Imogen Peasant Top Hack - Make It a Dress!
Hi! My name is Kristine, I am from Norway and this is my first time blogging here at Ellie and Mac. I have been sewing for a long time and I started sewing clothes for myself in 2020.
In late 2021 I found Ellie and Mac's patterns, and I fell in love with many of them. Now when I want to sew something that I need, I always look for a pattern from Ellie and Mac first.
My favorite pattern to sew and wear is the Imogen Peasant top. I have already sewn it three times and now I want to make a dress out of it!
Why Make it a Dress?
What I really like about the Imogen peasant top is the mix of using both woven and knitted fabric.
Often I find beautiful woven fabric in viscose, satin, etc., and I almost never get the chance to use them, because most of the time I wear warmer clothes as I live in a place where it is cold often and not so fitting to wear thinner clothes.
I like mixing the woven fabrics with the comfy knitted fabric, as it is such a fun way to keep myself warm while also feeling pretty with beautiful woven fabrics.
We are going into colder days again, but we still want to dress pretty when the autumn leaves fall. Therefore, why not make the Imogen peasant top into a dress!
Finding the Material
The Imogen peasant top is a fun and easy top where you combine two different fabrics, woven and knitted.
The knitted part of this top should be a typical sweater fabric, like French terry, Ponte, or heavy twill.
The woven part looks best with light fabrics such as satin, viscose, and silk.
For the knitted part, I found Courtelle in the color putty that will fit well with the linen and viscose mix fabric, which I will use for the woven part.
These fabrics fit the style here in Scandinavia, as a lot of us like calmer colors and more "organic" looks with a little bit of embroidery.
The fabrics are bought on Selfmade.com, a Scandinavian fabric shop that has become more international.
Finding the Right Length
Before cutting the skirt part of this top, I had to find out how long I wanted my dress to be. To make it easier for myself, I wore one of the Imogen tops I made earlier, looked at myself in the mirror, and measured with my measuring tape to find out how much I needed to add.
I tried measuring in many different ways to find the correct lengths. I wanted knee length for my dress. I used a few different ways to find the correct length.
One of them was having the measure tape around my neck, relaxing my arms, and see myself in the mirror to read how many CM/Inch I needed.
The other part was to measure from the start of the skirt and down to my knees.
The easiest way to do it is to get help from a friend or partner to measure it for you. Or if you have a seam bust that is adjusted to your length, that will work as well!
I decided to add 30 cm (12 inches) to my skirt. It might be too long for me, but I will adjust it when the skirt is sewn on the top.
Cut and Sew
It is time to cut all the parts as shown in the instructions, except for the skirt.
Instead of drawing a new skirt that is longer, I used the already cut out skirt part and put my measuring tape from the end of the skirt part and added my length.
When you are finished cutting all the parts, it is time to sew!
If you need some more visual instructions, you can watch the step by step guide from Diana to sew up the pattern here Sew the Imogen Peasant Top | Step-by-Step V-Neck Tutorial (Knit + Woven Mix!)
Sewing Tip From Me
My little tip when it comes to sewing is to choose a thread that is a little bit darker than the fabric. I sometimes have a bit of a problem with sewing straight lines on thinner fabrics likes satin or viscose. The darker thread will blend better with the fabric and won't be so visible as a lighter color thread.
The Final Product
My Imogen dress is finally finished!
The dress length was just as I wanted it. The fabrics look good together, and I am happy with how it became a dress. As I have written earlier in the post, this is a fun pattern to use when you want to use both woven and knitted fabrics.
I also had some fun styling the dress and found this cute belt and hat that I have and tried different ways to wear the dress!
Such a simple way to create a dress from a top pattern. I recommend trying the Imogen Mixed Media Peasant Top Sewing Pattern and create your own dress out of it!
- Written by Kristine Laugen
