Ginghamalong 2016: Peplum Top

When Karen announced a 'Ginghamalong' I was intrigued but I didn't have any gingham in my stash so I didn't think that I would be able to join in. However, Dad donated a pile of worn out shirts and one of them just happened to be gingham!

His shirts tend to be worn out mostly at the collar and at the underarm, which still leaves me a lot to play with. I decided to make a peplum top, which seemed to be all the rage a few years ago but aren't seen so often nowadays.

I could have used the entire width of the shirt using the original hem for the peplum or cut the back of the shirt in half lengthways. It turned out that the latter option would yield the longest width of fabric so I went for that one. 

I cut both of the shirt fronts and back free and then cut them into rectangles. The back was cut in half lengthways for the peplum and the button bands were cut off the fronts to be added again later.

 I started by pinning the 2 rectangles cut from the front pieces to fit around my bust and sewed them into a tube. I then cut down the middle of one of the rectangles for the CB. Next was gathering the peplum piece to the bodice.

I then sewed the button bands onto the center back to fasten the top. I got a bit enthusiastic and sewed the buttons on before I attached the band to the top. This made sewing the band on a nightmare. Buttons go last!

 Then the top edge was turned down and top-stitched and I did the same for the hem. The straps were just strips sewn right sides together and turned out.

 This was another one of those makes that I wasn't very heavily invested in, but it worked out really well! It's a shame that summer is nearly over.

Thanks very much to Meghan, Jack and Jowan who let me drag them down to the park for table tennis and blog pics. Thanks to dad for enabling me to participate, thanks to Karen for hosting the Ginghamalong and thank you for reading!

Lauren xx