Monday, December 23, 2024

Surprise Dec Vacation


I was invited to go on a girls' trip to Aruba in early Dec. with my sister and her friends, when one of the ladies had to cancel. 




Morning view from our room


 I had 24 hours between deplaning from a trip to Louisiana, to repack my suitcase and drive 2.5 hours north to a major airport to catch a nonstop flight to Aruba. Fortunately, I had just completed a couple of summer garments for a cruise planned in late Jan.  Aruba was a good test of my cruise wardrobe.  

 First item was a dress from McCall's 7974.  I used this pattern to make a dress for my DIL several years ago.   Marion Dress


The fabric was purchased "As Is" with a minor defect, from FabricMartFabrics.com.   When it arrived, I was pleased with the fabric weight, texture and metallic accent threads. But the color was too pale for me.  I dyed the fabric in my washing machine using cobalt blue Rit dye and it resulted in a beautiful color. 

Fabric conversion



McCall's 7974

Second item was a top to match a pair of RTW salmon-colored shorts.  The fabric was a 1 yard 54" remnant of what I think was silk cotton lawn in a tan and salmon pink print.  I have no documentation of where this fabric came from. Most likely the Give Away table at the ASG meeting. I find a lot of summer styles I like in my old Burda magazines.  This top came from the July 2010 issue, style number 131.   I omitted the waist drawstring. 

Burda 2 2010 131



Burda 2 2010 131


I also got to wear a Burda coverup I made about 5 years ago.

Burda 06 1997 107


Sisters

The vacation was great; hot sunny weather, good food, lots of talking and laughing. The flight back, normally 4.5 hours, was extended to 7 hours when the plane diverted to Dominican Republic to offload a passenger with a medical emergency.  My husband watches flight progress real time on the app Flight Aware. When we landed in the DR and I activated my phone for cell service there, his "what is happening?" texts popped up. The flight direction/path had changed so abruptly he thought there were mechanical problems.  As a result of the longer flight, my 2.5-hour drive back home was in the wee hours of the morning. Just me and the Amazon trucks on I95 South.

Back to cold weather and holiday preparation.  Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday season.