One of the rare occasions when I stand in front of my me-made wardrobe and complain that I have ‘nothing to wear’ is when I’m getting ready to spend the day on an airplane. I have some upcoming trips this fall so I decided to make an outfit for airplane travel with part of my Cali & Co. fabric allowance. I’ll be flying economy, since I spend too much money on fabric to fly first class. Here are my issues: I don’t want to wear jeans. I have knit dresses and skirts but they are all knee-length or shorter, which make it hard to contort myself into a comfortable position without flashing the stranger next to me. For the record, I am not anti-leggings, which I know are a great option for a lot of people, but I rarely wear leggings outside of my apartment. When I visit family on the East Coast, I usually land right around happy hour, so my dear parents pick me up from the airport and whisk me right to the nearest brew pub, and I like to feel as if I’m dressed to go out for a casual dinner.
My plan was to make a knit midi or maxi dress – comfortable, casually cute, more coverage than a skater dress – and a cardigan to wear over it.
For the cardigan I used the SBCC Cabernet cardigan pattern. I’m not a big cardigan person – neither wearing nor sewing. I’ve made this once before and was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out – I was skeptical of sewing buttonholes onto a knit, amongst other things, but it is a nice, versatile pattern and I like the V-neck style. I used the black heavyweight ponte do roma, which is probably the best quality ponte I’ve found online. Not sure if it has been featured by the Cali Blog Squad yet, but I always buy a couple of yards whenever Cali Fabrics has a sale. It’s quite sturdy, has good stretch and recovery, and I’ve used it for everything from jackets to maternity pants (for a friend) and now a basic cardigan.
For my dress I used everybody’s favorite – double brushed poly. I like DBP and all, but am kind of surprised at how it’s exploded in popularity. Cali Fabrics stocks a wide variety for all the DBP superfans out there, and it’s been featured before by the bloggers so I’ll spare you a repeat of the details. In sticking with my “give florals a chance” theme this month, I selected this wine-and-roses fabric. The roses remind me of tattoo art, and the wine color matches my hair right now.
I sewed up a modified version of the Colette patterns Myrtle dress. I live in this pattern all summer, so I know it will work. I converted the top into a racerback with a halter front from the original wide neckline. I added length to make it a midi, which is not a length I usually wear because it stumpifies me, but it fit my travel requirements of not too short. The fabric is a great choice because this stuff does not wrinkle – not a lot of knits wrinkle, really, but you can sit on DBP all day and it never looks rumpled.
Yes, a sleeveless dress and light cardigan for the plane – I’m rarely cold on a flight and don’t pack on the layers. Being overdressed and overheated on a crowded plane at 35,000 feet makes me claustrophobic and anxious, so this is plenty. Once again, I’m strangely happy with the flowers! I feel comfortable and I feel like myself, even in these florals.
So what do you wear when faced with a long day on an airplane? Do you go for comfort over all else? Do you like to do it up ‘Mad Men’ style and dress up? Do you want to look stylish in case you have to use the inflatable emergency slides and you make the news (in that case I’d regret not wearing pants)?