Hi! It's been a while! I've been a bit sporadic with my making over the last few months. I have two pairs of corduroy culottes and another blouse to post.. sometime.. but today, it's a blouse with an all too familiar shape!
The story starts with 1.2m of
Liberty Saville Poplin (Strike pewter green) from the Fabric Store. It is, as you would expect a heavier weight than the Tana Lawn which I was looking forward to using for perhaps a thicker drape. I have quite a lot of Japanese pattern books (which I'm thinking of destashing) and haven't made anything from quite a few of them, so thought it was time to mix up my peplum game and make the pattern 2nd from the left in the photo: The cropped top with pleated peplum (aka N: half sleeve short blouse). It has a pleated peplum at the front only.
Warnings from
Jillian that the top is very cropped came a little late as I had already cut out the 'peplum', but thought that my extra inch or so would be enough. It wasn't. I'm only 5'2" (or perhaps a bit less) but the top looked - urrrgh. Just not right. It wasn't just the length, it was also the pleats that just weren't working for me. I tried it with my higher waisted culottes but nothing jelled.
Amazingly, this top uses the most miniscule of fabric so I was able to remove the pleated peplum and add a winning gathered peplum from the remaining fabric.
Yes, this is the third such gathered peplum top in my wardrobe, the first was my
wildflowers (which has a lower peplum) and the second was my
Marthe (with a much wider neck). And you would be right... but there a minor differences in each and lets face it when you like a style, you like a style.
What I'm loving about this is the higher waist and longer peplum.. and... always a fan of the closer neck, I like the shape better there as well. The wide neck always bothered me on the Marthe.
The neck is finished with a facing (which I didn't interface) and a button closure. It was definitely nice to do a facing for a change rather than binding, although I wonder would I just bind it next time.
All in all, this was defnitely on it's way to being a make that I was never going to wear to something that I now love! Hooray for peplums!
