A super-easy addition to any outfit, this sweet little gathered peplum is reminiscent of the Jil Sander S/S 2011 collection (the one with all the bright-colored gathered maxi-skirts evoking tulips and flowers).  You can wear it with the coordinating maxi-skirt, or alone over jeans, a pencil skirt, or an LBD.  It’s also super-easy to make!  Here’s how:

You Need:

*42″ long x 61″-wide piece of cotton with a bit of stretch to it (1 and 2/3 of a yard for 45″+-wide fabrics)

*matching thread

*1/2″ (min. width) of knit waistband elastic, your waist length

And…

*scissors

*pins

*sewing machine

*safety pin

How-To:

1. Cut a piece of fabric 42″ long by 61″ wide.  (for most fabrics, you’ll have to cut that big rectangle cross-grain; i.e.; the long side of the rectangle goes up-and-down; the shorter side is placed from selvedge to selvedge).

2. Fold the piece of fabric in half along the long side, right sides together.  Stitch along the top edges of the long side to make a long tube.

3. Turn the tube right-side-out.

4.  Connect the ends of the tube to one another, right sides together.  Sew them together, leaving a 3″ gap near where the seams meet.

5. Place a piece of elastic around you waist and pull taut.  (You still want there to be enough stretch room to pull the peplum on over your hips, though.)  Cut so that 1″ of the elastic ends will overlap.

6. Attach a safety pin to one end of the elastic.  Thread through the peplum, keeping the other end firmly in your hand, and making sure the elastic doesn’t twist or bunch up on itself inside the peplum piece.

7. Pull the end of the elastic out of the peplum, and overlap the other end by 1″.  Stitch together (I usually stitch in a rectangle shape through the two ends.)

8. Roll the long-end seam to the inside of the elastic loop, and stitch down the gap you left open in Step 4).  Stitch through the elastic as well as you stitch it down.

9. Sew a couple stitches through the top of the peplum piece (through the elastic), in a couple areas around the circumference of the peplum.

And you’re done!

Wear in place of a belt to add a little fashionable fun to any outfit.

As you can see, placed over the coordinating maxi-skirt that I shared the pattern for last July, there’s a little too much gathering going on in the ensemble (IMHO).  If you’re going for a coordinating bottom, it would probably look best over a slim skirt, or fishtail-shaped skirt as the original.

Happy DIY’ing!

xoxox
Carly

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