Imminent tripfits

It's only a week until my fortnight's jaunt to Europe, so I thought I'd post a couple of my new tripfits. According to the weather reports it will be around -1 to 11 Celsius across Brussels, France and London (22 - 51F for our non-metric friends). However, as previously mentioned I run a bit hot, so I'm going on the layering theory with some silk thermal undergarments for good measure...

First up is  the Simplicity 4789 Maggy London knot dress out of the giant orchid knit from my Spotlight Knit Shopping expedition:

Comfy, dressy, and rolls up into a nice small space.
I also made a plain black version of McCalls 6081 that can be used as a dress or a skirt. As a dress:

As a skirt, over the top of the orchid dress:

I also made a tiny happy over-the-shoulder bag for walking about the town. I put a zip in, which went in easily and sits rather nicely I am happy to say. It's big enough to fit the iPad in (I put a pocket in). I lined it with green ripstop nylon, but I neglected to take a pic of the lining...

I also bought some more shoes from Amazon. These are the Dansko Savanna which are already lovely and comfortable. Yay for good travel shoes!

I'm also taking the grey ponti pinafore, Citrine (doubleknit travel coat from a couple of years ago), a skirt from the scribble ponti that Kitty made her lovely frock from (it's a plain knit skirt so I haven't taken a pic), and one short sleeve and one long sleeved wrap top from Butterick 5101.

Brocade McCalls 5349 (and another Heidi)

I am going to a wedding this week, on Thursday evening.
I was going to wear vintage Heidi, with a sparkly turquoise crystal necklace, but thinking about the dress code (which is "Fancy"), and seeing what my friends were planning on wearing (umm, Fancy!), I began to doubt myself and think vintage Heidi might be too 'daytime'. I went to the stash and found this chinese brocade I forgot had been given to me, and made McCall's 5349 which I have wanted to make for a long time. With some modifications, this is the result:
I made a plain sash out of the reverse of the brocade, instead of the cummerbund. I love the cummerbund, but the brocade was just too thick to sit properly. The pattern calls for an under-bodice (due to having the sheer overdress option) but I just made a panel and hand-stitched it to the bodice lining for a similar effect. I experimented with using the reverse side of the fabric for the panel, but the dark blue looked better. Here she is without the sash:
The sash has covered buttons and button loops. It's a bit sad that it falls down to my natural waist instead of sitting over the midriff band. Maybe I will tack it on and see how it looks.
A couple of weeks ago I made a quick modified Heidi out of red ponte de roma. Probably not a great idea because the fabric is thick so the pleats are a bit exaggerated, and overlocking and turning the neckline was a pain and didn't turn out so well. Oh and obviously I didn't press it before taking the photos, oops. It's wearable thankfully.