Tuesday 15 April 2014

The First Lady Peplum

So I mentioned yesterday that I had another Peplum on the way, not wanting to disappoint, I made sure that I wore it today so I could get a few snaps before I left for work.

After the Great British Sewing Bee finished last week, I thought it was about time that I made myself an African Wax print Peplum, I was so inspired by Chinelo Bally's Peplums that I just had to have one! I was absolutely gutted that she didn't win, but Heather really pulled it out of the bag with her final dress.


So, first things first I had to go and find some African Wax print material. This was a little tricky. I wanted some similar to the one she used above. But everything that I could find had massive prints, that I could only really use in a dress or long skirt. I ended up with this bright bright pink fabric from eBay.


It's a little out of my comfort zone to use such a bright colour. I wasn't even sure I could wear it let alone pull it off. But I thought go on, let's just give it a bash and see what I end up with!
I used my favourite Peplum pattern, Vogue 8815. It's so easy to construct, so I made it in almost no time at all. The bodice consists of 2 darts in the front and 4 on the back, I don't think you can get any more simple than that for a bodice.




The fabric is quite stiff and has almost no give in it at all. So, as a result it feels quite snug, but it's not uncomfortable until I try and raise my hands above my head! I'm thinking I may take the seams out a little, just to give a little more ease. My previous version of this top was made from some quilting cotton and that's no where near as stiff as this.

It was quite difficult trying to pattern match with this fabric as the pattern doesn't quite have the same spacing all the way round. I only realised this after cutting the fabric, so in places it doesn't quite match where I feel it should.

The resulted garment is growing on me and I think the more I wear it, the more I'll like it. I just need to be more comfortable with bright colours. After all, before I started to make my own clothes, most of my wardrobe was shades of grey and black so I think I'm being rather brave don't you?!

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