Grainline Moss- An Everyday Skirt

Yay for clothes that get worn everyday!  This skirt got hemmed then put on immediately and has hardly been taken back off since.  This is the Grainline Studio Moss Skirt, and I made the mini length in size 4 with no pattern changes.  The fabric is a larger scale corduroy from an eBay seller and can be found here.  I bought the zip, jeans buttons and lining cotton locally at Trago.

I decided to make this skirt for two main reasons: One, it reminds me of a ready to wear skirt that I have had forever and wear all the time, and two, I am hoping to make a pair of jeans this year (having signed up the Closet Case Patterns online jeans making workshop) and wanted to have a first attempt at a front fly zip insertion.

I feel like it has been a great success in both counts.  My zip went in really well, and the instructions in the pattern and the Grainline tutorial were fantastic.  Each step was explained simply and added up to a new skill mastered.  You would never know that this was my first attempt!

The little details in the pattern are great too.  You may already have noticed that I like patterns with pockets and the pockets on the Moss Skirt are especially good.  They have a little extra space included to make them perfect for sticking your hands into, and have a clever facing that allows you to use a pretty lining fabric with no chance for it to peek out.

The only changes that I made to the pattern were fairly minor.  I didn’t cut my fabric very well and ended up without enough to cut the waistband facing so I decided to cut it from my lining instead.  I also changed the construction order of the waistband because I was feeling too lazy to hand stitch down the facing so I switched to the instructions for adding a waistband from Tilly and the Buttons book Love at First Stitch.  This just meant that it was easy to ‘stitch in the ditch’ on my machine instead of pesky hand sewing.

In a slight quirk, I set my jeans button in using the marks on the pattern without checking that it lined up properly.  This meant that it didn’t sit very well and the waistband was a little loose.  As a quick fix, rather than trying to remove it, I just added another button in the right place. Now you would never know once I am wearing it!

This skirt is a little shorter than I would usually wear, but I love it’s casual vibes.  I’m sure I will make another at some point and perhaps lengthen it a couple of inches.  The pattern does include a knee length version with a hem band, but I think I prefer the clean look of the skirt as it and will probably just lengthen the pattern piece instead.

Back to the beginning- Delphine Skirt

Today I thought I would go back to the beginning of my journey sewing clothes to the first item of clothing I made- a Tilly and the Buttons Delphine Skirt.  I made this skirt about 2 years ago and it is amazing to think of all the things I have learned since then!

This skirt is so many firsts for me- a first concealed zip, first use of a paper pattern, first following of pattern instructions, and I’m so glad that this is the project I chose to try these things out on!  Tilly gives such clear instructions, and Love at First Stitch is an amazing book for a new dressmaker- it explains why you should do something, not just how.

So then, back to the pattern.  Delphine is a simple A-line skirt, with a waistband and centre back zip.  I added belt loops though I never use them, and the fabric is a corduroy from Trago.

This is such a beginner friendly pattern.  There are not too many pattern pieces, and the fit is very forgiving.  Provided your waist fits, the rest should be fine. As you can tell from these pictures, it is a lovely skirt for being active in- not too restrictive!

I have made another Delphine since and that one I lined, but even that did not really add too much complexity because Tilly has a lovely tutorial on how to do it on her blog too.

It was just so lovely to be out in the springlike sunshine to take these pictures!

So, if you have been reading, please let me know what sorts of posts you would like to see in the future.  I have some more recent makes that I am planning to finish up and photograph soon, and also have a few thoughts on non-finished garment posts that I might share.  There are also lots of things in my wardrobe already that could be written up.  What would you like to see?  Pretty spring dresses? Some of my early makes (some more successful than others). Comment below, and I will look forward to seeing what you think.