Bootstrap Peplum Top using my T-shirt A-Line Dress Design

In my last post, I shared how I split my T-shirt A-line Dress design into just the skirt.  In this post, I'm sharing how I created the top half only as a woven short-sleeved shirt with a peplum. 

I'd been wanting a peplum top since they became popular a few years ago.  But since I have 12" difference between waist:hips or waist:full thigh and My leg shape is wider (saddlebags as they are NOT affectionately dubbed) at the top, didn't want to waste a bunch of fabric trying to get one to fit. Sometimes, the peplum can hit at the wrong spot and make curvy hips look wider. Other times, the fit from waist to hips can be designed for a different body type - straight, pear, triangle, hourglass, etc - than your own. 

Then, I found the cute peplum on Bootstrap and thought it was worth a try after the great fit with my Tea & Crumpet dress.

Long before it resurged in current popularity, I've long seen the peplum used quite frequently in African fashions. It appears to be a way to make a woman look especially feminine. It's a lovely way to use mudcloth, wax batik and the other gorgeous traditional African fabrics.  Also, my body shape is similar to many African women - very curvy, round booty, full thighs. So, I figure I had at least a slim chance of the style looking decent on me. I don't pretend I can look nearly as glamorous and gorgeous as these beauties (who I admire) modeling in the links below, just want to enjoy fun prints and look my best self.

• Wedding Digest Ninja
• African Swag Pinterest Board
• Double Print Peplum Top by Solomek
• We Love West Africa
  
• Pagnifik (I particularly love all these!)
• African Print Wrap Peplum Belt by Sapelle
• Peplum Skirt

With that in mind, I grabbed this lovely mud cloth print that my mom gifted me. I was a little concerned that the print would wear me.  You see, I drown and disappear in large prints. When I wear them, usually, all anyone sees is the garment, loud and clear, walking along as though no wearer is in it.   But, I set to work on the peplum top, keeping in mind that many curvy women before me have worn such a style and not looked wider, but rather more feminine and gorgeous. 

Gosh chalk worked well for marking darts. This fabric really doesn't have a "wrong" side either which was kind of nice. Just need to make sure you have a left and a right or a front and a back!

I don't know about you, but I ALWAYS take my shoe off to "drive" my sewing machine. Can I get a "Woot! Woot!" for all us barefooted #Sewcialists ?

Just like the linen skirt in the last post, I used a bit of interfacing and attached the neckline facing before I sewed in my zipper.

On the day of the photo shoot for this shirt, I helped my mom prepare for our friend's 90th birthday party by smashing flowers, an activity they would do at the party. It's actually called flower pounding and was done on fabric when women were unable to get pretty patterns on fabric or paper. What fun! And fascinating to see which plants produce pigment, which were disastrous (I'm looking at you oriental & day lily), and which were only so so. 

My mom's lipstick plant dropped a bloom and I happened upon it laying on the floor. Since it was a volunteer, I thought I'd try it out. I was fascinated to discover that the bloom pressed out like a baby dragon! What a fun beginning. Can you see her too?

Below we roll pressed dark pink Phlox, Heavenly Bamboo and a Job's Tear (dark, dark royal purple) using one of the cutters similar to a cricut. That produced better results with some plants. I like how we received mirror images of the plants by placing them between 2 pieces of paper. 

Mom, being silly, with a partial load of our flowers. Showing pansy, begonia, marigold, phlox, oriental lily and so many more. We made LOTS! For we really didn't know what to expect and needed to be prepared for party goers to really enjoy themselves.

Lastly, I tried pounding flowers on a cloth sack. Similar to a muslin.  2 colors of Phlox ring, coleus leaves are the boldest you see, next leaf is the red maple.  Finally, crowned with a beautiful pansy and coleus leaves. Isn't it fascinating?

So, here's how the top turned out on me. I think it's quite cute and I'm glad I took the time to line up the pattern at center front. It's lovely how my eye travels from neckline to hemline without sensing an interruption. With all that busy fabric - the block patterns, the marbling, then the colors swirled around on top, it can be really easy to be lost in the crazy pattern. 

Even though it does stop at the widest part of my full thighs, I don't feel this makes my legs or body look wider. In fact, my eye travels from the hemline to the waist and it looks trim and feminine. 

You can begin to see the transition the hemline makes from high to low in the profile view. Interesting how the lines of color line up on the left side of my body between bodice and peplum. I didn't plan that!

The back was the only area of challenge for matching patterns. The CB is a seam and where the zipper was inserted. The peplum has only seams at the sides (I changed the pattern and added a 2nd seam to ensure that I had CF and CB line up as best as possible.  You'll notice that the CB square and flower shape line disappears on the bodice, but is present on the peplum. That got lined up in the center and the bodice simply is a narrower version of the 3 line repeat. It is a little jarring to my eye because of the >>> pattern that runs on the right side of the trio of lines. But when I look at the pattern for alignment across all 3 unique vertical lines, I can see it's quite nice because there's still a sense of alignment.  Can you tell?  Do you think this print wears me? Or does it flatter?

Would I change anything next time? 

I like the length of the cap sleeves, however, they are a bit restricting to me. When I move my arm up, the whole garment lifts up. When I move my arms as I walk, I feel the fabric restricting my full range of motion.  I will consider adding knit sleeves, some sort of insert that allows more motion, or switching this entirely over to knit fabric (I wanted a great T-shirt fit anyway) then omitting the zipper. 

Hey! Hey! Haaaaaaaaaaaaay! This girl is going to be wearing this top quite a bit.