Long Tee upcycled to Peplum Top

I'm a part time couponer and some deals are just too good not to share. A couple of weeks ago as I was shopping for my mother's day gift, I went to JCP and they had a deal where if you bought $75 worth gift cards, you'd get back $15 to spend in the store. I did two separate transactions and got 2 $15 gift cards to use the Monday after Mother's day.

I went to JCP last Thursday and headed straight for the clearance racks. I've been wanting to try upcycling, but still a little ehh about using items from the thrift shops and the deal I got was better than any garage sale or thrift shop.

With two transactions totally just over the $15 required, I left the store with all of the above for $1.95 after the in-store coupons. The 4 long tees (2 red, 1 black, 1 white) were each $1.97. The measuring cup was the most expensive item @ 9.99. The green tee and the pants were both 6.97. I split the sale and paid $0.99 and $0.96. Okay now to the actual project. I was inspired by a few tutorials through Pinterest, but Love Megan was probably closer to what I did. I, however used 2 long sleeved shirts. They were both XL and loose fitting.

Sorry for the red on red. I first put on the shirt and marked out where I wanted the waist to hit me. Then I put it back on the dummy to pin and check out the shape.

Back in my craft I had to shorten the sleeves to get it similar to the inspiration piece. 

I folded the shirt in half and cut it at the mark I'd made earlier. Since I wasn't using a fitted tee to make my peplum, I had to add some darts to the front. Sorry I skipped that picture. I added two to the front and after the top was completed and still felt too loose, I took in the side seams with my serger. 

I cut out the bottom of the second shirt and and used one whole pieced and half of the second shirt (so I had 3 panels of the lower half of the shirts to use for my flare portion of the shirt.

Using my serger, I joined the seams so that I had one wide tube.

I hand threaded my elastic bobbing, set my stitches to the longest straight stitch and gathered the fabric.

I pinned the right sides of the top of the shirt to the right side of the bottom skirt by putting shirt right side out into the skirt tube (keeping the skirt wrong side out). I then pinned , but didn't really make too much of an effort to match the seams. Finally I used the serger to (4 threads stretch setting) to join the two pieces.

Hear is the joined peplum inside out as I marked out where to take in the sides some more.

The picture on the left (although hard to tell) had not yet had the side seams reduced. The image on the right has a smaller seam.

The entire project took about 90 minutes to complete and I was able to wear my top the next morning. 

Sewing Machine Needle Organization

I sew everything from purses to clothing and am constantly switching needles. The problem with doing that in the same project is you get lazy and set the needle down next to another and other than the size, it's too tedious to try and figure out what needle is for what. Especially if you don't know the color code. This was a quick and dirty fix using items I already had at home.

Materials used:
Piece of scrap cushion foam (1 inch) from a previous project. The foam works cause it won't damage your needle.
Piece of thin ribbon or yarn would do
School glue
Piece of paper for your labels

For the label I just put what the package said and then included the size.

Step 1:
Cut foam

 Step 2:
Make label. I made mine three or four across each row. Set aside.

 Step 3:
Use a long need to run a piece of ribbon through the foam. You could also pass it the short way and tie. I didn't want the ribbon getting in the way.

 Step 4:
Glue the label to the foam.

 Step 5:
Tie the string, stick in your needles per the labels and voila. No more confusing needles.

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