Sewing: using a mundane shirt pattern for a hiking shirt

Hello, everyone.

I strolled through the posts of the Camino Portugues from 2015 and discovered that, while I have a picture of this blouse in action, it didn't make the blog.

This blouse was from a Burda magazine pattern. It has short sleeves, a keyhole front neck, and is otherwise a straightforward blouse.

The solid was a lightweight poplin, sadly with  DWR coating, easy to cut but did like to fray a bit. The mesh, seen in this photo being fitted with some stabilizing fabric before being attached to the bottom part of the back, was a stretch mesh. Like the poplin it was from Fabric.com.

I added a back yoke to the blouse by cutting the back bodice piece in two, then added seam allowance to the bottom part where the cut was, and to the top part, and then tracing a longer piece with a hem allowance. The top part, which was underneath, was cut from the mesh for breathability. The longer piece, which was over the mesh, was of the main blouse fabric. It was sewn at the shoulders and sleeve and of course at the neck. The hemmed top piece was tacked in the middle of the back so it wouldn't fly all over. (I did mention that the fabric was lightweight!)

Overall, the works well. The fabric is semi-sheer so works better with a light colored bra underneath. It doesn't breathe other than the mesh panel in back, because of the DWR coating mentioned above. Also the little keyhole in front wasn't easy for me to get just right on the button loop size. (Button loop was made from a piece of the blouse fabric, just a simple bias tube.)  But I found a button that worked with the loop I had.

Other times I have tried this trick haven't worked as well. It's important to consider what kinds of stabilizer you're using in seams. This goes double if you're adding in extra pockets! It's also, I think, better to use a blouse pattern than a tank pattern--well, if you have one of the Saf-T-Pockets tank patterns you're good to go. Those pockets are worked out already. Just use a lightweight fabric, preferable breathable.

It's fun to make gear for the Camino. It uses up stash if you already had some mesh or ripstop around the place, and it lets you think about the next Camino you're going to walk.

March in south Texas

Hello, everyone.

This is a picture of my garden this spring. We are well into the season now.

The green things at the front are Tuscan kale. They're really good in soup.

The tomatoes are cherries, Indigo Rose is the variety. They taste really good, so when local stores didn't stock them this year I ordered seeds. They turn very dark blue in the sunshine!

The red leaves are kale, too. I wanted some color for salads.

There were red radishes but they're almost all harvested now. I  might plant the extra tomato and kale plants into the former radish rows.

In other places there are some basil, some cilantro, and one lone parsley plant. (None of the others came up.) There are beans in two rows and another row of dill has been planted. Also there are some lettuces and arugula.

I like to sit in the afternoon and look at the garden and think about its progress.

Soon enough the nights will be very warm and the days will be hot. The garden will go dormant for the summer. Then I will sit inside in the afternoon and remember the cool days walking on the Camino.

Camino del Norte memories: Ribadeo

Hello, everyone.

As mentioned in the last post, we walked pretty-much straight from Tapia to Ribadeo. Ate tortilla at a tiny hotel on the way, which overlooked a beautiful beach, and kept going.

This is a view of the bridge we crossed entering Ribadeo.

It's a long one, isn't it? But there is a pedestrian walkway and it's not scary. Just don't look down if you're afraid of heights. The bridge is solid and it didn't rumble or sway with traffic. And you come into Ribadeo at the height of the town, too! They did seem to have one of those elevators in the town, but we didn't wander over to check it out. The harbor is much lower than the rest of it.

This is the church bell tower from across the park.

We were glad to have a short day and the opportunity to rest a little, along with using the washateria (lavandaria) for our clothes.

Camino del Norte memories: Tapia de Casariego

Hello, everyone.

I was playing with picture files on my computer, trying some of them in grayscale, and thought I'd see if a picture from Tapia had been posted on the blog already. 

Possibly not. The visit/pass through at Tapia was included in a note about Ribadeo with very little detail.

Tapia has a municipal albergue. It is famous for the scenic view. (Otherwise it is quite basic. And heaven help you if you are there on a Sunday when fewer things are open. Tapia is a very small place.) It is one of the albergues where, if you start your day with fresh tape, you have to go outside and hope the sunlight is enough.

We got some photos of the sunrise from the albergue before we left. I converted one to grayscale and cropped out the invisibly-dark grass at the bottom. This is what was left:

So, if you're very visually oriented, this is what you can see on a spring morning in Tapia as the sun comes up.  The little flash in the rock is a tunnel carved there by the waves.

We met a very nice lady on our way out of Tapia. She told us about roofing styles (being in the architecture business and concentrating on roof design) and after that we were more aware of the slate vs tile roofs of the regions as we walked. She said that the old Camino had not gone straight to Ribadeo, but south along the river through various villages to another bridge, and then back north.  She said it was very pleasant and scenic. Perhaps if we walk the Norte again we will go that way!

We were, frankly, eager to get to a place with a washateria and get some laundry clean, so we elected to go straight to Ribadeo, crossing the high bridge--using the pedestrian walkway, it wasn't all dangerously scary--and getting there early. We then chose a hotel that was close to the washateria and got busy making ourselves look more human.

FYI, Ribadeo on I think it was Monday, doesn't have an open Turista office. (Kind of like museums, really.) The nice police people gave us a map and stamped our credenciales IIRC. Ribadeo was a pretty town to stroll through and admire the buildings and park.

Cute little pouch

Hello, everyone.

In January, our sewing club made these little pouches.

They're a great place to keep the little clips. (Wonder Clips are a great hit, especially with people who aren't super in love with pins to begin with, because they will hold the fabric pieces still while the seam is sewn. I haven't really gotten used to them yet, but they are neat.) The pattern isn't really expensive, either.

We had a lot of fun and discovered how to use only one side of the zipper for a whole closure.

The bluebonnet fabric outside, the green inside, and the zipper were all from stash. If I had another zipper pull the right kind and size, I could even get two pouches from one zipper.