July 2022 – The G. G. Files

God and Air Canada willing, I’ll be touching down in Madrid with my husband on Labour Day weekend. These days, with all the apparent luggage-related chaos at airports around the world (and especially here at home), knowing what to pack in a carry-on and in checked baggage has taken on even more urgency. Add onto that the mystery surrounding exactly what I should wear in Madrid and on tour in Spain and Portugal in early September, and I have a dilemma (and only about five weeks left to sew anything!).

Here are the issues I need to solve:

What do I need for city wear in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe?
What do I need for a ten-day road trip through Spain and Portugal?
What do I need for a week on the island of Mallorca in a villa?

And how do I ensure I have at least one change of clothes in case my luggage doesn’t make it on the first attempt?

Okay, let’s get one thing straight: I do not travel with carry-on only. Ever. Well, strike that. I used to do it whenever I had a one-day trip. For example, I flew from Halifax to Toronto and returned on the same day (a two-hour flight, and of course, I did only carry-on). Other than that―no. Why? you might reasonably ask.

I’m one of those travellers who despises being hit by massive carry-on bags as they pass me in the aisle. I loathe those contortions everyone goes through, trying to put too-big carry-ons in too-small overhead bins. I am homicidal if I get to my seat and find someone has used my overhead bin for an oversized piece of luggage so that they can keep the floor of the seat in front of them empty for their feet. Okay, rant over. But you get the picture. And it’s my own choice. So, I will be packing checked bags, and I will be taking my chances. Back to what to put in said bags.

I have decided to begin with a colour plan. I’m also thinking I might use this one for general fall and winter wardrobe planning.

I think it transcends seasons with its grey-black-white-rose palette. But I still have a dilemma.

According to what I read online, people in Madrid dress for the season regardless of the weather. This means that if it’s hot in the fall, they will not return to their summer attire, and if I take the summer-dressing approach to 28-degree Celsius weather, I will stick out. But the question is this: is early September considered summer (even though it isn’t technically speaking), or is it fall?

I have to think about that. With the temperatures expected to be high and lots of on-foot touring planned, it seems to me that keeping cool and comfortable will be paramount. That being said, Quiero verme un poco chic, ¿no? Huh! Practicing my Spanish! I want to look a bit chic, don’t I? Of course.

The problem with looking chic for a three-week trip that involves lots of city touring on foot, moving by car from one city to another, two days in a beach resort on the Algarve in Portugal, four days in a capital city (Madrid) and then a week in a villa on the island of Mallorca, is that I want to look appropriate while wearing travel-friendly clothing. What is travel-friendly clothing to me?

First, travel-friendly clothing doesn’t wrinkle―at least not too much. There’s nothing worse than having to iron clothes every day. This can happen during a road trip.

Second, travel-friendly clothing is versatile. I cannot afford to take a single piece of clothing that I can’t wear several different ways with several different pairings.

Third, travel-friendly clothing looks chic while keeping me comfortable. 😊

I have to begin with an inventory of what I already have. Let me begin with dresses. (In the next post, we’ll move on).

I rarely wear dresses. But, if you’ve been reading the GG Files for any length of time, you know that I like to make dresses. This can be a problem. However, in this case, my inventory unearths a dress I made at the end of last summer, hauled along with me to the Caribbean, discovered I didn’t need a dress and hauled it home. So, since it fits into my planned palette, I will take it with me. This one is New Look 6650.

I love the half-belt detail on this dress, but I don’t’ love the length. So, when I made it, I shortened it so that it falls just at the top of my knee and added slits to the sides. I also made this from fabric that really didn’t have the 35% stretch the ease of the pattern required.

I’m just grateful I haven’t gained so much weight it won’t fit me in five weeks! But is one dress enough?

One dress is probably enough, or at least I could make it do. However, I love a shirt dress, and when I saw Butterick 6748, I thought it might be terrific. I had a piece of pin-tucked, white, woven cotton-lycra that I bought at the end of last summer, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Along the way, I picked up this new toy!

I suppose I’m late to the game (again), but I’ve never used one of these measuring gizmos before. Where has it been all my life? When I think of how much time I spend measuring for buttonhole placement…anyway, this little beauty will be with me along the way to making several coastal-grandmother-style, chic tops to take along. I’ll show them to you next time, along with my ready-to-wear picks.

In his book The Alchemist, writer Paul Coelho wrote, “It is precisely the possibility of realizing a dream that makes life interesting.” Since the first time I walked into the home economics classroom in grade seven and created my first blue corduroy jumper, I’ve had a dream to pursue my creative side. But I also had a practical side and knew that math and science were my greatest strengths, followed by my language skills. So, I followed those interests into university and beyond, spending many happy years as a university professor who wrote books. Life has always been nothing if not interesting.

When this book was published in July 2020, I never thought there would be three more books in the series…but Charlie kept talking to me!

But that blue corduroy, V-necked jumper I sewed so carefully and then wore proudly had never left my internal dreamer. So in recent years, when I had the chance to put my passions for sewing and writing together, it never occurred to me that at this point in my life, I’d be launching the fourth book in a series of novels that allowed me to do just this.

It’s almost two years to the day that the first book in this series, The Year I Made 12 Dresses, was published. I never intended to write a series, but it just happened. Today is the official launch of book four! I’m excited to share the next “almost-but-not-quite-true” story…”Something I’m Supposed to Do.”

The “almost-but-not-quite-true” stories take you on a journey backward in time from the twenty-first century to the 1980s, onward to the 1960s and ending―and beginning―in 1912. Three generations of incredible women all learn a single lesson: You don’t get the life you deserve. You get the life you create.

Book 4: Charlie Hudson has a problem she never saw coming. She has too much money and no idea what to do with it. As she searches for what she’s supposed to do, she faces her great-grandmother’s unfinished book manuscript and finds herself drawn into the 1980s and a romance that might teach her something about the interconnectedness of life events. If only she could figure out what it is.

Charlie becomes part of a book within a book and discovers Something I’m Supposed to Do.

It launches today.

Of course, you can get it at Amazon or any other online bookstore… just in case you’re interested!

Visit the Moonlight Press page for more, including trailers and the details.

Month: July 2022

Planning a fall travel wardrobe (Mixing sewing new and shopping ready-to-wear)

Follow Your Passions: Sewing and Writing for Me