Travel clothing

Must contain (at least) one pocket:

And as Susan Brubaker Knapp pointed out in a recent Quilting Arts article, it is even better if you can continue to stitch it during your trip. Wear it; stitch it; wear it; stitch it. What a great formula.

Here is Susan's denim jacket:

Susan started with a thrift store jeans jacket that she embellished into an entirely unique piece, mostly using intense stitch. This traveling project took two years! I think it is just beautiful.

My travel vest started with a remnant of denim from my Sandra Betzina pants plus the Sewing Workshop's Peony vest. BTW, I see that TSW has it on sale for $12 right now. The current rendition of the pattern contains only the one vest. My version contained two, the Poppy and the Peony.

As you can probably see, the Peony is composed of just a few main pattern pieces - back, left front and right front. Because I was short of fabric, I cut two left fronts. I also extended the left fronts by about 2.5 inches down the center front, just because I had enough fabric to do so. I figured I could always cut it off later. I also raised the arm hole because it is very deep. It is still pretty deep.

Looking at the scraps remaining I decided to add a collar and a pocket. The collar had to be pieced front 3 pieces but it was fairly easy to line one seam up with the center back, and line the other up with my front top-stitching.

At this point it is ready to pack. It has one pocket, but I'll add more. It is finished and can be worn. It can even be worn after I start the decorative stitch. What fun. Thanks to Susan for a very clever idea.