Tag: Travel Wardrobe

Canada and the USA – travel wardrobe

On By Sharon5 Comments

We have just arrived home from our trip to Canada and the USA and thought I’d share my wardrobe as this time I had to pack ski gear as well.

Time away:
16 days

Where to:
Canada and Puyallup in the USA.

Season:
Winter heading into Spring, however it was still snowing in Silver Star and Revelstoke when we visited and I planned for a temperature range of -2c to 17c.

Activities:
For the first two days I got to explore Vancouver checking out the various fabric shops that I could find, before meeting up with Mark and then driving the 2 hours south crossing the border into the USA to spend the weekend at the Sewing & Stitchery Expo, at Puyallup, Washington State.

Then it was back across the border to Silver Star where we stayed with Mark’s sister. Unfortunately I had a skiing accident which thankfully only resulted in a bruised calf but this put a stop to my skiing activities.  Mark had plenty of runs both at Silver Star and Revelstoke with family and friends.

Colour scheme:

What I packed:
(each garment is linked to its original construction post – left to right, top to bottom)

McCalls 8522 coat in aubergine wool (never blogged)
Simplicity 2603 cardigan in brown merino wool (to be blogged)
Grey leather gloves
Taupe loafers
Brown boots
Orange gortex ski jacket
Black ski pants
Black boots
Black snow boots
Not pictured are my pyjamas, lingerie and my thermals for skiing.
I also had a separate boot bag for my ski boots and helmet.
Oh and I did purchase a puffy jacket on sale which turned out warmer than my McCalls Coat.
Silver Star Village, look at the snow depth!

Verdict:
Again this wardrobe worked very well for me, all tops went with the bottoms and the yoga pants and hoodie were perfect for breakfast in the morning with family and friends and good to get into after a day out to wind down after a full day.

We did wash twice whilst we were away and this is part of our trips so no bother at all.

A selection of jewellery did accompany me and feel this changed the look of some of the combinations.

Vancouver:
Before I left I found The Sewaholic Guide to Fabric Stores in Vancouver  and had this printed out for my 2 days in Vancouver before Mark arrived.

Some of them were a bit further afield for public transport but I did manage to find:

and these two pieces of paisley rayon followed me home:

and across the road was Atex Fabric Store which had some gorgeous wools but I did behave myself trying to remember all the wools in my stash at home.

Then around the corner was Button Button,

where some special buttons came home with me, you will have to wait for these.

I will be back soon to share the rest of my trip.

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2016 Stash Out: 0 m
2016 Stash In: 3 m

ASG Convention 2015

On By Sharon7 Comments

I’ve been home a  couple of weeks from Brisbane where I attended the Australian Sewing Guild’s 14th National Convention and thought I would share my travel wardrobe.

Time away:
10 days

Where to:
Brisbane

Season:
Spring, however Sydney put on a cold snap when we departed for our road trip north.  The temperature range was 13 to 26c.

Activities:
The first two and last two days were driving the 923klms from Sydney to Brisbane with two of my sewing buddies and we did manage to stop at a couple of fabric shops along the way.

Convention includes a lot of walking to/from your accommodation, classrooms, dining hall as well as lot of stationery activity at our desks.

We had a free afternoon on Wednesday so my sister collected me and we headed to Voodoo Rabbit, Fabric Collection and Sckafs but only a Prym measuring tape came home with me.

Colour scheme:
Navy, orange, off-white, brown and yellow.

What I packed: (each garment is linked to its original construction post – left to right; top to bottom)

Vogue 1247 top in navy chiffon with white spots
Vogue 1247 skirt in burnt orange linen
Orange Loafers
Simplicity 2603 brown mercury jersey cardigan
KS 3740 orange swirls top
Jalie 2908 navy jeans
KS 3740 blue and gold swirls top
Vogue 8572 off white damask top
Jalie 2566 Fractured knit cardigan
Jalie 2908 brown jeans
Vogue 8572 lemon polyester top
Vogue 1247 brown denim skirt
Vogue 8572 navy and gold silk top
KS 3740 lemon slub knit top
KS 3470 orange arrows top
Taupe loafers

Also in the suitcase was:

This is the most I have ever packed for a trip away, the benefits of travelling by car!

Verdict:
I really enjoyed wearing this wardrobe and once I arrived in Brisbane the jeans only got worn at night as it was a bit cool walking around.

Unfortunately I didn’t expect it to get as warm as it did and would have liked a pair of sandals to wear on the last few days, Brisbane’s 26c is a lot warmer than Sydney’s 26c.

Fabric and goodies:
On way our north, we called into Fantazia Fabricland at Tweed Heads and this fabric particularly leapt of the table into my arms.

Then I walked into the haberdashery shop and found a wall of Prym goodies, so 2 packs of the jeans rivets and 1 pack of Anorak studs followed me home as well.

Convention Workshop:
I spent the week with Roberta Thompson in her Alterations and Toile Fitting 4 days workshop and I hope to have a pair of pants to show you sometime soon.

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2015 Stash Out: 13.55m
2015 Stash In: 18m

A travel wardrobe – Hong Kong

On By Sharon14 Comments

Life really got in the way of my sewing and blogging over the past month, however part of the absence was due to a trip to Hong Kong.

Back in January I saw that the American Sewing Guild was organising their “Sew Much Fun Tour, Hong Kong” for December of this year and thought this would be the perfect way to revisit a city that didn’t have a fabric interest for me when I last visited in 1985.

The tour was from 3 to 10 December, however as my sister was travelling with me and had never been to Hong Kong before we arrived before the tour started on 30 November.

Again I organised my travel wardrobe and thought I would share this with you.

Time away:
11 days

Where to:
Hong Kong

Season:
The start of Winter and the temperature range was from 12c to 20c with low humidity which was perfect for me.  The actual temperatures were spot on and we only had one real day that it sprinkled on us and then that wasn’t too much at all.

Expected Activities:
Checking out all the tourist sights in Hong Kong and Kowloon as well as the planned activities with the ladies from the American Sewing Guild.  This meant a lot of walking and after the first day we were very comfortable with the MTR (rail system).

Colour scheme:
orange, cream, navy and brown and my coral t-shirt just in case a hot day appeared.

What I packed:
(each garment is linked to it’s original construction post – top to bottom, left to right)

Taupe flats
Orange loafers
Tan loafers (purchased in Hong Kong)

Verdict:
I was warm and very comfortable, the coldest day was 11c so my cardigan and jacket were the perfect layering pieces.  All the tops went with all the bottoms and at no time did I wear the same top and bottom combination.  We did do laundry at the self serve laundry at our hotel which was quite cheap compared to the hotel charges.

My collection of jewellery did change the look of the tops, but I was sorry I didn’t pack another cardigan as my merino cardigan was worn almost every day and a pair of boots would of made sense as well as the skirt only had one outing as the weather was a bit to chilly for me without tights and they just don’t look right with loafers.

The ladies from the American Sewing Guild group were a wonderful group of ladies and they had even convinced another Aussie to attend from Darwin who had been on the New York tour!  On our first day with the group Linda gave each of us the UltraFine Threader and at breakfast on the last day, the badge that says it all!

My sister and I also took the opportunity to spend some time over lunch with Alison C and Manuela on separate days discussing their fabric haunts and what they were creating.  Thank you so much Alison and Manuela for taking the time to meet up with us, we really appreciated it.

For a fabric tour, very little followed me home, we were wandering around Sham Shu Poi and stumbled across some Japanese Red Selvedge Denim and 5 yards for A$14 was just too good to pass up.

I also found this remnant of vinyl which I thought might just work out for my animal print tote!

A few haberdashery items found their way into my sisters suitcase for Mum to give me for Christmas as well as some zips for A$1.30 each and some grosgrain ribbon in Potters Lane.

French curve, Notcher (Japan), Arm hole ruler

Now to try and behave myself and not sign up for one of the Sew Much Fun, New York Tours!

A travel wardrobe

On By Sharon10 Comments

We have just arrived home from a fantastic whirlwind trip to Dublin and the United Kingdom and I thought I would share my travel wardrobe.

Time away:
11 days

Where to:
Dublin and the United Kingdom

Season:
One month into Spring and looking at the weather forecasts it was still going to be cool with temperature ranges from 1c to 18c being the warmest during the day.  The weather really turned it on for us, sunshine every day and only 1 day of rain and then I wouldn’t call it that much rain, grey and overcast with some drizzle and this was on our last day.  York even managed to turn the heat on reaching 22c but the mornings and evenings were still quite cool.

Expected Activities:
This trip was to visit my mother-in-law who is not in the best of health and do some sightseeing whilst we were there, so the wardrobe needed to be comfortable to do a lot of walking on cobblestone streets and sightseeing as well as being comfortable sitting about with family.

Colour scheme:
brown, navy, cream, burgundy, grey and a little bit of chartreuse.

What I packed:
(each garment is linked to its original construction post -top to bottom, left to right)

Taupe flats
Brown boots

Burgundy coat McCall’s 8522 made prior to blogging
Burgundy track pants Simplicity 3640 made for the trip, to be blogged.

Verdict:
This wardrobe worked very well, I didn’t feel as if I was in the same outfit as all the tops went will all the bottoms so at no time did I wear the same combination.  We managed to do laundry half way thorough the trip and a couple of tops got washed whilst we were on the road sightseeing.

I took two outer layers, my brown merino cardi that worked with all outfits and my burgundy coat went well with the jeans and this was worn early morning or during the evening when we were wondering about.   I also had a collection of jewellery that changed the look of the tops.  I’m sorry I didn’t take a second pair of winter shoes, the boots worked fine but my feet got a bit sick of them and the taupe flats didn’t work with the tights I took and were only worn on the flights.

My mother-in-law is in northern Wales and I had worked out that Linton Tweed was a 3 hour trip from her home so my darling husband made sure it was included in our sightseeing itinerary.  Of course two pieces of fabric followed me home:

2 metres for a jacket

2 skirt lengths of 1 metre each.

Then on our last day we visited Abakhan fabrics and I purchased 2 pieces of linen by the pound totalling 5 metres for AUS$18, which I thought was a very good price.

This colour is in the top tweed.

This trip managed to put a stop to the completion of my  2014 SWAP entry, I still had 3 pieces to sew before today, however work and jet lag has not been conducive to getting these completed.  No matter I have 8 new garments in my wardrobe and I love all of them!

ASG Convention 2012

On By Sharon10 Comments

I really like looking at people’s travel wardrobes, it gives me ideas and after reading Carolyn’s travel wardrobe and the interest that was shown in the comments about looking at other people’s travel wardrobes, I thought I would share what I took with me to Adelaide for the ASG Convention.

Time away:
7 days

Where to:
Adelaide

Season:
Spring one month in and looking at the weather forecasts it was still going to be cool with 24c being the warmest during the day.  The weather really turned it on for us, some nights as low as 6c and most of the days ended up being around 18c except for Wednesday and Thursday when temperatures reached 26c.


Activities:
Attending the Australian Sewing Guild Annual Convention, so there is a lot of walking to/from accommodation, classrooms, dining hall as well as a lot of stationery activity during the workshops.

On Wednesday we either had a tour of the fabric shops in Adelaide or a tour of the Adelaide Hills.

Colour scheme:
black, pale brown, chartreuse, grey and navy.

What I packed:  (each garment is linked to its original construction post – left to right; top to bottom)

brown/grey/black top;
Minoru jacket; worn every day
cream boat neck top;
chartreuse/grey/ink navy knit top
Shona vest;
black jeans;
salt and pepper skirt;
navy jeans;
grey cardigan;
black loafers;
taupe flats;
brown/green/cream abstract print top

Verdict

This wardrobe worked very well, I didn’t feel as if I was in the same outfit as everything got worn at least two days each, except for the jeans they were worn for a total of 3 days each and the skirt for 2 days.

I mixed and matched the four tops with the jeans and skirt and the Shona vest went with both green mixed tops as well as the cream boat neck top and the grey cardigan went with all the tops and was a very handy layer under the Minoru jacket for the cold mornings and evenings. I also had a collection of jewellery that changed the look of the tops.  I’m glad I took two pairs of shoes as this let my feet wear a different pair/style each day.

I decided to go on the Fabric Tour to check out some of the fabric shops in the suburbs of Adelaide, however only one piece followed me home for a cardigan and two pieces of quilting cotton for another version of this bag for a very close friend who requested one for Christmas (who luckily doesn’t read my blog).

Blue, caramel, cream, rust, brown sweater knit
Floral print for the exterior, dots for the interior – Spice of Life bag

Now to find time to take a photo of the finished Fractured Knit Cardi.