another moss…

my love affair with grainline patterns is pretty well documented as of late, and evidently i needed another moss skirt! i went to sewfisticated (one of my local fabric haunts) last week in search of some lightweight denim (which i found) and stumbled across this marc jacobs stretch denim. for $4/yd, i couldn’t pass it up. i didn’t buy much, and planned to save it for shorts next spring, but i decided i didn’t want to wait. so, another moss skirt was in order. hopefully i can pair it with some tights and wear it through the fall as well; three-season wear (spring, summer, fall) is way better than summer only!

with my previous moss skirts i’ve added things like back pockets, belt loops, and extra topstitching. I decided to keep it more basic this time around, and not bother with all those extra details. plus i really wasn’t in the mood for print-matching back pockets. the only pattern change i made was to the front pockets—i kept them rounded out like my denim moss. for some reason, that shape is just my favorite.

i did my best to keep the fabric print matched through out the seaming, and i think i did a damn fine job. can you even see the zip fly without zooming way in? or my CF or CB seams? yeah. like a BOSS. the only thing i’m annoyed with myself for is forgetting to yank the twill on-grain before cutting the front. if you squint, you’ll see that the print kinda skews up a tad. not a huge deal, and really it’s pretty minimal, but whatevs. i didn’t have enough fabric to recut, so… not gonna be bothered by it!

i love this skirt so much. the pattern, the fabric, it just makes a dull day a little brighter. i’ve been crushing on patterned skirts/shorts/pants for a long time, so finally i got a little piece of that trendy pie.

photo-bombed by my hipster son… how could i not include this pic?

—lisa g.

possibly the most boring skirt i’ve ever made

how’s that for a blog post title to really suck you in? riveting, i know. just to let you know how boring it is, i made this skirt monday, threw it in the wash (i always wash my twill makes before wearing them), and totally forgot about it! i came across it when sorting laundry this morning and was all—hey, new skirt… sweet!

super bright outside, but whatevs. i can never pull myself together to take morning pics with better light.

okay, so i wear my denim moss mini all. the. time. it’s in pretty heavy rotation, so i knew i was due for another “basics” moss (from grainline studios, incase you’ve been living in a cave). i had intended to make one from the same fabric as my daughter’s shorts, but finally conceded to the fact that the color is too close to the actual color of my legs and would probably end up way too wash-y out-y. however, i had plenty of fabric left over from my husband’s jedediah shorts, and that fabric color is a way more flattering, but still a go-with-everything, basic color. and now we match d’awwwww…..

i gave the skirt a more slash pocket treatment instead of the slant and gape. i can’t say i really prefer one pocket type over the other, i just like to be difficult.

and, as before, i added back pockets and belt loops. then, because last time i had a hard time with the zipper insert as drafted, i added an extra 1/4″ SA on the underlap side of the fly.

the waistband is cut as one piece which means that the front of the waistband ends up being on the bias. i noticed that my denim moss distorts a little because of this, so to help prevent the waistband from mis-shaping too badly, i pieced my interfacing so that the bias part of the waistband is reinforced with on-grain fusible. i used a woven fusible (stuff i had picked up for collars and cuffs) and really like how it holds up in waistbands (though not so much for the collars and cuffs…). i really don’t know what the best way is to interface waistbands, i suppose i should look into that, given my affinity for sewing them.

anywho… since this skirt is rather plain i decided to jazz up the insides with some leftover seersucker for the waistband facing and leftover floral cotton lawn for the pockets, which just happens to be the same fabric the top i’m wearing. so… my top matches my pockets haha! gotta love that.

to top it all off, i decided to hammer in a snap for the front closure. basically lazy me didn’t want to make a buttonhole and sew on a button. plus, hammering stuff is way more fun.

the end.

—lisa g.

moss mini, in denim

as soon as i made my first grainline studio moss mini i knew i would be making another. it so happened that when i made my denim thurlows earlier this year i used my ninja layout and cutting skillzzzzzz and had quite a bit of denim left over. just enough for a skirt! oh yes, i’m that good. so i wanted to go full on denim skirt here and go crazy with the topstitching and pockets and belt loops. the whole deal.

first thing i had to do was modify the front pocket situation. both the thurlow pattern and the moss mini have the “pocket gape” feature where the pocket stands out just a bit from the body. due to the position of the pocket opening (a slant as opposed to a more vertical slash opening) the gape makes it so the pocket is useable. in order to get a classic jeans pocket shape i had to eliminate the gape, then draft a rounded opening. i even added a coin pocket.

one feature of this pattern is that the pocket bags extend into the fly construction. it gives them great stability and helps everything lay nicely. however, it does create some bulk around the fly facing and attaching the zip to the underlap, so i may modify this if i make the skirt again (which i most likely will). also, the fly construction method was completely different than any other method i’ve seen. you sew up the entire overlap side and topstitch it before sewing any of the underlap. admittedly, i have mixed feelings on this… due to the pocket pieces also being sewn into this seam, and my heavy-ish denim, i lost a bit of SA to turn of cloth and i barely had enough room to sew the zip to the underlap side. i think it would be good to have a little extra SA on the underlap to make sure there is plenty of room. that said, i’m very intrigued by this method as it is completely new to me!

i hammered in a heavy duty snap instead of using a button

i am totally pleased with the fit i achieved. based on my last make, i decided to go up a size in width on the back pieces, then shave about 1/2″ off the CB yoke at the waist tapering back out over le bootay. i also cut the waistband with 1/2″ less at CB to compensate. this worked out perfectly and, for a girl who has had to deal with gaping waistbands all her life, it is so thrilling to have complete coverage. no gape. i can sit on the floor with the kiddos and it still holds snugly over my rump. oh and i lengthened the skirt in place of doing the hem band.

i went all out with top stitching. i am by no means a perfect top stitcher, so i cheated a little and used my blind hem foot adjusted to use as a guide for edge stitching, then a 1/4″ quilt piecing foot for the second row. seriously easier than driving yourself crazy doing it by eye. also, i would have loved to flat-fell my seams, but i figured i could only ask so much of my machine. the bulk would have just been too much, and i’m pretty content with serged and faux-felled SA’s.

last thing: i use a fairly entry level babylock sewing machine, but no matter what machine you use, you can’t expect it to breeze through bulky denim seams without using a proper denim needle. i can’t stress this enough. i’ve used regular needles for heavier weight fabrics and end up with broken needles and top stitching that is all wonky. not only is a denim needle stronger, the eye is wider to accommodate thicker thread (hello top stitching!). also helpful: a hammer nearby to whack those bulky seams into submission before top stitching. makes a huge difference. plus, it’s just fun.

regular needle on the left, denim needle on the right

well i’ve been sewing up a storm and will hopefully get back soon with a couple more things i’ve finished. then… well i need to sew up some kid stuff. i might even *gasp* refashion some of my older RTW that is out of rotation. wish me luck…

—lisa g.

p.s. my top is blogged HERE. 🙂