April Challis Chalet: Stash-Busting in Vibrant Color

As of the beginning of April, Pete and I have been married for 10 years. As exciting an anniversary milestone as that is, busy schedules threatened to interfere with a proper celebration of it. Over the past weekend, we finally managed to have a properly romantic getaway, leaving responsibilities at home properly delegated out to various responsible people. I took along my new skirt, and got a few pictures taken from the hotel balcony.

We went to Astoria and stayed right on the river. The hotel building was originally a cannery, but is now a wonderfully cozy place with warm fireplaces, large beds, and great views from the windows.

Pete’s ability to back up far enough to get all of me into a shot was limited by a self-closing balcony door. No problem, the skirt is visible enough anyway. Maybe I could have backed up farther, but with nothing but a very, very cold river beneath us, I wasn’t planning to get too far from that door.

This stash-busting project was made of Rayon Challis in vibrant color to fit two April themes into one.

The pattern (Butterick 3654, now out of print) is also from my stash. I’d made it up once before, in a tan Tencel fabric, and it was so comfortable and versatile that I wore it twice a week until it literally fell apart, so I knew this pattern was a winner.

It’s cut on the bias and has an elastic waistband. Something about the drafting of this pattern is just exactly right to avoid the thick waistline that often comes with elastic waistbands as well as the clingy-ness that often comes with bias skirts. It’s only two pattern pieces, so it goes together fast, but it does need to be hung up for at least a day to allow the skirt to stretch for as much as it’s going to before being hemmed.

I cut at about an inch outside the lines of the size 18 pattern instead of trying to do a technically proper up-sizing of the pattern. I think it fits just about right.

Going back to Astoria. The bridge you can see above my head in the third picture down is immense, both in height and in length. From a nearby hilltop you can see how long the bridge actually is.

The hilltop here had great views. There were probably better views to be seen if we had gone to the top of the tower (the whole thing is one giant spiral staircase inside), but I panicked about half-way up and had to get back to the ground to regain control. I don’t know what my issue was; I’ve been up there before, but just couldn’t do it this time.

Still, even from the ground there were pretty sights in all directions.

It’s pretty rare that we have an overnight without the kids, let alone two nights such as last weekend. By the time we got back, though, we were missing our babies, so it was time to return to everyday life.

Stash-busting progress: 7/25