above; this is me, shopping in Mood… eeeek!!! #dreamcometrue
So, during our April holiday in Japan, my lovely friend Yoshimi suggested an idea; that she and I meet in the US for a short holiday together; to go fabric shopping and to meet with sewing friends who we have both known for years but not actually “met” yet… I didn’t have to think for very long because I thought it sounded like lots of fun!
Time away:
14 days
Where to:
San Francisco and New York City, USA
Season:
early autumn, with expected daily temperatures of around mostly 21-24C to one glorious day of 28C
Expected activities:
mostly visiting and hanging out with fellow sewing enthusiasts in the US! we planned for exploring the city, fabric shopping, museum and art gallery visits, and also for one day of bike riding along the shoreline of San Francisco and across the Golden Gate bridge.
Colour scheme:
no particular colour scheme, just my regular palette of neutral/autumnal shades. I picked things that I thought went nicely with my new deep green canvas jacket, which turned out to be a good plan because I ended up wearing it every day.
What I packed:
(from left to right, top to bottom, the number in brackets after each item is the number of times it got worn… all items are linked to their original construction post. I made everything here except for the shoes, the ivory scarf and my gold handbag)
bottle green canvas jacket (14)
white cropped top and “autumnal” skirt (1)
cockatoo print top and skirt (3)
floral dress (3)
mustard merino tee (2)
forest green twist top (2)
white shirt & purple top with leather sleeves (3) pictured together just because I always wore them together
ivory scarf (5)
blue-grey cardigan (3)
bookshelf skirt (3)
striped tee (1)
blue 3/4 trousers (4)
pink raincoat (0)
white sandshoes (8)
black booties (6)
green thongs (0)
black tights x2 (6)
a selection of sockettes (8)
gold handbag
white sunhat (0)
yellow bathers (0)
not pictured; my underwear, pyjamas, toiletries bag, knitting bag
My daily outfits:
or; more messy-looking but definitely more “authentically”…
Thoughts:
Overall I was very happy with the clothing I took, I think I took just the right amount of stuff actually, and wore things pretty evenly. I’ve already waxed poetic about my new Sienna jacket so will not repeat myself by raving afresh here… but, it was for sure the MVP!
The only time I miscalculated my outfit was the day we rode over the Golden Gate bridge… everyone warned us it would be cold and we’d need to rug up. Well, it was actually pretty hot and I sweltered in my merino tee and trousers! I had to go hide behind a tourist bus and sneakily strip my merino tee off from under my, thankfully rather loose and baggy striped tee because I thought I was going to legit DIE of heat exhaustion. Overly dramatic? MOI?!
I loved wearing my cockatoo outfit… it got quite a few compliments, and not just from sewing friends who “knew” it from my blog! I always feel good wearing it anyway, it’s quite unique and interesting; and especially being overseas it felt like a little bit of Australiana too, which made me happy.
I’d made my new Nicola Finetti outfit too, and this was absolutely perfect for that one very warm day in San Francisco. Oh! I was so glad of that one warm day! It would have been perfect if we’d had another warm day for when I met with the New York sewing peeps too, but oh well, c’est la vie. It was ok because I wore one of my favourite dresses that day, the floaty floral number pictured at top, so that was fine. btw, I took that sneaky selfie in Mood fabrics… propped my phone up on a handy roll of fabric and set the timer. It’s not a good photo at all; grainy, badly lit, off kilter and blurry, and I totally love it for all those reasons!
Was there anything I packed that was not the slightest bit useful? Well, my bathers, hat, pair of thongs, and my raincoat; lay completely undisturbed in the suitcase and did not get worn, even once! Four things!! Now, normally I hate packing and taking things for nothing, because of the waste of suitcase space; however I’m not too devastated this time. For one; it’s always a good idea to take bathers I reckon, just in case; they don’t take up much room. There was no need for them but hey, no biggie. And thongs, for the same reason. My hat; well, I dunno, just being in a sophisticated city environment kinda disinclines me to wear something as touristy as a hat. Yes of course I AM a tourist, true, but still I didn’t want to wear it. And not needing my raincoat was a good thing! We were so lucky with lovely fine weather the entire time!! …
Yoshimi, Claudine, Peter, moi , Carolyn ….. btw Claudine’s jumper is one she knitted herself, using wool she spun herself, from the raw fleece if you don’t mind! and then dyed herself too… WHAT A WORK OF ART I ASK YOU!!!
So, I’ve already posted pictures of the ladies we met in California, and it gives me so much pleasure to post these pictures of the New York sewing peeps we met too! As with the California girls, so many of these people I have admired and followed for about a decade and it was so amazing and fantastic fun to meet for real! I’m so grateful to Carolyn, of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic for organising a fabulous fabric shopping day out together with Claudine, Peter, Caroline and Carol, and to Sonja and Yvette for coming out to meet us for dinner later at Carolyn’s favourite restaurant Brendan’s. It was such a wonderful day!
with Carol and Yoshimi in Mood… hehe, that thing behind us made me laugh when I noticed it creepily photobombing our picture!
below: Caroline, Claudine, Yoshimi, Carolyn
Earlier in our NY sojourn, we met up with the fabulous and very funny Marcy in the beautiful Grand Central Terminal! I wish we could have gone fabric shopping with her at her favourite wax print store too!
and we had the most delightful breakfast and visit to Lucy’s Grocery Store with Kyle and Tomasa. It was such a joy to chat at length with these two lovely ladies!
Honestly, meeting sewing friends was the purpose and happily also the highlight of my trip; and dare I say it? even eclipsed the fabric shopping at such a worldwide sewing mecca as Mood, if that is possible. And the fabric shopping in the Garment District is indeed an amazing experience. I have no words actually. It’s truly overwhelming, and everything you’ve ever read about the stores, the size of places like Britex and Stonemountain and Daughters in San Francisco, and the spandex shop and Mood in NYC, the stuffed-full-ness; the sheer ungodly number of bolts of fabric which must surely number up in the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands… Pacific Trimming alone, oh my god. What wouldn’t I give to have THAT haberdashery heaven in easy reach?!
OK, I said I had no words, and yet there ended up to be quite a few words after all… Ha!
Finally, Yoshimi was the most delightful travel companion and I’m so happy and grateful that she suggested we take this lovely trip together. I had so much fun and I sure hope she did too. Thank you so much Yoshimi! for your friendship, and I hope we can take another trip together, some day!
randomly; another favourite ootd selfie … I sneakily took this one in the NewYork Met by propping my phone against my bag, on a handy seat… Sneaky!!
Now, seeking a random opinion…usually when photographing my travel wardrobe I lay everything out on the floor, as in the kind of “floor-drobe” that I used to have to steel myself to confront when entering my teenagers’ bedrooms… and this time I tried draping everything neatly over Jane, so it all looks nice and neat and clean and clear. What do you think? Is this preferable to the usual floor-drobe? Or is it not as “real?
versus
yes, I did both…
Likewise, my daily outfit pictures… I think putting the outfits on Jane gives a clear and clean and well-detailed overview of the items and how they go together, and definitely looks quite “nice” compared to my real life pictures where you might not even be able to see details very well. On the other hand, the “real” pictures are, well, REAL.
versus
It’s ok, there’s no “right answer, but still; which do you prefer?
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