Pep Up for Peplums!

So, apparently peplums are a trend. And chevrons. And stripes. That's not a big surprise to most people, but I'm always a little late on these things. Actually, when peplums first started showing up all over Pinterest and grocery store checkout magazines, I thought they looked absolutely ridiculous. Why would anyone want to wear a little circus tent around their hips? But, as is usually the case with me and fashion trends, I eventually came around to the idea, just like I did with pointy stilettos, riding boots, and drop waists. I'm still not a fan of harem pants, though. And if I ever write a blog post about how I've suddenly realized that harem pants are actually awesome, please start an intervention before I go ahead and sew a pair.

Testing range of motion: yay, the underarm seams held up!

Anyway, ever since my chevron BCT hack died in the laundry, I've been wanting to make another one. I had almost a yard of black and white striped knit leftover from my Hamburglar top, so I thought I would experiment with chevrons and peplums simultaneously. I took my not-a-Renfrew pattern, changed up the grain lines, and then played some Tetris trying to get all the pattern pieces to fit on my remaining fabric. It was a pretty close call, but I mostly managed -- I couldn't get chevrons on the back peplum and had to settle for vertical stripes there -- without having to sacrifice much of the overall look I wanted. I also ended up with a less full (less peppy?) peplum than I wanted, but that's okay. I'll ease into the look with a four-person camping tent before I go full-on circus big top.

I don't have to look at the back, so it doesn't bother me that it doesn't have chevrons. 

There's not much else to say about this top, since I've used this pattern so many times. I did have to bring my side seams in to get a tighter fit, since the original amount of ease just looked silly; they caused wrinkles of extra fabric, which distorted the chevrons, and the peplum just hung weirdly. I think if I were to do this again I would also curve the center front seam in under the bust. This would help the tee to hug my torso better; I usually ignore the looseness on tees that don't have a center seam, but since this "pattern" does have one, I might as well utilize it!

I managed to get the side seams to match up on top, but not on the peplum. Oh well. 

I'm pretty pleased with this top overall, but if I make another one I think I'll use a solid color for the neckband. It's a little too busy for my taste with the stripes, although it's not a deal breaker by any means. Even though I have another top made from the same fabric, I think this looks different enough that it doesn't feel redundant in my wardrobe. And of course, the black and white go with everything!

When you get closer, you can see that my chevrons are just the tiniest smidgen off.
 didn't care enough to pick my seam out of a fairly thick knit. 

Is anyone interested in a more in-depth tutorial on how to adapt a fitted tee pattern to make this top? Let me know! Or, you know, you can just scoff at how I fell for this trend.

I feel a little bit like one of those optical illusion posters. (Remind me to never wear this when teaching. One time I wore a similarly striped skirt, and a student actually asked me to stop wearing clothing that made him dizzy.)

And hey, if you haven't entered my fabric/pattern giveaway yet, it's still open for a couple more days!