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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Traveling Light - It's all Relative :-) (Historical Tripping in London)

Frances Stuart
Duchess of Richmond

by Sir Peter Leley
Inspired by a recent trip to the U.K.
Want to hear more about London through my sewists eyes? Listen in (download to an mp3 device or listen directly on the web) to the June episode of the Enchanted by Sewing podcast Laurel Loves London.

After returning from a two week trip to London and Cornwall , I was thinking about the challenges of packing light. No matter how hard I try to plan in advance I slip too many things in the bag at the last minute. In the case of this last trip, we needed a bigger bag for trekking poles (without which I could not have survived the challenging footing on the coastal trail of Cornwall), which gave me a larger suitcase.

Oh dear, that was a mistake! I just located a universal packing list planner at http://upl.codeq.info, but frankly I think it would just have caused me to put in more stuff than I did. However, I think I can give myself points when I consider the practicality of the garments I did put in.

Bet you dollars to doughnuts that this gal, Frances Stuart (she was also a Duchess of Richmond),  was a much worse packer than I am!

Like... do you think this outfit goes with everything else in her suitcase? Could she use it as a substitute for a raincoat? If she washed it out in the bathroom sink in the hotel room, would you guess it would be dry by morning? Not to mention I'm guessing her beauty and hygiene bag (my husband calls it a 'ditty' bag) was fuller than mine.

So... I'm feeling like a pretty savy traveller right now.

Sewing for Travel (Butterick 5526)

I sewed Butterick 5526 again for my recent trip to London. It was very practical, and pretty, when worn with a pair of black cropped linen pants I made for the same trip. They are the same tried and true pattern I used for these tan cropped linen pants. 

I took this shirt along on another trip, on our recent weekend down to my daughter's graduation from Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo). All the hotels around the area require a two night minimum stay (Can you blame an area whose economy is heavily dependent on tourism for this requirement on high demand weekends? I don't.) This shirt went along to the beach and on to winery tasting on Saturday. I wore my newly finished CA Romance dress for the ceremony on Sunday.

This is a great pattern. I love the shape of the hem and the curved side seams. Thanks again to my sewing buddy Susan for all her work altering this pattern to give me a great fit! And of course we weren't the only people to find that the sleeves may be too tight as originally designed (see my links in detailed posting to Pattern Review). Nothing beats a muslin!

I previously sewed and wrote more about my experiences sewing this shirt, in my posting about sewing my No. 1 Ladie's Detective Agency shirt.

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