Peplum no. 2

Thank you for all of your nice comments on my first peplum...it sounds like I'm not the only one with peplum trepidation!  

I'm just back from a family trip to Ireland to visit my husband and brother-in-law's sides.  (A sweet coincidence, my sister and I both married Irish guys.) Sure enough, it rained but it was cozy and we had moments of sunshine, and to be honest a small part of me looks forward to this weather...forced hibernation/sewing time!

Me, my mom and my niece playing in the Irish Sea 

 So anyway, here's number 2, a more prim version inspired by this Goat dress I spotted in a posh department store, when taking the long way to the tube after work one night.  I fell in love with the colour and the front pleats (but not the price tag), and remembered that I had a metre of red wool gabardine left over from my gathered dart skirt and tutorial.   So with my patternmaster and trusty blocks I was able to create something like it (take that, posh department store)!

Like my last peplum, a metre of fabric was only just about enough.  I would have liked the sleeves to be a little bit longer, only about an inch or so.  Maybe I'll replace them if I get hold of this fabric again....maybe not.

Here it is with the matching red gabardine skirt.  

A couple of things I learned --

- I splurged on some really soft red silk to line the peplum, but it wasn't happening.  Even the fine silk was bulky enough to throw off the symmetry between the bodice and the peplum.  I ended up using bias tape on the seams, because I wanted a crisp and neat finish on the hem and side seams...

- ...but this gave the peplum too much body, which I loved at first, but it caused the folds of fabric to flip inside out.  To remedy this, I pressed a seam on the inside of the folds and let the outsides curve naturally.

Safe to say I've got peplums out of my system for now.

Hope everyone is keeping warm, happy sewing!