Summer Travels

July was a month of much travel and minimal sewing.  Our early July trip was to a hot, humid location  so I decided to sew some linen garments and see if I would find them more comfortable/wrinkle free in that type of climate.

DS#1, age 29 decided to quit his job as a wine salesman and go to law school. He starts his classes at Louisiana State University in August.

Early in July,  DH and I  helped he and his fiancé  drive their cars from Richmond, VA to Baton Rouge, LA.  It was 3-days of driving through 7 states. There were a few adventures. I discovered disposable face masks are good for other purposes when one finds oneself in a grubby gas station bathroom in rural Georgia  (detour around massive traffic jam on I85) with no toilet paper.  Or who knew the best restaurant near Atmore, AL is hiding in a dilapidated strip mall, furnished with a mix of booths repurposed from multiple types of restaurants; western, 50’s diner, and 70’s chic.  But the food was great, prices were low (what? no "7.5% meals tax" on top of local tax), and all mixed drinks were guaranteed to contain 1.5 oz. of alcohol, according to the sign at the bar.  The large number of  local policemen, having a  group dinner in the back room, kept us from extensively testing the validity of this claim.

 Before our trip I sewed up a pair of linen/cotton shorts and cotton lycra T shirt. The pattern for the shorts was Burda 12/2010 /108 pattern hemmed at knee length. I used this pattern last summer for the shorts in my  Birthday Suit.

 The printed linen cotton blend fabric was a “4 yard for $10” deal from FabricMartFabrics, purchased a couple of years ago. The print is lime green and beige. A color combo I had never considered wearing. But it is one I have seen a lot this summer, and it is starting to grow on me. And I remembered I had a necklace with stones of peridot green and beige druzy crystals.

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  I also made a coordinating, wide neck, cap sleeve cotton/lycra T shirt from Vogue 1141.

Vogue 1141

Back to linen. I though Richmond was hot and humid, but Baton Rouge is much hotter and more humid, especially after the daily rain shower. 

 The wearing test  was while touring the LSU campus. The linen shorts were very comfortable. They still wrinkled but at least they did not lay on my skin, soaking up sweat and showing it in dark damp spots like the T shirt.  I don’t perspire much, even when exercising, but I did that day just walking around . 

LSU Law building

Wrinkles and damp spots

DH and I had our picture with the statue of the LSU tiger mascot.  I felt a bit disloyal to  the  Penn State Nittany lion statue of my alma mater. We also visited Mike the tiger, a real Bengal tiger who lives in a leafy, green habitat near the football stadium. He was sleeping in the shade, an appropriate activity for the weather that day. 

I had seen and admired some linen print, short and top sets on Net a Porter. 

 They were  very cute but a bit frilly.  I made a top  from a Burda envelope pattern in the same fabric as the shorts.  

Burda 6819

And now I now have my own linen short set. A bit more tailored than the N-a-P sets and in a subtle print, but something I would actually wear.

Linen print short set

  By far the most comfortable clothes I wore during our stay in Baton Rouge were loose fitting  shorts and tops of woven fabrics.  I took a bunch of the silk tanks tops I had sewn in the past, and they were cool, comfortable and looked great. I came home from my trip and made a few more,  which I will share in the next post.