What I made and wore for 2 weeks in Paris!

This past November I spent 2 full weeks in Paris. (Much of this was documented on my Instagram feed- @siouxzeegirl)

 

One of my favorite parts about travel is planning my wardrobe. Once my destination is selected, dates nailed down and flights purchased I immediately start to think of my wardrobe. Paris was such a fun trip to plan for and I am glad that I started early since I knew that I wanted to make as much of the wardrobe that I could.

I selected a color palette of blue, red and white. A slightly different palette from my normal clothes. This gives me an opportunity to play with other colors AND come out with a great capsule wardrobe in the end.

 

Wardrobe sewing planning

With the color palette selected I started pulling all the fabrics from my fabric collection that fit into this palette. I don’t really think about what I will make with them at this point, I just pull the fabric and put it all on my couch, table and floor, wherever it all fits so that I can see all of it. With all of the fabric spread out it is easy to ‘see’ and you can quickly start removing fabrics that just don’t go. This can be because the color is a little off. For instance, I ended up going with deeper and true reds versus orangey reds. I removed many of the very dark navy blues and went with a brighter blue and brighter navy’s. After doing this first culling, which usually removes about half of the pulled fabrics, I start to look at the fabrics left against my list of clothes that I want to make. This then helps me to put the fabrics into 4 groups. Tops, bottoms, dresses and outerwear. 

 

I have a couple rules that I follow when creating a travel wardrobe.

1. All separates, bottoms (skirts and pants) and tops (knit and woven) need to go with multiple other items. For example, if I bring 3 bottoms then each top I made must go with at least 2 of the 3 bottoms. Ideally all 3! And vice versa. Each bottom needs to go with multiple tops.
2. Each dress needs to worn at least twice. Unless traveling for a special occasion like a wedding, I NEVER bring an item that will only get worm once.
3. I try to stick to 3 pairs of shoes. And NEVER bring new, untested shoes.
4. I always have a travel outfit that gets worn on plane to and from and then usually one other day on the trip that I consider a down day. (Crucial for longer trips)
5. Only bring undergarments that can be rinsed/hand washed and dry overnight. 
6. I almost never travel with jeans. They are heavy and if they get wet take forever to dry. (Unless I am staying in a ABNB with a dryer)

These rules help me to make sure that my wardrobe creation and packing for a longer trip are very thoughtful and deliberate. These are the rules that work for me and they may certainly not be what works for someone else! I guess my biggest thing is that if I am deliberate beforehand with my creating and selecting my wardrobe then when I am on my trip I don’t really have to think about it too much and just really enjoy my travels!

 

Yes, your eyes are correct... I packed a suitcase inside a bigger suitcase on the way there, so that I would have plenty of room on the way home for the FABRIC purchases!! It worked out perfectly!

For my Paris trip, I knew that I wanted to bring 3 or 4 bottoms, 5 or 6 tops and 2 dresses. Plus, outerwear.

 

What I made and what I bought.

Things I made:

Dresses: 2 blue floral matelassé corner dress from 2 coordinating fabrics and Chanel tweed dress with tucked knit sleeves and tweed cuffs.

Bottoms:3 (1 skirt & 2 pants) one midi length red corduroy straight skirt, one blue tweed lined slim ankle pants and one full length wool crepe lined pants with pleated hem. 

Tops: (6) red wool knit top, blue wool knit top (only item from my existing wardrobe) rayon/spandex knit tunic, blue floral ruched knit top and a woven Japanese cotton top. Plus one French style jacket and shell. 

 

I Only 4 purchased items that came with me! Both my outer wear pieces and my travel tunic and leggings. I just ran out of time and thought why not! Everything else I made :) Such a great feeling to travel with wonderful me made wardrobe.

I purchased both items of outerwear that I brought with me. A tunic length navy puffer vest and a burgundy London fog hooded rain/trench coat.

Shoes: I broke my rule and actually brought 5 pairs of shoes. 2 red shoes and 2 blue shoes and a pair of pool flip flops. All shoes were flats and every pair got worn. PLUS…. I purchased 2 more pairs of shoes while in Paris. I mean really, how could I not buy shoes in Paris!!

Day 1 (travel day)

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10 (with a very bad selfie!)

Day 11

Day 12 (forgot to take a selfie on the trip!)

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

 The last day, DAY 16, was our travel day home and I wore the exact same outfit as I wore traveling to Paris.

The page in the travel journal where I recorded how many times I wore each item.

 

For this trip, I knew I wanted to do a detailed trip journal. (On past trips I have done small journaling but I really wanted to do more and a bigger journal with everything that can be in one place once the trip is over) So, in this journal I made a list of each item of clothing that I brought plus the shoes and I marked them each time I wore them. Plus, I preplanned a daily 2-page spread in the journal that included one page for notes and another page for a sketch of my daily outfit. I loved doing this!! I also left open pages in the journal for sketching and note taking and for pasting in tickets and other memorabilia once I got home.

The croquis that I used were from My Body Model and I really enjoyed having them!

 

How do you plan your travel wardrobes?

Hong Kong, here I come! The final wardrobe.

I almost got everything sewn that I wanted to for my impending Hong Kong trip! Other than my undergarments, bathing suit and a last minute grab of a super light windbreaker,  I am bringing a fully me-made wardrobe!

Holly cow! I made that happen and each one of the garments were made just for this trip. AND it is all in a single carry on suitcase. The method to my madness was to make the items I thought I would like and then yesterday afternoon I used my dressform and me to see what articles of clothing would work with each other. Along with the items I had made, I also pulled out things from my closet that would also work. I should have taken a picture of my living space... clothes were everywhere!

I ended up with 2 skirts, 2 pants, 6 tops and 2 layering/outerwear pieces.
Both skirts are my own patterns. Variations of my a-line pattern.
Pants- one is the Hudson pant joggers, the second (not pictured) is Jen Stern Ponte jeans- Both highly modified to suit me.
Tops: 4 Versions of Jen Stern Tee- Black waffle wool knit, Black stretch lace over yellow, white/black/gray print and multi color print.
The grey with yellow hearts- my base knit tee pattern and the solid yellow one is same base pattern but with the neckline of the Easy V express tee.
2 layering/outerwear pieces are the striped pull over cardigan and the grey and camo knit single button cardigan.

Skirt one with different tops. The lovely short sleeve jacket did not make the cut! Even though it looks fabulous. It was just too bulky to fit in and I really didn't want to crush it up and smush it into a packing cube. So it is staying home, safe and sound and will be pulled back into rotation this coming spring.

The gray single button cardigan is not my favorite pattern. I will have to re-work it and get better shaping before I make another one. The skirt portion is great but the front bodice looks droopy to me. Possibly because I am used to much closer fitting garments. This is meant to be worn as an outer wear layer so It will do its duty just fine!

Skirt 2 with different tops-

Pants one, which are my airplane pants and lounging pants. Pants two are a pair of Ponte Jeans with a slight boot cut and which I somehow missed getting any pictures of. Probably because they are black with a tiny white dashes so they will go with every top I am bringing!

 These combination of garments actually give me more outfits than the 13 days that I will be away. Which is good in case something gets dirty or I just want to wear more than one thing each day!

Skirt one with tops- minus the yellow short sleeve jacket

Skirt two with tops- again minus the jacket

Pants one, grey camo joggers, with assorted tops. Pants two actually goes with every single top I am bringing.

Along with these, I am bringing one set of PJ's and one bathing suit.
Only 2 pairs of shoes both are dressy/fancy sneakers and a pair of flip flops for the pool.

And of course, I packed plenty of snacks in my carry on suitcase and in my backpack :)

Uber is scheduled for 5:05 am so off to bed with me! I will be posting photos on Instagram while I am away, You can find me there as siouxzeegirl.

Working on my Hong Kong travel wardrobe

Planning a travel wardrobe is always fun! I think it is especially so when you get to create exactly what you want.

This upcoming tip to Hong Kong is very exciting for me! The first half of the trip is with the American Sewing Guild, the Sew much fun- Hong Kong. The second half of the trip is a continuation of Hong Kong only this portion is going to be solo.

From start to finish is a total of 13 calendar days. However, due to crossing the international date line it works out to 12 days with 2 of those basically travel days.

To plan for this trip I started with the following ideas:

• Travel with a carryon suitcase and backpack- No checked bags on the way there.
• Plus 1 Stash-It backpack  and a re-usable tote for market shopping 
• All garments need to be multi-purpose and mix and match or planned to wear 2 or more times.
• Coming home I will be checking a bag (FABRIC SHOPPING!)

Once I had those main ideas defined I started thinking about the actual garment mix. 

this is sort of what I am working towards: (not including undergarments and PJ's)

• 5 tops plus 1 light jacket
• 4 bottoms- 3 pants and 1 skirt or 2 pants and 2 skirts
• 2 or 3 dresses

I then decided upon a color scheme- Black/Grey with pops of white and yellow. 

With a color scheme in hand I pulled fabrics from my collection, took photos and started sketching. More detail on this in this POST- Sketching a travel wardrobe. 

From today I have 46 days until the trip! Yikes its coming up quickly :)

Time to share what I have sewn up so far.

I still have more things to sew. Specifically the bottoms and the dresses and jacket. We shall see how much I get done! It will be interesting to see what the final wardrobe ends up being!

TOP 1: Modified Jen Stern tee

Fabric from Fabrications

Lightweight washable waffle texture wool knit. Very dark black and so soft!

Photo lightened to see details.

Still needs hemming

TOP 2: Modified Jen Stern tee

Fabric from Sawyer Brook

A wonderful rayon/lycra knit.

 TOP 3: My own design- princess seam top with ruched sleeves

Silk crepe-de-chine with a touch of lycra from Emmaonesock.

 TOP 4- Modified version of Butterick 6291

Can be worn as a top or as a wrap

The stripe is a rayon/lycra knit from Fabrications.

The black is a bamboo knit (dont remember where from!)

TOP 5- Master knit Tee

Washable lightweight wool knit with yellow hearts applique 

and fun neckline

Fabric from Fabrications.

PJ's/louging outfit

Top: master tee oversized

Bottom: Avery Leggings

Fabric- black bamboo knit with yelloow featherwight rib knit.

 Bottom 1: Skirt

lighweight denim with a fun print.

Fabric from Janet Pray

DO you sew for your vacation holidays?

Happy Sewing!!

Princess Victoria and my dad, her great grandpa, deep in discussion on the rocking chairs!

In The Sketchbook- September 2018- Sketching a travel Wardrobe

Welcome to In the Sketchbook, a monthly look at fashion design sketches that we are working on for ourselves. Sketching garments on a personal croquis is a great way for the individual couture enthusiast to move beyond the use of commercial patterns and into a world of personalized design! It can be intimidating at first, but with a little bit of practice it becomes something you look forward to. Join us for a look of what we have going on In the Sketchbook! Brought to you by Wendy Grossman of Couture Counsellor and Steph King from Siouxzeegirl Designs.

Sketching has really helped me in designing and sewing a small capsule wardrobe for work. I was get

As I have been contemplating and preparing for my trip to Hong Kong in late November my mind immediately went to what am I going to wear and what do I need to sew for my trip!

I started with picking a color palette and then to selecting fabrics and now I am in the midst of sketching and sewing. It is quite a fun and dynamic process and I am trying to keep it fun and dynamic and not stress myself out over it!

Color palette is black/grey/white with a pop of yellow. 

Many of the fabrics are right from my own collection and I purchased only a couple lengths of black for different pants and the faux leather for a jacket.

I started by thinking of how I wanted to pack for this trip and I am going to attempt to pack for 10 days in a carry-on. With the thought that I will purchase another bag in Hong Kong to bring back fabric in!! Eeeek!! I am so excited!
As of know the plan is for:
5 tops, 3 bottoms and 2 dresses. But... like I said this is a dynamic plan!

Here is what I have come up with so far!

This sketch is very similar to a dress that I already have in my closet.
 So, I am saving this for last!

A little fancier dress for evenings out at nice restaurants.

Polka dot skirt with a knit top.

Stretch silk blouse with black pants

Knit top with black/grey camouflage ponte pants

Knit top with polka dot skirt

Knit top with ponte jeans

Here is what I have come up with so far!
SO far the regular sketching has really helped me in both defining and refining my design ideas. However, I seem to be going backwards when it comes to sketching my arms and legs. The body parts that stick out of the clothes seem to defy my attempts! Good thing i'm only interested in the clothes!!

What fun things have you been sketching?

Make sure to stop by Wendy Grossman of Couture Counsellor to see what lovely sketches and ideas she is working on. Please feel free to share your sketches and ideas with us.


Happy Sketching!!