If you want to learn how to shirr fabric easily, then this guide is for you! Shirring is a popular design element in dresses and tops these days. It’s super cute and adds stretch and texture to otherwise plain, woven fabric.
This guide also includes instructions for how to shirr fabric if you have a Brother sewing machine, which are notorious for being difficult to shirr with.
You will need to practice shirring a little bit at first to get the hang of it, but it’s so fun and quick once you know how to do it, so let’s get started!
Supplies and materials
- Sewing machine
- Woven fabric (like linen, quilting cotton, poplin, old sheets, etc
- Matching thread
- Elastic thread, 0.6 mm (I bought this big roll from Amazon for all the future shirring projects!). You will probably need at least a 20 meter roll.
- Iron and ironing board
- Measuring tape
- Scissors
- Tailor’s chalk or dissolving marker, etc (optional)
Prepare your fabric
Always wash, dry, and iron your fabric in the same way that you plan to for the finished project.
Practice how to shirr fabric on a piece of scrap fabric first
There is definitely some practice and experimentation needed before you sew on your actual garment! So grab a scrap from the fabric you are using, approximately 10 inches square.
Decide how far apart you want your rows of shirring to be and mark guide lines if desired
Your rows of shirring can be anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 inch apart. I like how 3/8 inch looks, so that’s what I always do.
You can mark guide lines on the right side of your fabric if desired. I actually never do this because it takes extra time and you can just follow your previous line of stitching instead. But of course, your rows will be a little neater if you do. Just make sure to use something that will either disappear or wash out, seeing as it will be on the right side!
Wind your bobbin with elastic shirring thread
Wind your elastic shirring thread around a bobbin by hand. Don’t stretch the thread as you go, and don’t overfill the bobbin.
Set up your machine for shirring
***If you have a Brother sewing machine, you will need to do an extra step first, which is described at the end of this guide.
Place your bobbin with elastic thread in your machine as you would any bobbin.
Start out with your machine set to the highest needle tension (9 on my machine), and a slightly long stitch length (3.5 on my machine, 2.5 is normal and 5 is longest).
Practice your shirring
Now take your scrap of fabric and start experimenting! Start and stop with a backstitch to lock the elastic shirring thread in place. You can stop at the end of each row, or you can pivot at the end, take a few stitches down, then go back the way you came. If you do this, you will waste a lot less of your elastic thread.
In the picture below, you can see how the edges look when you go back and forth instead of stopping at the end of each row.
It usually takes about 4 or 5 rows for the shirring to really gather the fabric, or even up to 10. You will want it to be shirred to about half the width of the piece. Experiment lots, changing needle tension, stitch length, and even adjusting the bobbin tension again if you’re using a Brother sewing machine. You can’t just use the same settings as someone else says, it will really depend on your machine and the fabric you’re using.
If it’s not shirring enough, lower the needle tension a little at a time. I actually find that normal (4 on my machine) works best for me.
If it’s shirring too much, raise the needle tension.
In this picture, the left sample had a needle tension of 4, and the right sample had a needle tension of 8 (highest is 9). These were both after ironing with steam, which also makes the shirring shrink up a bit more.
Once you’re satisfied with how your shirring is looking, it’s time to move on to your actual garment!
How to shirr fabric on your actual project
Depending on your pattern, you might be shirring individual pieces of fabric first, then sewing together. Or you might be sewing them together first, then shirring.
Hem the top edge
Either way, you will always want to hem the top of the section before you shirr it.
You can also thread some elastic into the hem for a less ruffled look on the top. In the two pictures below, the first dress is just hemmed, and the second one has 1/4 inch elastic in the hem.
By the way, if you would like to make the dress above, I have a tutorial for it here! You don’t need a pattern, just some basic measurements of your daughter.
Mark where you want to shirr to
Regardless of if you’re marking guide lines for your shirring rows, you will want to mark how far down you want the shirring to stop. I usually just iron a fold there, but you could also use tailor’s chalk or a dissolving marker, etc.
Start shirring!
Start your shirring as far from the top edge as desired, usually the same as the rest of your spacing will be.
If you’re shirring individual pieces of fabric, you can work your way back and forth as described above.
If you’ve already sewn the front and back of the garment together, then shirr continuously around. Start at the back seam or one of the side seams and shirr all around until you get back to where you started. Then pivot and take a few stitches down, pivot again, and continue in the same direction. In the picture below, my rows don’t line up perfectly, but you can see how I stitched down the seam to get to the next row.
What to do when the bobbin runs out of elastic thread while shirring
The bobbin will most likely run out of elastic thread mid-row. When it does, remove the fabric and pull on the elastic end to pull out a few stitches. This will give you a little bit of length to tie a knot later.
Then rewind the bobbin and start shirring about 1 inch before where you left off.
After you’re finished all your shirring, you can tie the two ends together and trim.
How to shirr fabric with a Brother sewing machine
If you have a Brother sewing machine like me, you might find that you just can’t get really gathered shirring, no matter what settings you try. It turns out a lot of Brother sewing machines don’t shirr properly unless you make the following adjustment. It’s an extra step, but so worth it to be able to shirr!
Remove the cover from your machine, then remove the bobbin case (refer to manual if you don’t know how, but on most machines the just lift out).
There will be 2 screws. The one on the left will be a tiny, flathead screw. Using a tiny flathead screw driver (your machine should have come with one), increase the bobbin tension by turning the screw clockwise. I turned mine about 2.5 times.
Then, set the bobbin with elastic thread in as normal, being sure that the thread goes into the slit for the tension, as pictured below.
Place the bobbin case back where it belongs, place the cover back on, and bring the elastic thread to the top as normal. Anytime you rethread your bobbin, make sure the elastic thread goes back into that slit. I can usually do it without removing the bobbin case, but sometimes I need to.
Be sure to turn the bobbin tension back to normal once you are finished shirring!
And now you know everything you need to about how to shirr fabric!
I hope you found this guide helpful and that you will have lots of fun with your shirring project! Please let me know if you have any questions about how to shirr fabric in the comments below and I will be happy to help if I can 🙂
This is the blog post I didn’t know I needed! Saving this one for later!!
Thanks Ashlei, I’m glad you found it helpful!