Moss, modified

I did not know that April had been declared Moss Making Month, so it was a happy accident that I sewed my second Moss skirt a couple weeks ago.  Coming off of my first, too-big Moss, I decided to size down.  Since I had taken the other, initially size 12, Moss in a whole inch on each side, I cut an 8 this time.  I had my doubts about that - I haven't been an 8 since, like, junior high school - and it turns out those doubts were well-founded.  The skirt was way too tight - like Mariah Carey tight.

My husband insisted that it looked good (wink wink, of course he did), but there was no way I was going out in public like that.

What to do?  I took off the waistband and added a wedge of fabric in between the front and back skirt pieces on each side.

Being wider at the bottom than the top, the wedge gave the skirt an a-line shape, and I like it.

I used a navy and white pinstriped stretch cotton from Fabric Mart.  While I love the pinstripes, the fabric itself is quite thin and crisp, causing it to crumple like an empty bag of potato chips.  The interfacing at the waistband and fly also completely bubbled up after just two washes.  I guess it's time to find an alternative to Pellon (though sadly, I still have half a bolt of the stuff in my sewing room!).  Any recommendations?

I decided not to face the hem band for no reason other than laziness (since I had to cut out new hem bands after adding my side-wedges).  Instead I used some 1.5" chevron twill ribbon to face the hem.  I think it is adorable, though it causes the hem to not be stretchy when the rest of the skirt is stretchy.  That is kind of a "duh" revelation, but nevertheless one that I had not considered ahead of time.

Rumply fabric, bubbly fly and firm hem notwithstanding, this is exactly the kind of skirt I would buy in a store, and I may keep the side-wedges on future iterations.  Though I will have to think carefully about sizing again on the next one - it seems that the stretchiness of the fabrics I have chosen thus far make a big difference in the size I should cut.  

In any case, I love this pattern.

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.