One of my favorite stores, Anthro. The clothing is divine! The price tags are heavenly, as in high as the heavens to me. I am not in any way knocking the clothing. Quite the opposite, I love the clothing. The best form of flattery is using your garments as inspiration, right? Which is why I love Anthro Hacks.
I love these tops, especially the bigger than normal and higher than average peplum. To me it’s really a statement piece in a world full of traditional peplums. This one stands out and says I am my own art! I’m not like the other peplums and I love it! Embrace my mantra and wear an Anthro hack, an out of the ordinary peplum too.
I feel like, for me, the average peplum is played out. When I saw these from Anthro, I saw the ultimate peplum challenge. Then I started breaking the pattern down. I must hack this Anthro garment. What I found was essentially a favorite t shirt pattern and a gathered skirt. The individuality comes with the sleeves, the positioning, and the length of the peplum.
I wanted to hide a few pounds. I love knits. So, of course, m peplum has a longer than average peplum with an above average amount of gathering. In order to recreate these you need a top pattern that you love, and a rectangle of fabric twice as long as the circumference of your top. I cut the pieces for the t shirt out, down to the area I wanted my peplum to begin. For me, this was about 10 inches below the shoulder. For the peplum, at this point you must determine how long you would like the bottom of the peplum to fall. Anthro has their hems falling a few inches longer than the length of the top half of the shirt. I believe I used 12 or so inches. Make sure the peplum is two times the length circumfrenece of the top. Sew the top part of the top as indicated on the pattern, if you are using one. Then gather the top of the peplum, it doesn’t really matter which is used for the top. The peplum piece is a rectangle. The only time this matters is when there is a definite pattern. After the gathering is complete, adjust the gathers to fit the top. Sew the ends of the peplum together to create a circle. Then, with right sides together. Attach the gathered portion of the peplum to the bottom of the top. It’s really that easy!
This post will only allow one photo. So, I’ll be posting my version in a follow up post. Let me know how yours turned out, I would love to see pictures.
ENJOY!