Wednesday, April 30, 2014

A travel wardrobe

We have just arrived home from a fantastic whirlwind trip to Dublin and the United Kingdom and I thought I would share my travel wardrobe.

Time away:
11 days

Where to:
Dublin and the United Kingdom

Season:
One month into Spring and looking at the weather forecasts it was still going to be cool with temperature ranges from 1c to 18c being the warmest during the day.  The weather really turned it on for us, sunshine every day and only 1 day of rain and then I wouldn't call it that much rain, grey and overcast with some drizzle and this was on our last day.  York even managed to turn the heat on reaching 22c but the mornings and evenings were still quite cool.

Expected Activities:
This trip was to visit my mother-in-law who is not in the best of health and do some sightseeing whilst we were there, so the wardrobe needed to be comfortable to do a lot of walking on cobblestone streets and sightseeing as well as being comfortable sitting about with family.

Colour scheme:
brown, navy, cream, burgundy, grey and a little bit of chartreuse.


What I packed:
(each garment is linked to its original construction post -top to bottom, left to right)


Taupe flats
Brown boots


Burgundy coat McCall's 8522 made prior to blogging
Burgundy track pants Simplicity 3640 made for the trip, to be blogged.

Verdict:
This wardrobe worked very well, I didn't feel as if I was in the same outfit as all the tops went will all the bottoms so at no time did I wear the same combination.  We managed to do laundry half way thorough the trip and a couple of tops got washed whilst we were on the road sightseeing.

I took two outer layers, my brown merino cardi that worked with all outfits and my burgundy coat went well with the jeans and this was worn early morning or during the evening when we were wondering about.   I also had a collection of jewellery that changed the look of the tops.  I'm sorry I didn't take a second pair of winter shoes, the boots worked fine but my feet got a bit sick of them and the taupe flats didn't work with the tights I took and were only worn on the flights.

My mother-in-law is in northern Wales and I had worked out that Linton Tweed was a 3 hour trip from her home so my darling husband made sure it was included in our sightseeing itinerary.  Of course two pieces of fabric followed me home:

2 metres for a jacket

2 skirt lengths of 1 metre each.
Then on our last day we visited Abakhan fabrics and I purchased 2 pieces of linen by the pound totalling 5 metres for AUS$18, which I thought was a very good price.

This colour is in the top tweed.
This trip managed to put a stop to the completion of my  2014 SWAP entry, I still had 3 pieces to sew before today, however work and jet lag has not been conducive to getting these completed.  No matter I have 8 new garments in my wardrobe and I love all of them!


10 comments:

jacquianne said...

Thanks for posting about your travel wardrobe Sharon - I have taken notes as I am off to England to see my Dad in October.

Cherrypix said...

Most impressed! You've got travel packing nailed! Love it when gorgeous fabrics follow you home....

Unknown said...

Love your color palette and the Linton fabric. Was it hard to restrain yourself when shopping there?

elleR said...

Oooh, I am so jealous of your visit to Linton Tweed! Will enjoy seeing the products of these 2 new fabrics!

velosews said...

So glad your trip was worthwhile. Love your purchases.

Sarah Liz said...

I'm glad you spent some time with your family, Sharon. I love your wardrobe, and it proves that a SWAP is a good strategy. Lucky you being able to visit Linton Tweeds - it will be on my list if I am lucky enough to revisit the UK! You were lucky with the weather.

Sue said...

A great looking wardrobe Sharon. I always love seeing how others put together a travel wardrobe.

BeaJay said...

Great wardrobe. Love how you have put together the colours. And how could you restrain yourself and only bring back 2 pieces of Linton Tweed?? I have tweed envy. Very nice pieces.

KathyS said...

Love your travel wardrobe! Hope I can do as well when we go in June for 5 weeks including a 2 week cruise. The tweed is beautiful. Unfortunately I won't be going near Linton Tweed.

Vicki said...

Nice purchases! Its great when you can shop your wardrobe like that for the trip.