MOTORCYCLES

Given that I have sewn AT LEAST 3 motorcycle jackets in the last year (and have 3 more in RTW jackets), some people have asked if I actually RIDE a motorcycle...well, not EXACTLY..., but more than 25 years ago, two friends and I formed a precision-motorcycle-drill team, called "Mothers on Motorcycles", and rode our bright red 3-wheeled ATV's in our local, very small town, Los Olivos Day-in-the-Country

Parade.  (I'm the one in the middle)

We were pretty popular; we entered the parade for 5 or 6 years in succession. I was the head rider, and 

blew a whistle...once, and we would stand up in our "stirrups"

twice, and we would weave back and forth, and 3 whistles and we would stop and apply lipstick. It was one of the most hilarious things I've done, and I look back fondly on those times. We were very creative; we bought red mechanic's work suits from Sears, and decorated them with puffy and glittery "wings" and "flames", accessorized with silver belts, red and black boots and snappy turbans. We all had youngish children at the time, and were able to thoroughly embarrass them each year.

Once a Harley wanna-be, always a Harley wanna be!

OOOOH! SHINY!

In another life, I must have been a MAGPIE...

I am so attracted to sparkly, mirrored, shiny things...

When I was in San Francisco last May, Shams took me to Fabrix, one of her local fabric stores...
(does she know how lucky she is to have MULTIPLE local fabric stores?). It's a catch as catch can store, so you never know if there will be wonderful things, or nothing. I lucked out, and found several "pieces des resistances"...one of them was a black faux patent leather croc piece, sort of like this:

It has been marinating in my stash, waiting for the perfect pattern/idea combination. Voila! (I'm clearly not over my motorcycle jacket craze...)

This is a pattern I've had for a while...I tried to make a jacket out of one of my beloved red pontes, only to have a massive FAIL, back in April. The problem was not the pattern, it was a  "wrong fabric/operator error" type of problem. SO... I pulled the pattern out of the corner where I'd thrown it and started again. I made a combination of Views A and B, using a LOT of black and white striped zippers.

Due to the difficulty of sewing on shiny plastic, I consulted my go-to sewing pro, Shams, (AGAIN), and invested  in a couple of Teflon feet for my Bernina; they are fabulous, and open up a whole new vista of leather and faux leather projects. They failed to make the construction EASY, however...to my needle and thread I had to add pliers (hard to get the needle through that black PVC) and, finally,
Gorilla Glue. I wrestled mightily with this project; I also chose to learn how to "bag a lining" and the combination of new techniques and difficult fabric caused me to take two weeks to finish it. Finished, it is, however...and here it is on Ethyl (who I couldn't have made it without)...

I lined it with a black and white striped silk

and here it is on ME...

And, look what I discovered when I was almost finished:

I guess Giorgio's a magpie, too!

Meet ETHYL, my new BFF!

I have been DITHERING, for 15 years, about getting a dress form...I finally did it! She is named Ethyl, and her measurements match mine, except my waist is a little bigger...what a wonderful tool to have!

I jumped back in the sewing mode with M6607, a tunic with a big cowl collar, done in an interesting sweater knit from Casual Elegance.

It looks good on Ethyl, too...

so we will share it...

my old dress form , an antique which was fun to look at, but did not look like me AT ALL...

I am very pleased with Ethyl!!!

A CHALLENGE!

Basking in the glow from my (mostly) successful travel wardrobe for Sicily trip, I have been thrown a challenge...our next trip, in April 2013, is to IRAN. It's supposed to be a beautiful country, full of ancient history and culture, with friendly, welcoming people. So what's the challenge?

THIS is the recommended wear for women tourists to Iran. I can deal with the "long shirt to hide your
bottom",  like this?

The headscarf will be a little harder, but I think I can do it...but the dark, inconspicuous colors? MOI?
I have been doing a lot of research since we decided on our next destination and some of the recommendations I've read say that dark colors aren't necessary, but the whole point (as I can understand it) is to be as unnoticeable as possible. Hard for someone like me. No jewelry, other than a "fake" wedding ring, no bright colors (RED)...ooooh...

I welcome any suggestions from any of you who have traveled in Iran or have Iranian friends (or ARE
Iranian) If you have no suggestions, I welcome your commiseration!

Home from Sicily...and a Travel Wardrobe Review

We're home at last...yesterday at 2:00 AM, after 29 hours en route...unfortunately, our luggage decided to remain in Europe for a few days...Delta has promised me we will get it today (Can you imagine my panic that my Travel Wardrobe would exist only in pictures?)

As some of you may know, my travel blog Where in the World Are We? was pretty much a casualty of the trip; I was able to make one post; there's apparently an iPad/Blogger glitch. Anyway, I'm going to do some after-the-trip posts to show where we were.

On to the Travel Wardrobe Review! I was so impressed with Handmade by Caroline's post-trip critique of her travel wardrobe, I decided to do the same thing.It's always a good idea to know what worked and what didn't.

As you may remember, my TW consisted of this:

along with shoes, accessories, jewelry, etc. (See previous post for details). Well, I wore everything at least once, and consider the planning a success. The only thing which was really superfluous was the

polka dot skirt, and that was simply because I'm not much of a skirt wearer. Sicily was in the middle of a heat wave which affected what I wore the most.

This ikat print top was certainly one of the most worn items...it is lightweight, cool and doesn't wrinkle. I'm so glad I added the black twill ankle pants at the last moment, as I wore them a lot. The "high-tech" fabric from EOS I used for the shell was stellar for washing ease and non wrinkling, but was not suitable for the hot and humid air in Sicily.

This striped tee was also a favorite, it is loosely cut and that always works best in hot climates.

The polka dot pants and red tee were also well-worn... the white pants were surprisingly good...armed with my Tide-To-Go pen and my bleach pen, I wore them at least a half dozen times...

(Incredibly unflattering picture...oh, well...)
The travel jacket with red jeans shown at the top were too heavy for much wear in Sicily...I did wear them for a fancy restaurant dinner in Syracuse...

ditto for my silver vest...

My Marcy Tilton tunic worked well...

as did the Babette shirt (no pics) and the mesh polka dot shirt.

So....

1. I wish I had taken a long or 3/4 sleeve white lightweight tee (the silk tee was too heavy)

2. My white cotton non-wrinkle shirt from Orvis performed AMAZINGLY

3. The microfiber separates from Marcy Tilton were great, and not hot at all.

4. Next time I'll take some Eucalan to do my laundry; it doesn't need rinsing

Great trip...fabulous food and wine, incredible Greek and Roman ruins, good travel group, my purse was stolen and RETURNED (minus small amount of money) intact...and, best of all, my lost suitcase was just delivered...YAY!