshop pages (size 18-30).

You can purchase a Copyshop Print of this pattern, find out more about our PDF Printing Service here.

So what is a PDF pattern?
A PDF pattern is a downloadable pattern that you print yourself at home on A4 or US letter paper. Alternatively, you can choose to have the copyshop files printed on large A0 paper, and posted to you at home. If you’re using the A4 or US letter options, simply download, print at home, tape together and let the sewing begin! When you print the pattern, print at 100% (you might have to uncheck the scale box). Print page 1 first, the square should measure 10cm x 10cm.

Never used a PDF pattern before and would like some help? Learn everything you need to know in our handy Guide to Assembling PDF Patterns over on our blog!

Layered PDF pattern
The Cassie Dress PDF pattern files are layered, meaning you can choose to print only the size(s) you need when printing at home. Find out more here.