The travel wardrobe returns for review

Hello again. I am sure you are all desperate to hear about my fabulous overseas trip. If not you will have to skip the next month or so, as I plan to write about this trip a great deal. I will be kind and mostly skip the work bits and cycling.

However, before I start displaying less than professional quality photographs of well known monuments I want to write about travel clothing. I found planning and packing suitable clothes for the trip a serious exercise. Due to having one bag completely full of non-negotiable cycling gear and bicycle bits, we really wanted to pack thoughtfully.

The bloke wardrobe:
You may remember some whinining and complaining about the sewing I did for my husband before we left. There was a lot of whining, and not much sewing if I remember correctly.
1 long sleeved business shirt, polycotton (almost worn out and considered disposable)
2 short sleeved wicking poly knit shirts with collar
1 long sleeved wicking poly knit shirt with collar
1 wicking poly knit t shirt
2 pairs long pants - breathable, quick dry nylon
1 pair dress shorts - breathable nylon
1 pair board shorts (for swimming or very casual wear)
underwear, wicking polyester, and socks
flip-flops (Australians please excuse my cowardly use of international terms)
walking shoes
Gortex rain jacket
I partially completed wool/cashmere pullover. The theory was that I would complete this before the Pyrenees.

Results: Pretty good, although I did not finish the pullover in time, so we bought one. He had two by England, which was useful. There were always dry, clean clothes, appropriate for the weather and for the formality or otherwise of the situation or events we attended.

Problems: My husband is not terribly interested in clothes, but despite throwing out the business shirt after a few wears, and buying a new one, he became very tired of the lack of variety in this wardrobe over a month, and mentioned this fairly often after the first week. He bought 2 t shirts in London to extend his options (after sending some cyling gear home by post).

The collared wicking poly knit shirts did not dry as quickly in the bathrooms in Europe as in the bathroom in Australia. They took at least 24 hours to dry properly after handwashing, which meant that they could not be washed successfully for a single night stop. They smelt musty and unpleasant if packed damp, even if only for a few hours, and had to be rewashed. The cotton shirt dried quickly, and the cotton t shirts dried slowly, but did not smell musty if packed damp for a short period.

The chest level welt pockets were not useful. (Curses, I could have made lots more clothes if I hadn't added the pockets). He found that the zip pockets on the trousers were sufficient for what he needed to carry, and felt that using the chest pockets pulled the collar of the shirts out of line.

The socks were a terrible nusiance to dry, frequently taking more than 48 hours. The best drying occurred on heated towel racks, present in 2 of the 9 places we stayed.

My wardrobe
I am planning to take a photograph of the whole set, so will write about this later when I have sorted it out from all the washing I did yesterday.

I will progress to the first sewing photos of my trip.
We stayed overnight in Paris after the horribly long aeroplane trip, and before a 6 hour train trip to Tolouse.
I picked the hotel after reading many trip advisor reviews, and we were really happy with it. The staff were very kind, did not laugh at our attempts at speaking French, and all spoke English. They gave us a really early check in, which was bliss after such a long flight.
Hotel Apollon
The fortunate part of jet lag meant that we woke up at 4 am and walked from Montparnesse to Notre Dame, then the Champs-Élysées with the whole place to ourselves, in full daylight. It was beautiful, but very dirty.
I did not see a single fabric or wool shop in 7 hours of walking. I had not really expected to see one, but was hoping for a little light relief before 2 weeks of close association with cycling fanatics.
Here is a fun window display from the Champs-Élysées.


The hotel was a very short walk away from the TGV train station. The train was very comfortable, spotlessly clean, and we had a terrific view of the countryside whizzing past whilst we were eating the very large picnic lunch we had picked up at the markets on our early morning walk. The markets in Paris did not start selling things until after 9am, but the bakeries were open earlier.

Tolouse was not a fabric mecca. I did find a yarn shop,


with mostly novelty yarns,
and there were some markets in the square near our hotel with a trims and button stall. I was determined to only buy things I really loved, so did not buy anything here, as they were low-cost and seemed to be low-quality items.
There was also some leather - my husband bought some embossed goatskin leather to make a wallet. In the market there was a small amount of some coarse, brightly printed North African fabric, and lots of hippy style clothes made from this fabric. I found it interesting that the hippy market clothes in Australian (well, Queensland anyway, I can't really speak for the rest of Australia) are mostly made from cheap Indonesian batiks, and what appeared to be the same clothes here were all using the African prints.






There were many designer clothes shops in Toulouse. I was not able to enter any shops, due to time mostly spent doing work things and cycling, but looking in the windows was very entertaining and inspiring.
Next up, lots of cycling (maybe I will skip this).

Simplicity 9461 blouse

 

I finished the first Simplicity 9461 blouse for DD the younger today. This pattern is a girl's wardrobe pattern I have owned for around 6 years, but the blouse is the only garment I have made previously. Last time I made a size 7 and was pretty happy with the fit, so foolishly, when making a size 12, I expected the same outcome. I did alter the length to a size 14, as both my daughters are quite tall for their width, but I don't think this was necessary! Actually the only part of the fit I with which I am not happy is the waist shaping. This occurs only at the side seams, as there are no darts, and in the size 7, the shaped seam looks very feminine. This is not the case on a 10 and 3/4 year old in the size 12, and when I make the next version (already cut out, rice colour batiste) I will increase the waist curve at the side seam to give a less boxy look. The blouse is worn here with the Jalie 968 jeans style shorts that I made earlier this month, also for the travel wardrobe.

 

Here is a close up of the embroidery. This blouse is supposed to be easy wash, quick dry, but I could not resist a little embellishment. I have restrained myself from piping, and quite like the saddle stitch around the collar, fronts and sleeve hems that I have used as an alternative finish. I did also use french seams throughout the construction, except when attaching the sleeves. This will not make the blouse dry quickly, but I think french seams look much better in a translucent fabric like the pink imperial batiste that I have used here.

Gortex jacket - hood

I have been working on a jacket for my daughter's trip for the past two days. Last night I drafted a size 16 child's pattern from a Green Pepper Oregon jacket, child size 4-12. I have made this jacket 3 times before, in a size 2, 8 and 10. My son currently wears the size 8 (he's 5) and the size 10 fits my younger daughter in width, but not height or arm length. I made the new draft a longer style jacket, and I hope to incorporate many of the design features that my husband and I have found practical on our Gortex coats, both of which were definitely investment purchases 15 years ago.
I bought the Gortex fabric from Seattle Fabrics. For the children's previous Gortex jackets I had bought the less expensive 2 layer Gortex, that requires lining. I chose not to do this again, as I felt the lining made the jackets less "breathable", although I used mesh, and the reason for using hideously expensive Gortex in children's coats is the need for "breathing" in our warm, generally humid, climate. Fortunately, I am finding the three layer Gortex, which is fuse lined with a tricot, much easier to sew and handle generally. The Gortex layer also seems thicker and more robust. I am using a sharps needle and this seems to be working very well, with no catching or skipping, and no tearing of the fabric. It is a while since I made the other jackets, but I seem to remember some trouble sewing the 2 layer Gortex without tearing the fabric.
I have progressed reasonably well with the jacket today. I did have a little fiddling with the pattern layout, as my length increases, and the extra fabric I want for pockets made it a little tricky to get a size 16 from the 2yards I allowed per the size 12 fabric requirements (Unfortunately this fabric has been maturing in my stash since I thought I would make a size 12 or 14). I have made a few changes to the pattern at the hood. The first requirement was to finish the hood differently, as the pattern assumes the jacket and hood are lined. My husband's jacket uses the tricot fused side in an extra layer to finish the hood, so I took this as my guide. First I pieced a partial lining so that the seam lines do not match the outer hood, this means I will not need to seal the seams against water in this region. I then sewed wrong side to right side, so that the tricot lining is outermost when the seam is turned.
  In both adult purchased jackets, the peak of the hood has an internal wire so that the hood can be angled to shield the face from precipitation or wind. To mimic this, I put a pipe cleaner at the peak of the hood opening to allow the hood to be shaped. I folded the ends of the pipe cleaner over to prevent the wire poking through the fabric, and made the topstitching seam below the peak too small for the wire to shift. I am very pleased with how this shapes the hood. It looks very similar to the purchased jackets.
  My next change was to the casing around the hood. I made a nylon tube, which I applied to the inside of the hood, as in our purchased jackets, rather than on the outside as shown in the pattern. The photograph is of the inside of the hood. The elastic shock cord I have used at the moment is too thick, but it is what I had to hand. I will replace it with finer cord when I have an opportunity to do so. I have finished the cord with an elastic shoelace stopper (thanks to the Sports Medicine Australia Conference - they were a give away in my conference satchel!) and a bead is attached to the end so that the cord will not pull through the stopper.
I had hoped to complete the jacket for our weekend kayaking trip, but this does not look likely at this stage. I hope it does not rain!
 

Tiered dress for travel SWAP

 

I made most of the dress today.My daughter is quite pleased with it, but she thinks it is a bit low cut. Our plan is to make a detachable modesty panel, probably in pink batiste, so that she feels comfortable wearing the dress alone as a sundress.

 

I used elastic between the back fabric and lining to ensure a close fit at the back, whilst allowing the dress to pull on over the head. I thought that this would allow faster drying time than either a zipper or a button placket.

 

The dress has a "secret pocket" in the seam line between the first and second tier. It fastens with 2 buttons and loops.

 

I was pleased with the neckline. It was drafted to mimic the neckline of the Jalie sweetheart tops, and I think this was successful, as it looks good over both the t shirts, making the dress more versatile for travel. However, it was very difficult for me to not put in a bit of piping or embroidery!

Jalie Sweetheart Top hits another SWAP

I used this pattern, the Jalie sweetheart top, in all my official SWAPs, and now here it is again in DD's travel SWAP. I am finding this pattern extremely useful and am so pleased that I bought it from Julie at Timmel Fabrics as part of my SWAP purchase. These versions are size O, with a cap sleeve, made in pale pink and darker pink microtex 50+ UV rated wicking technical fabric. I made my Mum a long sleeved version in navy for her trip to China, where she is volunteering with a medical charity group, and she is really pleased with it as a travel garment, as it is comfortable to wear in hot or cool weather, and washes and dries overnight, so I am making a lot of the travel SWAP from this fabric. I have added a tiny bit of embroidery to each top , both for interest, and to add another colour to each garment. There are dark pink lazy daisies with brown french knot centres on the pale top, and pale pink bullion roses and rose buds on the dark top. The leaves are all detached chain in green on both tops.
The next garment is a lightweight cotton dress. I am making this from a print with all these colours, taupe and 2 pinks, and making the dress as a sundress that can also be worn over a short sleeved or long sleeved top. I have drafted the bodice to sit just below the sweetheart top neckline, so hope this works as an outfit. I am having to restrain myself from piping the neckline and armholes, as this would make the garment slower to dry.  
 

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