Travel Capsule Wardrobe for South Africa Garden Route

Do you remember me sewing things for my Start With A Scarf Wardrobe? I used those clothes along with a few RTW pieces as a travel capsule wardrobe for a trip to South Africa's garden route. I even took the scarf with me though I didn't actually wear it!

I also took footwear - walking shoes, walking sandals and silver flat sandals as well as sunglasses, underwear, PJs, socks and toiletries. Everything packed up into the packing cubes nicely. DH and I both had some clothing in each other's checked luggage and spare undies and top in our hand luggage (rucksacks), though we didn't have any issues with our checked luggage.

I did wear everything, and as we were away 3.5 weeks, we visited a laundrette half way through and had a service wash done of some items (underwear, socks, tops and dirtier bottoms/layers).

All my bottoms and layers were plain colours, as were some of my tops, and I stuck to a colour palette of black, sage green, burgundy and pink, this let me mix and match whatever was clean and suitable for the weather that day. We had rain, sunshine, heat and cold, so lots of different combos were in operation!

Coat

I took a Craghoppers lined waterproof jacket with hood and pockets. In the pockets I had gloves, beany hat, tube scarf/buff and a lightweight peaked cap. These fold up small, but were great for protection from the sun (peaked cap) 

Bottoms

I took seven bottoms, perhaps it could've been slightly fewer. They were

Black stretch woven trousers, worn on all flights and over the joggers on cold morning and evening safari drives.

Dark grey slim leg joggers, worn for relaxing in the room/cabin, one night as PJ trousers when it was cold and as thermals under the black trousers.

Black stretch jeans, worn for evening meals and some around the town days.

Stretch woven tan shorts, worn a lot on the hot days. The internal zipped pocket was great, though banged a bit on my leg when I put too much in it.

Black culottes skirt, an alternative to the shorts on hot days.

Olive green Craghoppers trousers. Worn for hiking with a belt but not good for a boat trip - the fit isn't  right when sitting.

Sage green stretch woven trousers. Worn for wine tasting, some evening meals and etc. Fit not right on these either.

Layers

2 lightweight fleece jackets from Craghoppers (one burgundy, one pink), and a self sewn cardigan in sage green. I wore all of these but could've probably managed with only 1 of the fleeces + the cardigan.

Shirts

I took 4 shirts, 2 self sewn (sage green and floral) and two purchased Craghoppers in Pink and Regatta in Burgundy check. More shirts would've been good and the ones with pockets were more useful. The floral shirt was worn the most and washed twice (once by hand, once at launderette).

3/4 sleeve tops

Wore all of these and washed them too.

Short sleeved tops

Useful as layers under the shirts, as well as self sewn I took quite a few RTW t-shirts, mostly from Decathlon.

Summary

Overall things worked well. Secure pockets were definitely useful. My self sewn items worked out quite well. My RTW pieces have been bought over the years and were not expensive. I have pieces from Regatta, Craghoppers and Decathlon. The better my sewing gets, the less RTW I wear :-)

Olive Cardigan: Harper cardigan hack

 

I wanted both a cardigan and joggers from the olive fabric. I'd already used some of the fabric for another project so it was a real squeeze.

In the end the joggers had a pieced pocket lining, but were otherwise as per the pattern. 

The cardigan needed a bit more tweaking. The version above has the following changes.

- narrower front band

- no hem band, just a stitched hem.

- slightly shorter sleeves and longer cuffs

It's still worked out well though.

Dark Olive Mountain View Trousers

I had bought some dark olive fabric, satin one side, but matte the other. It has a bit of stretch but not really enough for the Itch To Stitch Mountain View Jeans. I added an extra inch to the back when I was cutting out and they've worked out really well.

These are the matte side out. I'll try to do a shot of me wearing them as they don't have much hanger appeal!

Adding a hidden pocket to shorts

I'd previously sewn these shorts in March 2022 and wore them lots. 

They were nearly perfect except for 2 things - no zipped pocket and no belt loops.

I had some leftover fabric so decided to fix these issues.

First I made a pocket with a zip and a single layer of fabric above.

I then stitched this to the seam allowance of the waistband, with the zip towards the shorts. To use it, just flip it to the outside and the zip opening is at the top of the waistband.

I also added belt loops so a belt can be worn to keep the shorts up when the pockets are loaded.

I'm really pleased with these updates

Olive Joggers : Wendy Ward's Monsal Lounge Pants

 Latest make is a pair of olive joggers. 

Mystery knit with looped back from stash.

Pattern is the Monsal Lounge Pants, from the Wendy Ward Book, A Beginners Guide to Sewing with Knits.

These are more an autumnal make as the fabric is quite cosy but still work beautifully with my floral scarf.

Cotton floral shirt

For this version I used the pocket pieces I'd used on the olive green shirt, only twice this time. These are large enough to be useful without being too large (as per the previous floral blouse).

I used a 100% cotton fabric which I bought from Economy Fabrics in June this year.

The buttons are shell buttons from the button drawers. Fortunately I managed to find a dozen all the same size.

The pattern is Prima March 2020 cut off to blouse length. I've also added a continuous placket for the opening rather than using the sleeve seam.

Floral Shirt

 

Here's my latest finished project, a floral shirt with oversized pockets, collar and cuffs, giving it a slight 70s feel.

The fabric is a floral cotton lawn in shades of green and pink which came from Auntie Joy's stash. It was a very odd shape with a large rectangle cut from one end and an irregular diagonal the other. So I did need to cut some parts single layer. The collar, cuffs and pockets were cut from the remaining scraps and I managed to find a dozen suitable shirt buttons in the drawer.

For the pattern I used the shirtdress pattern from Prima March 2020 cut down to shirt length. I added a wider cuff, a bound placket and a couple of pleats. The pockets were adapted from Simplicity 4231.

Its a fun project using things I already had.

Pink "Core" T-shirt

This is the Core T-shirt Pattern, which is a FREE pattern from Closet Core Patterns.

I used leftover pink single jersey fabric which had little stretch so as I was between sizes I decided to size up, I also added 1cm to the neckband.

I'm really pleased with the outcome and will be using this pattern again.

Here's how the wardrobe is looking

Pink Print Pair

Here's a pair of tees cut from the same fabric.

First of all I cut my favourite drop shoulder top with curved hem.

There was lots of fabric left over, but it was a bit of a funny shape. Using my TNT New Look 6735 I was able though to cut a front with the upper area missing and add the missing section to the back pieces.

The finished tops look remarkably similar despite one having a curved hem and dropped shoulders where the other has the forward shoulder seam, set in sleeves and a straight hem. Probably because I have almost the same print placement on the front.

T-shirt refashion

Some years ago I bought some 3XL men's t-shirts in nice colours hoping to refashion them.

My initial though was to use the Free Core T-shirt pattern as per Tomkat Stitchery's You Tube Video

However once I'd worked out my size, printed it out, stuck it together and cut out the pattern pieces it was apparent that it wasn't going to work. In fact none of my set in sleeve tee shirt patterns would fit.

I then tried my drop shoulder tee pattern, and that didn't fit either, so I drafted a variation with a slightly less dropped sleeve but a wider bat wing style dolman sleeve. I then used this to recut the tee.

I have full upper arms which look better covered so wanted the sleeves to be elbow length. So I unpicked the original sleeve hem and pressed it flat, then added a band (cut from the spare length in the body).

Here it is with the scarf, I'll wear it and see how I like the shape before I cut into the other two oversized tees!

Here's how the whole wardrobe is looking now

I'm really pleased with how this is coming along!

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Wearing the pink tee today and finding the dolman sleeve with cuff isn't that comfortable, so further refashioning may be required!

Previously made items used in the Start With A Scarf SWAP

I'm not sewing everything from scratch in this wardrobe, and have decided to use some previously sewn items, all done within the last 18 months.

Charcoal Mountain View trousers

Grey Green trousers

Denim Utility Gilet

McCall's 6844 cardigan

Charcoal joggers - Monsal Lounge Pants

Khaki trousers

Dark olive stripe trousers: Simplicity 1467 with back crotch alteration and added zipped pocket

Burgundy Pink long line cardigan: The Kinder Cardigan, From the book by Wendy Ward "A Beginner’s Guide To Sewing With Knitted Fabrics"

With these pieces added in my wardrobe now looks like this.

Bird Print Top

I used the same pattern as the last two tops, but lengthened the sleeves and raised the neckline. 

I also cut out a simple tube scarf which I can use to change the look.

Whilst this top doesn't work well with the scarf which inspired the colour palette, it can be worn with any of the plain coloured items in the wardrobe (some previously made, some still to come).

Scarf SWAP dusty pink top

 Continuing with my Scarf based SWAP I've sewn another top. Same pattern different fabric.

This knit is very fine and soft and was a little tricky to sew with rather crumpled yardage. I'll see what its like to wear and wash.

The pink is slightly more greyed than the scarf, but still works I think.

Summer 2023 SWAP: Start with a Scarf

 I decided to start a SWAP with this scarf as the inspiration. It has an olive green background with pink and grey flowers. So I'll use those colours as my palette for the capsule wardrobe.

I plan to make tops, trousers and a cardigan and pull in previously made or purchased pieces as well.

Here's my first piece, a sage green marled knit top. The pattern is my own, traced from a favourite RTW top. It has a dropped shoulder, curved hem, scooped neckline and 3/4 sleeves.

Details of how I made the pattern here.