Gathering Moss

I have had the Grainline Moss Mini Skirt pinned forever.  I don't have the legs for a mini skirt, but the longer version with the hem band is exactly the type of skirt I gravitate towards in stores, and which I always find flattering and comfy.  I finally decided to sew one up last week.

  
So, the fabric.  It is a very stretchy stretch corduroy that I picked up when FabricMart was doing a corduroy clearance.  FM called the color "seafoam."  It's a color that I was kind of on the fence about. I figured it could go one of two ways: 1) springy and on-trend or 2) Rose from Golden Girls.

What do you think?  Rose is rocking a slouchy cardigan in exactly the shade of seafoam that I would prefer to avoid.  I think that the color of the cord is a little deeper.  Though, now that I look closer at her shirt, it does bear a resemblance to the Traveler I am wearing in this photo.  OK, that's a little creepy.

I like the skirt.  Although my waist and hip measurements correspond exactly to the size 12, this turned out a tiny bit too big.  I'm guessing that's due to the stretchiness of the fabric, or perhaps there is more ease built into the pattern than I would like. (UPDATE: Well, it's more than a tiny bit big - within 30 minutes of wear it was falling right off my hips.  I took an inch off each side seam, tapering to nothing 9" down the skirt and adjusted the waistband accordingly.  I should mention that I was dreading the alteration but it actually took less than 40 minutes and now I have a very wearable skirt).

Like several others in blogland, I ran into a problem with the waistband being a full 2.5" too short.  I emailed Jen from Grainline and she responded to me basically immediately, which was awesome of her.  She asked me to send her some photos of my skirt-in-progress and said she is aware that some people are having a problem, and plans to look into it very soon.  Although I may have uttered a few choice words while working on that waistband, I have to say that I was impressed with this pattern support and will recommend Grainline to anyone because of it.

The instructions are a little sparse in places, but I was able to construct the skirt with minimal frustration (other than the waistband).  I lined the pockets with scraps of the pink plaid fabric from that Traveler shirt, so that outfit above is extra-matchy.

The zipper and fly are not perfect, but being that this is only my fourth zipper ever, and the most successful by far, I am calling it a win.  I will refrain from offering a close-up of my imperfections (and the royally botched bartack).  It's good enough for government work.

I look pretty dumb in this photo but, in my defense, it was REALLY bright out and the wind was insane.  Most of the photos from the shoot were much dumber.  I'm including it anyway as part of my new mission to provide around-town modeling shots.  This one was taken in front of your typical Soviet and post-Soviet apartment blocks, pretty close to my house.

In conclusion - the Moss gets a thumbs up from me.  I'll size down for the next one and report back.