Peplum Top and Floral Pants: Sewing My Basic Wardrobe

OK, these stretch floral pants don't exactly count for being basic but if I wore them with a black T shirt they might be, right?
The peplum top is a great basic. I'll probably end up wearing it with jeans a lot.
The top is made from double knit I bought at Britex in San Francisco and the pants are made from stretch cotton woven from Mood in Los Angeles.

These are the second and third projects I have sewn from my recommended pattern picks for a basic wardrobe post:

Simplicity 1696

Vogue 8813

I recommend both of these patterns because the instructions are excellent and the fit was good without many adjustments. I cut a size smaller than recommended for my measurements as usual, a size 10 instead of a 12, and everything fit almost perfectly out of the envelope.

The pants have extensive instructions on fitting and come with one inch seam allowances to allow for adjustments. I also sewed a zipper fly, my first time, without too much trouble.

However, the peplum top recommended facing the neck and arms with bias tape and top stitching. I traced the pattern and made old fashioned facings instead.

I'm trying to take more care with my sewing and one of the things I am trying to do is remove ANY SIGNS OF STITCHING from my outer garment. I was taught to sew in a time when machine stitching on the outside of a woven garment was a sign of poor quality, unless you were wearing jeans and knit clothing items like T shirts.

The hems on fine clothing were always supposed to be invisible. I'm always a little taken aback when a pattern tells me to just turn a hem over twice and stitch it down with my machine.

Since most home sewing machines don't exactly do a great job of top stitching, mine included, a machine sewn hem always looks a little shoddy and "homemade" to me.

BTW, I need to tack down that neckline facing! Sewing things the old way takes more time but if you are interested in really getting good at sewing it's worth it. I have a few sewing books printed from the 1940's to the 1960's that I like to consult. Get an old sewing book and you can't go wrong!

Walk into any designer boutique and look at clothing from Chanel, Valentino, or Gucci. You most definitely will never see a machine sewn hem.

So I'm surprised patterns recommend this shortcut instead of doing a hem the right way, which is a blind hem or a catch stitched hem.
Just my two cents here, readers!

I used an exposed zipper on the back of the top. It's a little hard to see but I like it!

I'm entering this outfit into the Project Sewn Sew Along Pool. The challenge is 80's fashion. The peplum top and the floral pants were huge trends in the eighties. I know because I'm old enough that I actually wore both. I've heard the saying that "If you are old enough to have worn a trend the first time around you shouldn't be wearing it again". Well I say, go for it!

Here are some nitty gritty details:

Side pockets, zip fly, bias bound waistband, belt loops, mock back welt pocket.

Self fabric top facings, hem tape used for the hems on both the top and the pants. I love hem tape.

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