Lucky Sew and Sew: Vacation Sewing and Packing

Friday, August 23, 2019

Vacation Sewing and Packing

Back in the spring Mr. Lucky proposed that we take a Rick Steves tour company https://www.ricksteves.com trip to Switzerland since my cousin had spoken so highly of her recent experience. If he's willing to select and research it, then I'm good to go along. In previous posts you've seen that we usually take outdoorsy, hiking/walking trips with maybe some city days before and after. But this was going to be 12 days touring six cities in the three language (and food) regions so it's considered active but definitely more of a tour than we normally do. I decided that meant that I needed to make some new garments for a somewhat coordinated but still small enough travel wardrobe. I could pack the usual rtw travel blouses and pants that everyone else has, Travelsmith, Eddie Bauer, the standards, but I have enough of an ego that if I say sewing is my hobby then I should be wearing something to prove it.
Let's start with the obvious basic black garments.and work from there.
Black pants
I have black knit Style Arc Barb pants that can work as hiking pants or as evening with a tunic city pants.

Barb pants by Style Arc get hydration in Zurich before a day up on Mount Pilatus

Add a second pair of black stretch denim jeans and there's a great base.

Black skirt White denim jacket
I already own a terrific rtw swirly mid-calf skirt in black slinky and this would be an opportunity to wear it for touring. Imitating a great snoop shopping and sewing friend, @shoppingsleuth, (please, go to IG and follow her ideas) I decided that a cropped, deconstructed white denim jacket would be perfect for the skirt and that I could also wear the jacket with a black tank and those pants. Now, I already have a rtw white denim jacket but I didn't want to cut it up in case I didn't like the look. Enter my new shopping addiction...Poshmark. For $12 I got the same brand jacket in a white stretch denim. I cut off the collar, turned and edged it with narrow ribbon and cut the sleeves off to elbow length. Eventually I want to embellish it around the neckline but I think it worked well just as it is.

Refashioned jacket with cut off sleeves and collar removed

Thanks, Michele, for a great idea

Dark wash denim jeans
No, I have not gotten on the make your own jeans bandwagon although I do love my pull on Jalie Elenore jeans pattern. So I was packing dark denim rtw again and made a number of coordinating tops to wear in warm temps (Zurich hit 102F the week before we arrived!) or cool.

White stretch jeans
Ok, this was totally unnecessary but I just love white jeans in the summer and all that dark is practical but sooooo dark. I got a decent amount of wear out of this last minute decision and it kept my bottoms in rotation enough that I didn't have to do laundry in the two weeks.

So what did I actually sew, what else did I pack and how did they work in a small rolling suitcase? Here they are:
Three very lightweight over blouse toppers with either a rtw or Margarita tank top underneath. I only wore two of them when it was quite warm at the start of our trip and one of the hotels wasn't air-conditioned. They roll up to the size of a cell phone so easy to stuff into a suitcase although probably not necessary.

This topper is my most pinned item since I first made them nine years ago..Chicos poncho knock off This one works wonderfully with jeans since it has navy and black in that burnout polyester from Fabric Mart.

Again, an easy topper with a twist so I can cover my upper arms but wear a sleeveless tank. Both sides of the fabric show...one is glittery navy that I think came from JoAnns and the other a tissue knit from Fabric Mart. I thought I did a post about making one but can't find it at the moment. Tell me if you'd like directions.

I am in love with waterfall jackets of all lengths and collar widths. I made a sheer one from my very favorite Butterick 6244 and a border polyester fabric from Fabric Mart with a serger rolled edge. Turquoise knit Margarita Tank top by LJ Designs, my go to tank.

Butterick 6244

Then a knit version in a somewhat heavy ITY that needed a full facing. The colors are perfect for denim and black but when wearing it, the extra weight of the large facing pulled it forward and I wasn't always happy with that. I'll keep it for travel but not for regular at home wearing.

Butterick 6244

I'm grinning like a fool because we were ecstatic to reach the Lugano hotel where we got a whole pot of delicious coffee at breakfast. Americans like us looove their morning coffee and a small cup isn't enough. This was heaven.
There were some oldies that came along on the trip:
Vogue 8691 from three years ago

Yes, I found fabric stores and haberdashery departments just like a homing pigeon.
Vogue 8813 is a Marcy Tilton dress with great pockets and was perfect for market day and winery tour in Lausanne.

Vogue 8813

A Simplicity 3678 dress that I cut down into a tunic and thought I might discard at the end of the trip but it got several compliments so it came home with me:

Simplicity 3678

And last sewing picure, a McCalls 6444 jacket, another oldie but goodie, in lightweight nubby cotton with lots of fringing. Jeans and travel friendly.

McCalls 6444

Oh, that bandage you've noticed....thank you for not saying anything. I was so cocky and full of myself as our trip started out. The first three days we were on our own in Zurich. Day one we arrived, dropped our luggage and used the Rick Steves guide book for a marvelous walking tour of the city. Cure for jet lag...walk 8 miles in the sun. Day two we headed on the train for a whole day excursion to beautiful Mount Pilatus. Trains, gondolas, cog wheel train, boat ride, hiking...another almost 8 mile day.
Ah, day three, head out to take scheduled e-bike tour of Zurich. Electric bikes are the ones with heavy electric batteries that give you power assist. Mr. Lucky and I were there early, the woman trying to help me said all the bikes are the same, I didn't want to be a pushy American but saw that there were smaller ones more my size but I went along with her (listen to your instincts, ladies) and yes, the bike took me down with its weight and size and I have a badly sprained ankle. I still did the whole trip and it could have been soooo much worse. I'll see the ankle dr. when he's back from his vacation on Monday but I can still sew so all is not lost. And sewing wise, here are my souvenirs:

Sewing friends, feel free to move on....travel voyouers, keep looking for a few of our many pictures.

The Rick Steves tour was a master work of planning for organized time and free time. He's a real believer in getting to know local people, stay at family owned hotels and dine at local restaurants and that made this quite special. We had a walk with a local city guide in each town, a wonderful full time guide/manager, Fabian, who set up our visits to behind the scenes tours of a monastery, an exclusive chocolatier, an Alp cheese farm, mountain WWII fortress, local village music, a risotto cooking class, winery tour, Roman ruins and travel by coach, by train, by boat, by tram and gondolas. We were initially concerned that it wouldn't be active enough for us but we averaged five miles a day...me limping along but I didn't miss any activity except maybe the optional tandem para-gliding. We'll definitely take another trip with such a terrific organization some time in the future. Now, back to my sewing room and all the fun projects I have in store for the rest of 2019.