Fun with shirring.

I thought I'd try my hand at shirring the other day. I popped up to my local fabric shop and bought my elastic, and after dithering for ages over pink floral fabric versus the same fabric in blue, I bought both.
To my amazement, shirring is actually really, really easy! I didn't think my ancient Singer machine would cope, it's almost as old as I am for a start, and the tension is not what it was, and don't even talk to me about doing zig-zag stitch. But I should have trusted Old Faithful, for look what it helped me make! Isn't it amazing how a rectangle of fabric can be transformed into something so cute with 20 minutes of careful stitching with elastic and the addition of some -rather long - straps? I can't go any further without acknowledging the online tutorial that I referred to for help, which was the "Shir Madness" Tutorial (cute name, too, Portabello Pixie!).
Look out, SP, Mama's learnt how to shir and has lots of fabric to practise on! Poor child's going to end up dressed head to toe in it.