Birthday Project: 13th Sewing Adventure - Peplum Top

Turning 30. I made it a point to spend the entire 24 hours and more not thinking about work. No minutes writing. No checking office email. Remembered to turn on my "Out of Office" on Friday although it was only a day's leave. Tried best not to let many know I was on leave for minimal interruptions.

My sewing machine had arrived in time to fit right into my plan. If it hadn't I would have used my old trusty manual sewing machine anyway. It was something I had to complete no matter what. For myself. Over a year of not sewing anything! Be gone!

This time around I wanted to draft the pattern from scratch using my own body measurements. It would be completely mine, not a modified dress pattern.

The basic bodice pattern took me a few hours to draft the night before. Measuring myself was a little tricky. I followed the step-by-step guide in Rhonda's blog with a metal ruler and the wrong French curve in hand (yes, what I had was from the stationery store for illustration). The instructions were good, detailed and what I needed to change were the collar shape and bust darts (using my cheongsam as a guide).

Draft basic bodice on paper - modification was required after sewing in the darts on the real cloth

It was a brain stimulating exercise trying to figure out why the pattern wasn't looking as it should and then trying to figure out how to sew the hem. I guess this is where proper sewing training would be useful.

Anyway, the final product is as below. I'm pretty happy that it actually fit but I think I may have measured my waistline a little too high. The peplum top is still a work in progress as the finishing is still a bit raw. I think it's not bad for a first try - especially when it was supposed to be a test cloth (was too cautious and didn't want to start off with my Michael Miller cloth stash straight away - in case it was a failure).

Finally done (but not quite) - my sea green peplum top