Once upon a time I was that person who took an overseas trip every 2 years. Then I decided to only work a 4 day week. It was a fairly easy adjustment financially, however, it did mean that savings for overseas travel would be one of the trade offs. And it also encouraged me to do more travel in Australia which isn't a bad thing. Anyways after a 6 year hiatus from overseas travel I finally made it to Canada this year. Hooray. Such a beautiful country, such lovely people, so worth the wait. Since I last travelled I have upped my "me made" wardrobe to consisting of at least 90% of the clothes I wear. Unfortunately most of these clothes are not travel friendly. Cotton, your friend on a hot day at home, not such a good friend folded up in a suitcase being carted around for 3 1/2 weeks. My old travel wardrobe used to consist of clothes I cared little for. Thinking if my suitcase got lost I wouldn't be too sad to loose those clothes. However, travelling in Canada is a little different to a holiday in say Vietnam or Africa. I'd actually be in nice cities where I would want to sometimes dress up for a day out. So I did get to some pre-holiday sewing and here are a few items.
The Up in Arms shirt with flutter sleeves. The cotton is like a embroidered type cheesecloth. It did crush in the suitcase but didn't do too badly. This is the view looking down towards Lake Louise. You can see a patch of blue between the trees over my shoulder, that would be the famous lake. It was so busy that morning that you were turned away because there was nowhere to park. So we went to this gondola which took you up the mountain so you could enjoy views of he surrounding area. Just lovely. Didn't see any bears which was disappointing.
Later that same day at Lake Louise. I changed into this new version of the Lulu dress because it was such a warm day. This dress got a lot of wear on the trip. So comfy, so versatile.
Not a make as such, but an embellishment to a t-shirt. I simply found a cat shape on line and cut out the material, interfaced it and then attached it to my shirt with a zig zag stitch. I can't remember which lake this is, but it was a gorgeous area. I actually stood in the water just to see how cold it was. It was chilly but so refreshing.
Sadly this was the closest I got to a moose. I had high hopes to spot one on one of our many walks, but alas I had to settle for this fella in Banff. This dress was perfect for travel. It was the first knit I've sewn with since the 80's. I used New look 6096. You could just roll up the dress in the bag and it came out perfectly every time.
My good old faithful Washi Dress. The open weave cotton doesn't crush all that much so this is a great travel frock. This was a musical water fountain in Seattle. I had hoped to be bearing tights throughout my holiday, but of course they were having hotter than usual temperatures in both Canada and Seattle. Just my luck.
I did get to one fabric shop in Vancouver which was quite good. Though being the beginning of the holiday I decided to limit myself to only purchase 2 fabric pieces. Did lash out in Seattle, but that is for a later post.
