It’s still January, right?

OK. I may have technically missed Jungle January, but I was with you in spirit and have been dying to add some animal print madness to my wardrobe! As soon as Anne announced the month-long extravaganza, I pulled this jersey out of my stash and started plotting. I picked it up at Mood several months ago during a mega shopping expedition with my sister, and the whole time I couldn’t stop saying to her, “This is so awful… I HAVE to have it!” It’s neon leopard print jersey, people! It’s too obnoxious NOT to bring home with you (ladies: this mantra does not apply to dudes). I found out at the cutting counter that it’s Betsey Johnson… makes sense, right? Homegirl loves her crazy prints!

I used Papercut Patterns‘ new(ish) Petrouchka Top pattern, a raglan-sleeved peplum top with a curved seam at the midriff (totally obscured by the print, but it’s an adorable detail). It was mondo easy to put together– seriously, the most difficult part was trying to figure out what 1cm seam allowances are equal to (I spent a ridiculously long time trying to do that math… before I figured out that there’s a 1cm mark on my sewing machine…). I made an XS, and I had to remove a ton of excess from the side seams and sleeves (like, as much as 4″ in some places). I wish that there was a chart of the finished garment measurements (OH WAIT, THERE TOTALLY WAS BUT I IGNORED IT BECAUSE, AGAIN, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT 99 CM EQUALS IN REAL NUMBERS???). So yeah. After I’d already made all the alterations, I spent 3 seconds Googling “99 cm to inches” and realized that 39″ in the bust would never work for me, so I should’ve known better and just sized down from the get-go. Live and learn. Let’s see… I also re-serged the seam joining the peplum to the bodice to raise the waistline a little. I still think it’s a bit too low, but I don’t want to lose any more length in the front, so I’ll just leave it. I’ll shorten the bodice and lengthen the peplum if I make this again.

I’m still not 100% sold on the peplum trend. This doesn’t emphasize my hips, luckily, but I’m not sure how flattering it is to have all that fabric hanging from the waist. But I definitely wouldn’t have tried a peplum at all if I hadn’t loved this pattern so much, so that says a lot. I will probably make this again before ye olde peplum’s 15 minutes of fame in 2013 is up. I’ll say this, though– I definitely feel like a bit of a naughty kitty in this top.

Wicked, wicked kitty…

I’m so glad I finally have a reason to get this out of my stash and onto my body! It’s so trashy and fun– I feel like throwing a cosmo at someone when I’m wearing it! I’m sure Anne would approve this message– if she’s not president of the Sewing Bad Girls Club, I don’t know who is.