Bossa Nova Skirt

This pattern, which I made right before the holidays, was free on Fabric.com; the site’s page helpfully lists recommended types of fabric and notions all in the same spot. It’s the same skirt pattern that I had used with my turquoise knit, but this time, I used a rayon challis weave, and it worked just fine. Rayon is a bit slippery to knit with, but this Prudent Baby tutorial gives some pointers. The gist of it is that it’s super important to prewash the fabric (duh), and that if you use a ballpoint needle, polyester thread and walking foot, you should be fine. In the comments, there’s also the helpful tip of laying out your fabric on top of a sheet before cutting it, to prevent it from slipping.

Rayon was much better suited for that skirt, because of the way it falls and drapes nicely. The pattern itself was really easy, though after having made it once before, I decided to lengthen it by a few inches when I traced it out onto my Swedish tracing paper. It’s basically just eight panels sewn together, with an elastic waist. I did use French seams, to make the inside pretty too, so perhaps I should have made all the panels 1” wider to compensate, but the skirt still fits. Because of the interlining fiasco with my last skirt, I only used one layer of fabric. The fabric is somewhat thin, but I think I’ll add a half-slip just in case.

Cost-wise, I’m pretty pleased with myself. I used 3 yards of fabric on sale at $3.49 a yard, paid $3.35 for the ballpoint needles (which I’ll use again, of course), $1.08 for the elastic, $1.75 for the thread, and the pattern was free, so the grand total comes to $14.90 (no taxes, free shipping, though I had ordered a $1.75 sample before committing to the fabric). I got more of the fabric, since I originally wanted to add an interlining and thought the sale price was really good, so I’ll make something else with the rest, but I don’t know what just yet. (And by the way, that mirror is one of the things I got at Hats Furniture Haus last month.)