diy peplum from tunic inspired by "marc by marc jacobs flavin stripe peplum top"

hi guys!
i hope you all got out this weekend to enjoy your days especially since daylight savings, the days have gotten longer = more daylight time to be out and about!  i'm sure you've seen this trend popping around for a little while now and with the constant rain going on here in the bay area, i decided to stay in and do some diy-ing.  it was perfect bc as soon as i finished, the sun came out the following day.

here's my diy peplum top version made out of a tunic i had

here's marc by marc jacobs flavin stripe peplum top

photo borrowed from bloomingdales.com

link will take you to purchse here $ 198.00  http://www1.bloomingdales.com/shop/product/marc-by-marc-jacobs-top-flavin-stripe-peplum?ID=601014&cm_mmc=Froogle_pla_pe-_-adtype-pla-_-target-34131292624-_-kw-&gclid=CJiyhvPbla8CFQUZQgodzXXn0A

i have some peplum shirts and jackets i bought from paris a few years ago and i love them!

materials needed:

1. tunic
2. sewing machine (needle and thread would work too but will take some patience - go borrow a machine!)
3. thread
4. scissors
5. elastic

directions:

find a tunic that you're not that into anymore?  or that you don't care too much about maybe since this is a project type thing :]

i used a peplum jacket i have to measure where i wanted the waist to be but you can just put it on and measure it.  then use a safety pin and pin one side so you can know where to measure and make the cut.

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then fold the tunic in half and cut!  i did this so it would save me the time from measuring both sides.  i just cut straight across.

i cut the bottom navy polka-dot portion because i wasn't a huge fan of it anymore.

take your elastic and put it on the inside part of the shirt/fabric (part that has seams you can see).  you want to make sure the needle goes into the elastic and fabric here and then start sewing.  as you're sewing, pull on the elastic only.  and when you're pulling, try to pull and hold taut.  continue to sew while you're pulling.  the easiest way i found to do this is to also hold the portion you already sewed while holding the loose elastic taut.  see photos below of what i'm trying to describe.

one hand pulling already sewn portion

one hand in front holding elastic taut

this is just a photo of me closing up the bottom portion of the shirt where i cut of the navy polk-dot fabric.    if you have a tunic that's all one fabric, this part isn't necessary so skip to the next thing.

take the top portion of the shirt and the bottom portion you just made.  line up where the seams are on the inside.  hold both the correct sides together, and sew.  when you sew, you can sew right on the elastic where you sewed earlier.  since your fabric piece sewn earlier is going to be stretchy, you can pull on it a little while sewing to make sure it evens out to the top flat piece you're sewing on.  ask me questions if you have any!  sometimes i'm sure it's weird for others to understand and for me to describe how i'm doing things.  

the peplum is very subtle here because the bottom portion of the shirt isn't much wider than the portion where it was cut.  which leaves less room for super ruffles but if you want more ruffles, you'll need more fabric going around.  i'm happy with a mild peplum, after all - it's still peppier than it was before.  i think i'll end up trying a super peppy peplum soon, so stay tuned for that tutorial.

here's the final product:

here i am excited and ready to go out in my new peplum shirt!

thanks for stopping by!  have a great week ahead!

jen