Trip Pictures and Wardrobe Critique

It will take awhile for me to get all the pictures I want to share up on my blog. I made the mistake of trying to download all of the trip pictures to Flickr, just so I could go through them and choose the ones I wanted to post, but I went over my monthly picture limit, I guess. I had no idea I had a monthly picture limit!?

Since some of you wanted to know about my travel wardrobe, I think I’ll start with that. Overall, I loved my travel wardrobe.  I was able to travel light (one rolling carry-on and a tote bag that slipped over the handles of  the carry-on). I saw so many people struggling with copious amounts of luggage. I’m so glad I’ve finally figured out how to pack. This is what I took:

2 ponte knit pants (one taupe, one black)

1 ponte knit skirt (black)

1 knit dress (black)

3 knit cardigans (one taupe, one black, one brown)

7 knit tops in assorted color to mix/match with bottoms (most of them worn 2 times)

1 Babette blouse (the crinkly kind that doesn’t wrinkle when it’s folded ’cause it’s already wrinkled)

1 raincoat with detachable hood

2 infinity scarves

1 skinny belt

enough underwear for half the trip (I handwashed one time about midway through the trip)

3 bras (one was on me during flight over there, and yes, I did wear them two days each)

1 pair of black tights (I never wore them)

3 pairs of shoes (one semi-athletic shoe for hiking that I wore on the plane and two very crushable flats – Kenneth Cole Gentle Souls – highly recommended)

make-up and toiletries (very pared down)

I wore a Lucy athletic workout-type thingy on the plane, both to and fro. I never washed the pants or skirt or dress or cardis.  That was kind of hard for me, but it worked and I think it’s a must if you want to travel light and not spend your entire trip at the “lavendaria”.

The knits were perfect and I would definitely travel with knits again.  They wrinkled in the suite case, but the wrinkles hung out very quickly so I never felt like a wrinkled mess.

The ponte knit was a mixed bag. It is very comfortable and the wrinkles hang out, but my taupe ponte knit did pill after awhile. It was a 75% rayon, 22% nylon, and 3% lycra ponte that I got at a local fabric store.  The black ponte was the “black butter” I purchased from Marcy Tilton. Marcy doesn’t always indicate the exact fabric content for her fabrics, but this was called a ponte knit. It had a very different feel than any other ponte I’ve worked with – a lot beefier and not as drapey. This ponte did not pill and held it’s shape through many wearings.  The taupe ponte began to lose its shape toward the end of the trip (but I wore those pants many, many times so I’m not complaining).

The thing that bothered me the most was the pilling.  Next time, I would take some kind of brush to get rid of the pills.  Other than that, I was pretty satisfied with how well the wardrobe worked.  Here are some pictures:

These pictures were all taken in Lucca, a beautiful town.  This is enough for now.  I’ll post some more tomorrow.