Peplum Skirt Experiment

A couple of months ago I set myself a challenge to develop a peplum skirt. I'd been adding peplums to top styles using jersey and I wanted to see how I could translate it into woven fabric on the lower half. 

I clearly cared enough about my little experiment to have taken photographs of the result, but not enough to have remembered to share the pics until I was reminded of the project last week. I was flicking through the Topshop website to keep an eye on 'what the kids are into these days', when I saw a few skirts (including the one pictured below) that looked very similar.

Source: topshop.com via Zoe on Pinterest

Surprisingly, the basis for the skirt was McCalls M5590, the same pattern that I made my denim high waist bow skirt from. The peplum was drafted in a very similar manner to those jersey tops, but with the main difference being how it was constructed and applied to the rest of the garment. 

Satisfyingly, the Topshop versions appear to have dealt with the fastening issue in the same way I did, by inserting a centre back zip with a split in the peplum. What I like about my version above Topshop' is that my peplum is not the same depth all the way around and I feel the deeper dimension at the back gives a nice balance to the garment. 

The element of my version that I am unhappy with is the visible dart lines that form the waist shaping. If I'd used a skirt pattern with a waistband, Burdastyle's Jenny skirt for example, to apply the peplum to, I would have eliminated those visible dart lines. 

Jersey Peplum Tops

**UPDATED with pattern details for creating your own peplum top. See bottom of this post**

The readers of this blog with the keenest of eyes may have noticed a few garments popping up in various photos that I have yet to 'introduce'. Two of those anonymous garments are jersey tops with peplums. I wore the emerald one that is pictured above when I went to London to make shoes with Emily. The second version was made in red and navy stripes (pictured below) and got its debut on Day 12 of MMMay'12 (during which I managed to clean the kitchen and get a bleach stain on the front but thankfully isn't too bad!).

As the unveiling of my blouse sewing pattern hoard illustrated, I'm a big fan of peplums. They also happen to be very 'on trend' at the moment, which is probably why Modcloth started selling some lovely simple peplum bodice tops, including the stripey one pictured below.

I'd been thinking about making my own version of these Modcloth peplum tops and started to get my head round how to go about it, when my boss came along and did the hard part for me. Having talked about how it would be great to get some peplums into our Spring/Summer range, she consulted her pattern cutting book and created a peplum pattern piece which was included in this and this design.

So I used the peplum pattern piece, pairing it with my own modified self-drafted T-shirt patterns to come up with the gathered head half sleeve, scoop neck version using the awesome emerald jersey I got from the most recent Brighton fabric swap meet up. The colour of that fabric really is far more rich and emerald than the turquoise my camera would have you believe in the top photo.

I really love that top, but my heart had really been captured by the stripes of the Modcloth top pictured above. The way they change direction, really emphasising the way the peplum is cut, looks so cool that I knew I had to make a second peplum top. But due to my whole 'not buying new fabric' thing, I had to wait until some suitable stripy fabric came my way. The navy and red jersey was part of a large haul our charity was donated by a jersey manufacturer. Because I'd just made a gathered head half sleeve, scoop neck version, I decided to alter those elements to create a differently styled garment. My navy and red striped garment has flat head sleeves that are 3/4 in length with a cuff band to finish them. I've also gone for a self-bound slash neck line to get with the more nautical feel of it. Both the neck binding and cuff bands play with the direction of the stripes.

So now you are properly introduced to my two new peplum tops. I can't promise there won't be more in my future!!! Have you made anything with a peplum? Are you a fan of this trend? 

** UPDATE** For the lovely commenters who expressed interest in how these peplum tops were created and what the peplum pattern piece looks like, please see below. 

You may or may not be able to see that the measurement of the Centre Back is a bit longer than the measurement of the Centre Front. The CF and CB should both be aligned to the fold of the fabric. Create notches at the CF, CB and side seams to make the construction easier. Please let me know if you have any more questions and I'll try to help if I can by putting the answers up here.