Monthly Archives: June 2015

You are browsing the site archives by month.

Hiking in Italy; a travel wardrobe

23/06/2015 1:38 am \ 33 Comments \ Carolyn

Time away:
21 days
Where to:
Italy; primarily Tuscany and the Amalfi coast, a few days in Copenhagen, one day in Singapore
Season:
early summer.
Hot in Italy, in fact everyone commented on how unseasonably warm it was! with daily temps of 17-34C. Then cold, wintery conditions (for us) in Copenhagen, 8-16C. Singapore; hot and very humid; 27-32C
Expected activities:
Lots of medium to heavy duty hiking, with evenings spent hanging out in small villages. Some city sightseeing and shopping.
Colour scheme:
cheerful primaries, in solids and in fun gingham, stripes and florals.
Hmmm, I must’ve been in a rather whimsical party/holiday mood when I selected this lot!
What I packed:

each garment made by me is linked to its original construction post:
2 cardigans;
turquoise Metalicus cardigan rtw
ivory CR cardigan rtw
2 prs shorts;
greige corduroy shorts
green gingham shorts
2 dresses;
red gingham dress; casual
f loral dress bit more dressy
6 tops;
cream blouse with black velvet tie
royal blue velvet top
ivory LS shirt
green gingham top
orange/cream stripe top
brown Tshirt
1 red scarf rtw
2 skirts;
blue corduroy skirt
yellow corduroy skirt
1 olive green cap; my husband’s, rtw
2 prs pants;
burnt brown jeans
olive green hiking pants
4 prs shoes;
turquoise sandals, , hiking boots, white thongs, black sandshoes
green floral bathers
blue raincoat (under)
black tights
3 prs socks; handknitted ginger socks + 2 prs thick hiking socks rtw
chocolate brown leather handbag

also, obviously I took my nightie, toiletries bag and a selection of underwear 🙂

My daily outfits:

Thoughts:
I think I’m actually getting better at minimising my packing, since this is a far smaller selection that the last time we went to Italy. True, this was a shorter trip by 6 days, but I felt as though I had plenty of options and probably could have happily eked another week’s worth of outfits out of this lot pretty easily!
I did make one ginormous packing boo boo; I neglected to bring a hat, DOH! You can imagine how hard I was kicking myself when I discovered this, getting dressed for our first day out hiking!! I had intended to bring my white, wide-brimmed hat, which is fantabulous for keeping off the sun and I thought it would complement all my outfits just perfectly but just forgot to put it in somehow!… oh well, all the best-laid plans and all that. Very fortunately my husband had brought two hats so he allowed me to use one of his on our holiday. Of course I could have bought a new one if need be; but you know how weird I am about not buying clothes, right?
Weather appropriateness: it was very hot hiking in Italy, and to be honest there were times I found myself pining for a few more warm weather options; but really I made do with what I had just fine. Happily our schedule was such that we could do a bit of hand-washing in our room every few nights and could put something fresh and clean on every morning.
During our time in Italy, we both felt like the cooler weather options we’d brought were a complete waste of suitcase space. But of course then we got to Copenhagen and it was freezing! and then I leapt upon my tights and cardigans and my raincoat, rugging up with relief and joy. Weather! You just can never tell!
Likewise, I packed the floral dress just in case, and while we were hiking and hanging out in rural and seaside areas with a downbeat, casual vibe, it languished uselessly in the suitcase, bugging me. However, obviously we did eventually get to cities, with restaurants and cocktail bars where there were beautiful people dressed very smartly indeed; and I was happy I could sashay out looking just that little bit glamorous!
Other, non-sartorial thoughts:
I took my fitbit and was super chuffed that I set two new personal bests! on two separate days.

moment of smug self-backpatting

We did a huge amount of hiking and mountain/hill/stair climbing, and averaged 25,000 steps and 150 floors per day. Phew! We sure earned our gelati each day! or sometimes *blush* even two gelati, ahem.
Another “thing” I did was keep a diary. I always have good intentions to keep travel journals but rarely do I actually manage to keep it going for the whole trip. This time I gave myself extra motivation by buying for myself a really beautiful book. It worked! I loved my book so much it was an absolute pleasure to write in it, and I found myself looking forward each day to summarising the events of the day, recalling funny anecdotes, little thoughts I had, conversations we had, and general stooff like that.
I know I’m going to enjoy reading it one day when I’m old and can no longer remember that we even ever went to Italy, once upon a time, hehe 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: travel wardrobe

origami blouse

21/06/2015 11:20 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

Hello! I’ve made a new blouse 🙂
Yes, it is currently winter here in Perth. I am braving the freezing depths of winter to take these photos.
Haha, not really! Actually I am wearing my new blouse responsibly and weather-appropriately here, in warm and sunny Italy! I made the blouse before we left on our recent hiking holiday and took it away with us so I could enjoy it in the warm weather 🙂
This is the Origami Blouse from the book Twinkle Sews, by Wenlan Chia. My lovely sewing neighbour Megan kindly lent her book to me. Thank you so much, Megan!

The fabric is a lovely creamy coloured silk/linen; bought as a remnant from Fabulous Fabrics. I only had about 80cm and with some experimenting to find the most economical pattern arrangement just managed to squeak out the pieces with barely any scraps left at all. And added 2cm in length to the blouse … I cut it that little bit longer just because I had enough length and thought I would get a nice deep hem. However when trying it on I detected a certain, um shall we say, lamb-ness? to the style, at odds with the general muttonness of my person… Anyway, I decided any and all extra length that could be got definitely should be got at all costs; and stitched the skinniest of skinny hems that I could!
For that same reason I did not gather up the lower edge of the sleeves with elastic, but just left them straight and ungathered. The resulting lack of sleeve puffiness raises the maturity level just a touch, I reckon 🙂
The origami thingies on the front are rather interesting, and although they look complex are simpler than they look. Having said that, I still found them quite fiddly to make and mine are not particularly neat, although I tried! Fabric is not like paper at all, it’s springy and thick, especially when seams come into the equation, and true origami perfection is a pretty tall order. I ended up abandoning all aspirations to razor sharp points and perfectly angled edges and just tried to accept the imperfection. I think I wrangled them to look passable. I can almost imagine they are like a flutter of little creamy butterflies, alighting onto my shirt for a little butterfly gathering.

I’m not too terribly distressed at their imperfection, as when I’m wearing the top they are sneakily tucked away behind that black velvet tie anyway, mwahaha…

Verdict: I think it turned out, not too cutesy cute, but nice and just mildly cute, and rather fresh and romantic and just slightly poetic.

My thoughts on Twinkle Sews, the book…
This is a nice book; it contains patterns for 25 garments; 7 skirts, 13 tops and 5 dresses. The designs include some that are easy and plain, others that are both interesting and unique, with some very innovative ideas in many of the pieces. If you’re interested in something a bit different, basics with a twist, then this book contains some promising projects.
The fabrics chosen for the sample garments and the styling of them is sometimes a little questionable and I didn’t always find them visually appealing. But disregarding fabrics and prints and just paying careful attention to the lines and shapes of the pieces, I reckon there are some real gems in there. Check out Megan’s lovely shibori dress from the book.
The patterns come in sizes 0-16 (US) and are all on a CD included with the book. The pattern pieces are all whole pieces, meaning, no half pieces to be placed on the fold. This has advantages; it’s easier to lay the full-size pieces on a flat unfolded piece of fabric to obtain the most economical layout: also disadvantages; the most obvious being that you have to do a heckuvva lot more taping!
The early chapters are aimed at a beginner seamster, with some nice and encouraging chat about the joys of fabric and making clothes for yourself; and extensive, clear and helpful explanations of basic sewing terms as well as for all the techniques used in the projects.

Details:
Blouse; the origami blouse from Twinkle Sews, by Wenlan Chia, creamy linen-silk with black velvet ribbon
Shorts; Burda 7723, green cotton gingham, details here and my review of this pattern here
Thongs (above); Havaiana
Hat (Craig’s); Billabong
Socks (below); hand-knitted by me, details here
Hiking boots (below); Mountain Designs