A rolling Belcarra gathers some Moss

Belcarra blouse by Sewaholic
Size 10
Fabric: Fox chiffon from Clothspot and viscose lining

Moss mini skirt by Grainline
Size 12
Fabric: Black stretch denim from somewhere on Goldhawk Road

I seem to be getting a bit behind on documenting my makes, so here's a double post to try to catch up a bit!

I don't have a great track record with making tops, so was stupid excited when i saw the first announcement of this beautiful yet simple top. That was, however, a very long time ago and it seemed to take forever to be available for sale. I ordered it the very day it came in to stock and knew already I was going to use this cuuuute fox print chiffon I've been eyeing nervously for a couple of months. I underlined it with a plain black viscose for decency.

As always, I have nothing but praise for Sewaholic patterns. There's nothing new to say, really, and the only tricksy part was my fabric. If you look closely you can make out some rippling at the sleeve seams as French seaming with layered fabric isn't the easiest thing to do. Who knew?

Making this pattern in a cotton lawn, for example, would be absolute heaven. I will do that one day.

The best part was not having to set in sleeves! I HATE setting in sleeves so might convert everything to raglan now. For a loose-fitting top, it's really shapely and I don't feel tenty at all. Hurrah!

Next up:
My favourite item of clothing is my denim mini skirt. It always looks good even on a fat day, and it literally goes with everything. But it upsets me that Fat Face made it, rather than me. So the obvious solution is to make my own standard denim mini skirt and the Moss Mini is obviously the right pattern. I've avoided it for years though, due to fear of making a fly facing. Silly, wussy me.

Photography experts, please excuse the quality. Dingy club backdrop wasn't prime conditions!

I love this pattern! It just creates a brilliant-looking skirt. Really cute and neat, and that fly is a cinch! It was made before I realised it was time to be scared. Incredible!! One thing I found ridiculously baffling was that the right side of the fabric was represented by white, and the wrong side by grey. Talk about learned behaviour, but this goes against every other sewing pattern I've ever made so it took a lot of rewiring my brain to understand it.

In exciting news, I used the greatest number of sewing machine feet ever on this skirt: 'normal', zipper, stitch-in-the-ditch, and buttonhole.

As i sat on the floor, PDF pattern pieced together in front of me, I debated what size to make. The size 10 was exactly my measurements but the ease wasn't mentioned anywhere. So should I make a 12 to be sure it's comfy? Ooh I dunno. 10? 12? Well, I know from reading other people's blogs that they've found the measurements to be accurate in their finished garment, so I'll trust in a higher power and go for the 10.
Mistake. I'm soooooo frustrated as my skirt is fantastic and I'm so pleased with my handiwork, but I've been standing in front of the mirror for about half an hour now, pulling it up, yanking it down, pressing the pockets down, and it's just a bit too tight across the hips and the waist sits out from my waist because it should sit lower. I'm going to have to accept this is a muslin. And not a wearable one.

Interestingly, everyone else seems to say how scandalously short this skirt is. I don't find that at all and I didn't add the extra hem band. Perhaps I'm short. Or maybe just not as demure as everyone else!

So, what you're seeing here is Moss_v2. Size 12. Fits great. Stupidly, I thought I could get away without interfacing as the waistband is a double layer of denim. But it has stretched. I'm now wondering if I can shrink it back in with a wash and do some retrospective interfacing. We'll see.