Macaron Peplum: Part 1

Today’s blog post should get me one step closer to catching you guys up on what I did over the weekend with my Macaron dress hack.

I am head-over-heels in love with peplums.  I’m not sure you all feel the peplum love like me, which I should state is “second” over my love of bows; but I think they’re the bees knees.

What’s kinda crummy is that I don’t think peplums technically work for me with all of my hippy-hips and thick thighs. But I’m not letting that stop me since I have in my head that the Macaron needs a peplum.

*Calming down now*

In my research and scheming of how to go about making a peplum, I ran into a mini road block.  All of the peplum patterns I’ve seen have been circles (cut on the fold in a circular shape).  This lends itself great to having a flared hem yet flat & cinched waist.

The problem with this is that I’m using a piece of lace as my peplum which has a lovely scalloped border.  What this all means is that my peplum has to be a giant rectangle  instead of a curved peplum, since I’d loose the scalloped border that way.

As a result, I decided to pleat the ruffle in such a way that I get maximum floof at the hem of the peplum, while trying to minimize my waist.

Math:

3″ of the lace, lying flat at the two center front edges
+
3/4″ pleat (uses up 1.5″ of fabric)
+
1.5″ gap (before starting the next pleat

This is what I was able to come up with.  I spent nearly all of my night on Friday trying to come up with the perfect number of pleats vs. spaces to maximize the small amount of fabric I had left.  I should note that I don’t even have 2 inches of the scalloped border left to use; I was cutting things that close!

I should mention, I was really hoping that I would have some lace scalloped border left over so I could apply it to the hem of my skirt, but it wasn’t meant to be I guess….

This is my peplum piece.  The lace was around 48″ long and my cranberry silk crepe was only 44″ long.  What I ended up doing was sewing a 6″ section onto the silk crepe with a french seam.  Luckily the seam is on the underlining, and with the pleats you’ll never end up knowing its there.

I decided that I was going to try out my new silk pins on my peplum, since I didn’t have enough of my flat headed daily pins.

I bought these pins from Sunni’s online shop, and while they seem just as thick as my normal pins, they really *hold* the silk well and are sharp enough that they don’t leave any marks.  After using them I was surprised how much I liked these pins.  :)  (I doubted the thickness of these pins for my silk crepe & lace).

I use lots of pins as you can see.  With how wiggly silk crepe gets I wanted to ensure I had the lace and silk aligned *just so* in preparation of my hand basting.

The first thing I did was to run a line of basting at the top of the peplum (in black… so it’s hard to see).

And then I ran another line of basting above all of the scallops.

And finally, there’s a third line of basting stitches in the scallops themselves, which is also terribly hard to see (if not impossible to see).

Here’s a mega detail shot, but it’s still terribly hard to see my basting ,besides the line in silver thread.

Luckily enough, I took a shot of the wrong side of the peplum:

Well, that’s really all I have to share at the moment.  I’d keep going with the rest of the construction of the peplum, but I have even more photos of that, so I figured I’d share the rest tomorrow.

In: Sewing

Blogger for 6 years and counting, I am a passionate creator who loves to tinker.

Comments (5)

  1. maddie February 5, 2013 — 11:28 AM

    WOW. This peplum is going to be gorgeous!

  2. Liz I am in awe of your patience and precision! This was always going to be amazing but spectacular may be more appropriate. Thank you for sharing and I’m so glad you’re loving this project, I’m really enjoying sharing your journey and learning a ton!

    1. Liz February 5, 2013 — 6:48 PM

      Awww, thanks so much! I just hope it looks as good on me in the end as it does on my (firm) dressform. heh

  3. Esz February 5, 2013 — 11:25 PM

    I love me a peplum also – second place behind bows and/or bustles ;-)
    I think peplums can work on us ‘hippy’ girls if they are nice and drapey – and I used to think they were the biggest no-no of all but it’s not the case.

    Anyways – you’ve got an amazing amount of patience and such neat basting stitches! Mine are usually mega untidy cos I don’t give a sh*t if they’re going to come out anyway! Or not be seen. Tsk Tsk I know ;-)

  4. Katherine February 6, 2013 — 9:46 AM

    Looking at your current progress shots, your macaron-redux dress is looking gorgeous – all your beautifully executed couture techniques are so inspiring! I can’t wait to see the finished product!!

    I’m just wondering – where did this peplums-aren’t-for-hippy-girls thing come from? It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I actually think they’re great to emphasize a waistline and create a nicely balanced silhouette (and I too am well-blessed with hips and thighs). That lace is going to make a showstopper of a peplum!

Leave a Comment