Peplum top from dress

Here is the peplum top I made from the too-big, frumpy dress.   I separated the skirt from the top at the waist and used the already nicely rolled hem edge for the peplum.    Where the front had just been gathered below the cartridge pleats, I added cartridge pleats and stitched them down to mirror the stying on the bodice.  In the back I added darts at the waist, and instead of gathering the attached peplum,  I put two soft, inverted pleats just below the darts, and eased up any excess.   I still had to leave the waist a bit roomy or put in a zipper to get it over my head.   I'm wondering if it would look better if the peplum was shorter, but it's the same length of the current Vogue patterns peplum top, and the Peggy Sagers Giorgio top with a peplum effect.    Actually refashioning and altering isn't my favorite thing to do, so I'm done with this top for now.

So here it is with several different bottoms.   I created a Flickr set of proportions, pulling photos from my Flickr library.   It's interesting how certain combinations just look right and others, iffy or just frumpy and wrong.   I like the top with the short skirts and the cropped pants.   It's a boho look with the double layer georgette rayon skirt above.  Now my former dress is a comfortable casual top that I'll get a lot more wear out of.

With matching skirt - Yes

With bias short skirt - Yes

With cotton cropped pants -Yes

With jersey gored EF skirt - No