Smocking (Shir) Dress Tutorial #2

While I was googling where to get some smocked fabric online, seeing if I could find it cheaper, I found these 2 tutorials.
The first one was more just someone posted this on a forum where someone else asked where to buy smocked fabric. I also found out that it's also called shirring, or shir fabric. Here are some tutorials to make your own shirred, or smocked fabric. I have tried this before and it didn't work, but my machine was broken at the time and I didn't know it, so I will try it again now that my machine is fixed. (Plus these instructions are way better then the ones I had) I hope this helps!
The written instructions are below, or there are a little more descriptive instructions if you CLICK HERE.

You can find elastic thread at any fabric store with a good notions supply. It can be found with the rest of the elastic, not the thread.

1. Hand wind the bobbin with the elastic thread and don't pull it and don't use your machine bobbin threader.

2. Use regular thread for your top thread.

3. Set your stitch length to the longest stitch and I usually set the tension around 3-4. You might want to play around with it on scrap fabric from the same fabric you are going to be using as every machine is slightly different.

4. Cut your fabric with at least a 2:1 ratio for the size you need. Meaning if your chest is 30 inches around, you need to make it 60 inches around before it's shirred, or smocked.

5. Hem the top of the piece first. It is difficult to do when it is all bunched up. You might want to do the bottom seam too, it just makes it easier.

6. Start sewing in long straight lines. You can trace your guidelines if you want or just go slowly. I use the sewing lines as a guide for distance. I go down three stitches in between each line.

7. When you are done sewing your lines, tie the two threads together. It is hard to use an anchoring stitch with the elastic thread, so tying them together is necessary.

8. Now if it didn't shirr enough while you were sewing, you can use a steam iron to bring it out. It usually shirrs more when I put the outfit in the dryer, too.