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In case you’ve missed my announcement on YouTube last week, the months of July and August will be dedicated to the Lisa and Kimberly dress patterns. These two lovely dresses have interchangeable parts, which means that you can choose between the A-line skirt of the Lisa or the half circle skirt of the Kimberly and add it to any of the two bodices you want.
Have you ever thought of turning a dress into a peplum top? Well, you can and it’s actually pretty easy! In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to turn your Lisa dress into a top for the summer.
This idea belongs to one of my beloved sewing friends, Whitney, also known as @tomkatstitcherykarmel. She is following a fantastic method for planning her sewing, which is working in modules, and last month she used 7 of my patterns to create a whole collection of outfits, which you can admire here. One of the garments was this Lisa top hack, which I shamelessly copied for this tutorial, haha!
To make this top, I used a gorgeous fabric from Minerva Crafts, who are very kindly sponsoring this series by offering me the fabrics for all the makes. This one is a floral cotton lawn that you can find here.
So, here’s what you’ll need:
-your Lisa dress pattern
-pencil and scissors
-a ruler and a measuring tape
-your fabric and basic sewing tools
The ONLY alteration you will have to make to the pattern pieces is to chop off the front and back skirt and redraw the curve to create the peplum. It is up to you to decide how long you want your peplum to be, but keep in mind that you will have to include the hem allowance to the pattern piece.
For my top, I measured 15 cm (6”) from the waistline. This measurement includes 2 cm seam allowance. Do the same for the measurement you wish to have and redraw the new hem line (marked in red below). Then do the same thing for the back piece and that’s the only alteration you will have to make to the pattern pieces.
Regarding the construction, you will have to follow the exact same steps you will find in the instruction booklet, as if you were making the dress. There is absolutely no difference.
The only word of caution I have for you is about the zip. The dress has a 16” (40 cm) invisible zip in the back, which I recommend you getting for the peplum top. I thought I could get away with a shorter one, but it turns out it wasn’t enough to get the top over my bust, as the waist part was too small. I can wear it, but it’s not the easiest garment to put on and off so I will go back and change the zip to a 16” one instead.
And that’s all for this tutorial! Isn’t it an easy hack?
I hope that I inspired you to try it and if you do, please tag me on social media or send me an e-mail. I would LOVE to see it!
Happy sewing,
Athina
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