The Kelly Moss mash up skirt

This skirt has been a long time in the making!  Back in 2013 the Kelly Skirt pattern by Megan Nielson was one of the first sewing patterns I bought.  I had seen a lot of versions of this skirt on the web and loved all of them.  The fabric is a lovely rich navy blue corduroy (the photos don't really do the colour justice) bought from Coventry Indoor Market.  This is what the skirt looked like when I first made it:

The original Kelly Skirt

 Nice huh? However....

I made the skirt without incident.  I liked the way it looked flat, and I even liked the way it looked on, sort of.  I just didn't feel comfortable wearing it.  Such a shame!  I think it might have been something to do with the amount of fabric it used, or the way the pleats fell, but I felt like I was wearing a bell!  It probably didn't help that the fabric I used was quite heavy, without much drape.

I tried playing around with the proportions to remove some of the excess fabric.  I tried reducing the size of the pleats, taking in the side seams, taking wedges out of the waistband, but the shape of the skirt really didn't work if you took the extra fabric away, so eventually my poor Kelly skirt was left to languish on the UFO pile.  

In the end the thought occurred to me that I could remake the skirt completely using the Moss skirt pattern, so out came the seam ripper.  I cut the back skirt panels pretty much as the Moss skirts pieces, although I kept the old hemline.   I also cut a yoke and sewed up according to the Moss instructions.  

I didn't cut much off the front pieces as I didn't want to lose the pockets and I needed a bit of ease to prevent the buttons straining.  I couldn't keep the deep inverted box pleats at the front though because the poofiness just wasn't working for me.  Instead I folded out a couple of inches either side of the buttonband and sewed it down.  

I kept a small pleat on each side, near the pocket to add interest and keep some of the spirit of the original design, but the front of the skirt is fairly flat which I think is more flattering on my body type.

Here's what the skirt looks like flat now, compared to the original Kelly Skirt:

Original Kelly Skirt                                               Kelly/Moss mash up skirt

I didn't take as much care with the insides as I have with other skirts.  I wasn't prepared to invest the time since I wasn't sure whether the skirt would end up wearable, so the pockets are just pinked and I cheated flat felling the back seams - I trimmed the seams, zigzag stitched them together and then sewed them down flat with a parallel line of straight stitch.  It may fray a little but it's sufficient.   I tried doing the same to the side seams but it was distorting the hang of the skirt so I ripped it out and bound them instead as they would have frayed badly otherwise.  I hummed and hawed a bit about the hem as I wanted to increase the length from what it had been on the Kelly Skirt.   A double turned hem would not have worked due to all the folded out excess creating bulk, so I bound the bottom edge and turned up once.  

I love the way the buttons and buttonband look.   I don't have any other button up skirts in my wardrobe and it's nice to have a change from the flyfront design.

It's not perfect.  There's definitely something not quite right about the side seams from the point where the pockets end, and the finishing inside is less than perfect, but I think it's eminently more wearable now.  This is a silhouette that I am going with a lot at the moment (as evidenced by my MMM'15 pictures!) but I think that's ok.  It's tricky to branch out when you sew for yourself as you don't always know whether that 'new shape' is going to suit you until you've already invested a lot of hours into making it, and then it's pretty discouraging to find that it doesn't look how you hoped.  Quite different from shopping trips when you can try on a stack of clothes and still leave without buying a thing.  I'm getting better at understanding what styles work for me, and how to fit to my shape - just what sewing should be about!

MMM '15 - Week 1

My first year of joining Me Made May has started - hooray!  Here's my round up for week 1 - get ready for some terrible selfies! 

Day 1 - Viscose jersey Renfrew, Yellow Brick Road cardigan, denim Moss jean skirt.

Day 2 - Purple Renfrew (unblogged), Sweatshirt Renfrew, Indigo Moss skirt.  

Day 3 - Crazy print Renfrew, FLS Lady Sweater, denim Moss jean skirt. 

Day 4 - Shop bought T-shirt, Yellow Brick Road cardigan, denim Moss jean skirt. 

Day 5 - Purple Renfrew (unblogged), Indigo Moss skirt, shop bought hoodie.

Day 6 - Turquoise Sorbetto (unblogged), Maria Moss skirt, shop bought slouchy jumper.   

Day 7 - Agatha cardi, shop bought stripey T-shirt, Kelly-Moss mash up skirt (ready to be
           blogged!)

Well, I'm sticking to my min. 2 garments a day, but this is turning out to be a little trickier than I had expected.  I definitely need more tops!  I may have to do some emergency sewing to fill that gap.

Happy Me Made May-ing everyone!

On my sewing table...

I have projects to share but photography is holding me up at the moment, so in the meantime I thought I'd give a taste of what's on my sewing table.

The Easter holidays were great - I loved having the kids at home, and we had a fantastic week away at Spring Harvest too - but school holidays do not lend themselves to productive sewing!  Consequently I sent the children back to school this week and promptly set to with all the plans that have been stewing in my mind over the last few weeks.   I have had a big PDF sticking and fabric cutting session (not to mentioning seam ripping for my refashion) and now have the following projects on the go...

1)  Brindille & Twig free hoodie pattern.  I saw this on pattern on 'So Zo....What do you know?' and immediately headed to the Brindille & Twig blog to download it.  Zoe has made an adorable version for her daughter, and I could immediate envisage a whole range of hoodies I could make for Jacob.  For my first attempt I am reclaiming some double-sided microfleece from a huge Uniqlo zip up jacket that I wore whilst pregnant but am never likely to wear again.  I haven't yet decided whether to go with the beige or the dark brown, or even to mix the two.  It took some creative cutting to get all the pieces out of the available material, and I've had to do a bit of redesigning of the hood.

2)  Another Moss skirt!  I really can't get enough of these.  I have been wearing the two that I have made (one of which is yet to be blogged) almost back to back and I just love them.  This will be another denim version, but I plan to leave off the hem band, lengthen the main skirt pieces and, if I'm brave enough, topstitch in tan thread to mimic RTW denim skirts.

3)  Kelly skirt refashion.  A long while ago I made a Kelly skirt out of navy corduroy but never got around to blogging it.  I love the look of the Kelly skirt and all of the many versions I have seen around the net, and I was determined to get the pattern and make it up.   However.... I've had to admit that it just doesn't work for me. :-(  After making my version I wore it for a while, but although I loved the shape of it, the fabric and the button up front, my feeling about it overall was almost inexplicably just '...meh'.  I'm coming to the conclusion that skirts with a high, straight waistband are just not for me.  So, I have ripped it all apart and hope to use the panels to make up a new skirt using - you guessed it - the Moss skirt pattern as a guide.   This will mean cutting a new (curved) waistband and a yoke.  I'm still undecided over whether to leave in any of pleats.  It will probably be a case of trial and error with plenty of basting and seam ripping involved!

So, that should give me a fair bit to be getting on with.  What are your sewing plans?

Indigo skirt and a Yellow Brick Road

Well, I finally made a denim skirt!  This is the Moss Mini from Grainline, although I made it up in the not-so-mini version with the hemband.  It's a fly-fronted, slightly A-line skirt with pockets and a back yoke, and it's fab!  The instructions are extremely clear which seems to be the case with all of Jen's patterns.

You will see a lot of this skirt, either if you read the blog or if you know me in real life, as I could happily wear it every day (and have done, virtually, since I made it!).  It fits my lifestyle perfectly!  I've had this denim for a couple of years, bought from the stall in Coventry indoor market.  It's a lovely deep indigo, although I imagine it will fade a fair bit over time.  Despite being a stretch denim it's still quite a stiff fabric, but that works well with the shape of this skirt.

I took a lot of care with the seam finishing so it looks nice on the inside (for a change!).  I flat felled the yoke and front/back centre seams, and bound everything else with bias binding.  I used this IKEA botanical print fabric for the pockets and waistband/hemband facings and I love the contrast.  It also meant I probably used less than a metre of the denim.  Yay!  I have enough left to make another!  

Overall I love this pattern.  It sits lower on the waist than the Miette or Kelly skirts, neither of which I got on with terribly well, and it's nice that the length is variable.  If anything I could probably have done with making it a little smaller - I always err on the side of caution when it comes to sizing.   Also, I think I would add more interfacing to the waistband next time, but otherwise I am very happy with it.  The only problem is finding something else to wear so I don't wear it everyday!

The cardi is also a recent make.  This is the Yellow Brick Road cardi by Ela Torrente, found on Ravelry.  l made it in a bid to replace another beloved yellow cardi (shop bought not handmade) that a friend gave me, but which I stupidly left in a park.  I was gutted, although also secretly pleased to have an excuse to knit a yellow cardi (after all, how many yellow cardigans does one girl need?!).  

It knit up fairly quickly and was exactly the style and shape I was after.  The expanding arrows patterns was very straight forward, and the sleeves have an interesting pleat design which curves them forward slightly as if you've pushed them up at the front.  I went for a shorter length than the pattern stipulates, and also a looser fit, again to try and match my inspiration garment.  The only difficulty I had was with the button bands which I did over and over again and which still have a tendency to twist inwards.  Not enough to make me want to do them again though, and I'm hoping that I might be able to sort this out if I block it a second time.

I love this pattern and I've already cast on again to make another in navy blue.  It's very comfortable to wear and the colour goes with practically anything.  Gotta love a yellow cardi!