All in a Very Small Bag

Paris Hilton's luggage

I'm almost sure most of you are all well versed in what to pack - and not pack- for a holiday or time away from home. A long time ago I travelled a lot for a job I had way back then - Mon-Fri in Europe and Sat-Sun in London (which was home then). I eventually trained myself to pack for the working week in 10 mins flat on a Sunday evening and never took anything I didn't wear. Lugging heavy suitcases and bags is not my thing, especially when travelling so often. I assume Ms Hilton has a bit of help. Packing well, even for a few days away, seems to be a skill that some people never master.



My parents have just left for a 10 day Mediterranean cruise and first have to catch a flight to Rome to meet the ship. There is a 20kg limit on the hold luggage. My mother couldn't get her case to close so we took everything out and edited her selection. Every colour under the sun was there and at least two pairs of black trousers! So I was ruthless and at long last, after a lot of debating, outfit matching and coordinating, what to wear and when - we managed to get the case to 19.5kg! It has wheels.

Here's my little tip for choosing what to pack.

Always select a colour and choose clothes around it - coordinating and contrasting. Once you have selected all you want - remove half! I mean it, exactly half!  I usually only take about 5 or 6 basic items plus a few accessories but can make at least 12 outfits from this. For the recent trip to Dublin I selected black and cream as my basic colourway. This is what my basics were:

1. Cream cotton jeans, made via Jeanius

2. Marcy Tilton tunic and tunic made as a cardigan

3. Black cropped not quite leggings RTW

4. Draped T-shirt in fabric left over from tunics

5. Cream chiffon RTW blouse

Also a plain black T-shirt and a white camisole

For colour, variation and if it's chilly I always put in some scarves and a few cardigans.

Green  (RTW)

Pink draped top

Black (RTW)

I have a small penchant for Hermes scarves - my little extravagance as I hardly ever buy clothes. They always lift any outfit to beyond ordinary and I always travel with a few. While I'm not suggesting you have to pack Hermes, colourful scarves, belts, shawls and pashminas add to any outfit (and cover any stains).

For dressing up I went all out for colour and put in two dresses - these coordinate with the cardigans so not really extra in my eyes.

On the left a new cotton dress orange & green - to be blogged soon.

On the right the 4 day dress - pink and green.

I also brought the summer Mac to match the 4 day dress.






Most of these clothes do not wrinkle much either so I could roll them up into little packages to stuff into a small(ish) weekend bag. The cotton dresses took up hardly any space and I just hung them in the steamy hotel bathroom on arrival to remove any packing folds. I wore everything.

You always want to leave some space in your bag or case so that you can pack the spoils of shopping on returning home. There is nothing worse than an overstuffed suitcase and loads of plastic carrier bags stacked around it.

Part of my itinerary on the trip to Dublin was to visit fabric shops with every intention of spending a lot of money. I made a very detailed shopping list but like all high expectations it didn't quite live up to what I anticipated. One shop had closed down after 130 years of trading; one was small and expensive; another had a great selection but didn't fit my specific shopping list and the other was out of town, which I never got to visit.

 I did buy a couple of metres of grey cotton jersey to match a patterned jersey for Marcy Tilton's French house dress V8813 and that was it for the fabric shopping. Are you disappointed?

Apart from the poor city centre choice of fabrics I actually spent my money on something else - which necessitated careful budgeting for the rest of the trip.

 We can eat beans until payday.

Tally Ho (Yee Ha)

You could wear your Clovers
with this one

We often associate countries with particularly excellent products: Japanese silk, French lace, Irish linen, Scottish tweed, American cotton; or with distinct qualities: French couture, Italian design, German engineering, British tailoring, American endeavour and Japanese craftsmanship.

So one could be excused for assuming that living within the British Isles access to impeccable tailoring techniques, advice and supplies would be almost commonplace. Saville Row, London is probably the best known address in the world for ordering your handmade suit, having your officer's military dress uniform sewn and braided, and having your bespoke hunt jacket tailored and fitted.




Not a bit of it! This is apparently a secret and closed world and if you want to make a tailored jacket as a home sewer you are obviously not invited.


I've always hankered after a hacking jacket - a checked tweed or wool affair (to keep warm on dawn canters), with slanted front pockets (to keep my pennies in), double back vents (for when I'm galloping through the meadows), fitted (so I look slim) and really, really stylish ('cause I'm vain). Oh, by the way I don't horse ride regularly at all now - just wanted the jacket. I thought of buying one (oh sacrilege!) but they retail at £300 and upwards.

I trawled the internet looking for a pattern, and I mean trawled. I reckon about three week's worth of concerted searching and where did I find the perfect pattern?

Was it England? No
Was it Ireland? No
It was the country of "what do you want and when do you want it" - America!

While I could locate riding-style jackets in most pattern companies' portfolios, I stubbornly wanted the real thing.

I first found Pattern Review during this apparently futile search and MaryB had reviewed a pattern by Jean Hardy - No 107 Dressage Coat in March 2009. This was the only review of the pattern company and after reading her comments I was very apprehensive. Take time to read it yourselves - it's scary!

This is her fantastic jacket she made for her darling daughter. Her perseverance, dedication and obviously excellent sewing skills are testament to her success in completing the job, but this is part of her conclusion in the review


"The process of making this coat was a disharmonic convergence between a mediocre-drafted pattern with confusing instructions and my in-a-hurry inexperience with making a tailored coat. It was hard. I made mistakes."

Jean Hardy 875
Misses Hunt Coat

But in those days I was innocent of the amount of work and technical ability required to pull off such a project and so located Jean Hardy on the Internet and searched their patterns. Unsure as to whether they posted to the UK, I emailed to find out and also asked a few questions about their designs. The people at the other end were lovely, replied promptly and answered all my queries, the most important being, Yes, they did post to UK. I'm a sucker for good customer care, so I ordered immediately.




You obviously have to look down your nose at the stable boys when wearing one of these jackets.










I chickened out when it came to purchasing fabric. I went for a plain, dark brown brushed cotton type of thing not the original plan of a checked (plaid) Harris tweed. I just thought about all those seams and matching up checks (plaids) and hard things like that and went for the easy way out.


MaryB was right. The instructions were OK but I was somewhat, the diagrams were a bit vague though. On the introduction it states: "If you prefer a fully hand tailored coat, refer to a tailoring book...." Now for a girl who is accustomed to Vogue instructions, step-by-excruciating-step, a statement like this is terrifying.


 My measurements spanned three sizes on the measurement chart, so Miss Never-Make-A-Toile(Muslin) - did. Had to take it in quite a bit but used the toile(muslin) as underlining for the shell fabric, so it didn't go to waste.

I did refer to a tailoring book, in fact, Claire Schaeffer Couture Techniques (yet again) and zillions of blogs.





We were having a conversation the other day on Frabjous Couture about the reliability and accuracy of blog tutorials. I can honestly say that without them this jacket would never have been completed.

I had enough fabric left over to make a matching waistcoat (vest) and have the same, but different sized, buttons on it - to make a suit. I also added three smaller buttons on the sleeves but these are just for show.

The flaps on the waistcoat are mock - there are no pockets. It is lined in the same fabric as the jacket.

Better image of the fabric and the welt pocket with flap, that actually fits inside the pocket if wanted - now that was a fluke!

The collar and lapels were pad stitched and sewn on by hand simply because I knew my machine would have PMS and wage war at the exact moment of attachment, so I didn't let it think it had the upper hand.

 The hem is supported with canvas interfacing and I put in chest shields and hair canvas on the fronts.


Double back vent which was amazingly quite easy to do.

My lining is a petrol blue jacket lining so fairly robust with a small square pattern. I liked the contrast between the brown and the blue and ties the jacket in when worn with denim or, as in the right hand pic, with Paco's skirt.




I pulled out all the stops and inserted an inside pocket like a man's jacket with a button-over closure.

Lastly, added the labels and welcomed to the wardrobe.








I love this jacket. It really does go with so much already in the wardrobe. As I hardly ever wear black, dark brown is a good alternative for me.



I will make it again in my fantasy Harris tweed some day, but as the genuine thing costs at least £60 a metre it may be some time.

Next time I'll take it in just a little bit more at the waist so that I look more like the ladies at the top of the page LOL. Oh and I'll work on that haughty, look down my nose appearance for all those stable boys.




Thanks for reading. Ruth

Chanel No 1

When I brought Doris home, patched her up and gave her the honoured position in the sewing room, I thought I had been transported to an atelier in the Rue Cambon. So one of the first projects just had to be a Chanel suit - what else?

I read every blog at the time on Chanel construction techniques and bought the Claire B. Schaeffer books on couture sewing - read cover to cover and back again.

Fearless, and completely innocent I went straight for the shell fabric - no mucking about with toiles (muslins) for me. The pattern was Claire Schaeffer's own couture jacket, which sadly is completely out of print - not even available from the Vogue web page, so I'll have to take great care with mine.

So this gallant premiere main proceeded undaunted - removed the stand-up collar, skipped most of the facings and interfacings for a genuine Chanel look of round neck line and edge to edge lining.

The fabric came from a local fabric shop and I thought at the time that it sort of looked Chanelish - being wool and checked and sort of tweedish.

Construction  went pretty well considering I hadn't a clue. As usual, choosing suitable buttons was beyond me so I opted for the covered version.

The trim was made from lengths of the fabric, sewn over on one edge to stop fraying and then I sat for weeks deliberately fraying the other side, then sat for another few weeks sewing the stuff on by hand.

I'd bought plenty of fabric to allow for mistakes and ended up having enough to make a matching skirt. Pattern for this is forgotten but it's just a straight, below knee (keeping Coco in mind) side zipper skirt.












I think the suit looks more like country English librarian than Parisian chic, so I rarely wear the two together. The jacket is really comfy and goes well with jeans or plain dark brown wide-legged trousers (pants). The skirt is usually worn with a short slim-fitting dark brown suede jacket and dark brown boots.

The sleeves are three piece, with vents.

Handworked buttonholes and covered

buttons that are virtually invisible.

The trim goes all the way around the vent and all the pockets.

For a complete contrast, I made a blouse from the same fabric as the lining - as did Chanel.

Those of you who care about these sorts of things will notice that the 'black' side of the blouse matches the 'black' side of the lining on the left and white on white on the right hand side. That was pure fluke by the way!  The button holes on the inside were bound in this same fabric.

I went a bit anal on the blouse.
On the right is the side seam and I matched up the flowers from front to back - sad.......






Did the whole quilting thing with the lining and of course the famous brass chain for weight. I must admit this really does make a difference to the hang of the jacket, though it weights a tonne when you're carrying it.

I had to do a few other things which I can't really remember now how I did them but I had to edge the hem and the inside neck line with a bias strip because I wasn't following the exact pattern instructions.

Oh, and as I cannot leave a scrap of fabric untouched, the remainder of the blouse fabric became a scarf that ties in a bow at the neck to complete the prim and proper look.

Thanks for reading. Ruth

Paco's Skirt - Finished

I didn't quite get Paco's skirt finished on Thursday, as I'd hoped, but it was done by Friday and worn today, Sunday.

After the debacle with the zip earlier in the week, I managed to get back on track and put the fiasco behind me - onwards & upwards!

The zip did go in (second time round) and it doesn't look too bad. Just that the waistband on the inside is not even, but then, dear readers, only you and I know that. I added a clear button and a thin ribbon at the top for extra security and hand stitched the lining along the zip tape. The lining is quite a heavy stretch fabric but it lends a weight to the skirt that, with this particular jersey, would be otherwise missing. It will also help keep me warm well into winter.

I made a rolled hem and although I know jersey knits don't fray, I thought the extra weight with a double thickness of fabric would help the 'swing' of the skirt.

For this second make of the skirt I cut the Large size (XL first time) and the fit was absolutely spot on - no adjustments needed. You can see from this photo (left) that the waistband matches perfectly on the public side of the skirt, although there is a small gap at the top. I don't think it's that noticeable in real life. And finally, the labels are sewn in and the skirt is welcomed to my wardrobe.

 The half-circle skirt is so versatile and easy to wear that I thought I'd show you some styling suggestions. The model is useless but you get the idea.

Boho hippy:
a gypsy blouse, wide belt,
crocheted long cardigan
and a scarf

Cowgirl / horse riding look
Riding jacket, Hermes scarf & boots

All in Blue
(I look really cross here)
vogue knitted top, belt and the
patchwork denim coat.

 This was church's outfit this morning and I'm just showing off the double vent at the back of the jacket. The jacket is a Jean Hardy (875) riding jacket - details to follow.

But look at the gathers of the skirt!
Just as Paco promised -  the gathers fall evenly all the way around unlike other half-cirle patterns. And just to prove it here is the front (right) and the folds are just like waves - perfect! Thanks Paco.