Sent Packing!

At last I've got round to starting to pack my Goa bag today. I hate choosing holiday clothes and find it so hard to whittle down my enormous wardrobe into a tiny canvas bag.

Rather than selecting individual items I plan the entire outfit and pack them together, no chance then of forgetting a pair of earrings or the right belt. The house where we stay only has a tiny mirror over the sink and it's essential to get the outfit right at home as I have no idea of what I look like when I'm there.

1970's polyester maxi dress (20p from a jumble sale) worn with a handmade hair flower, a choker bought from a Lamani gypsy in Karnataka and heaps of bangles.

I usually take five dresses for a three week trip and as they are mostly synthetic they can washed and dried outside within a couple of hours. My hair is worn up in a topknot during the day and either covered with a scarf or decorated with a flower clip and it's left loose and tousled at night.

Vintage cheesecloth sundress (Courtesy of my darling Helga), Tooled leather bag (Car boot sale), Embellished leather thong sandals (Street market, Tamil Nadu), Vintage Ted Lapidus sunglasses (Acorns Hospice)

My beach bag doubles as my hold baggage. I travel in closed-in footwear and change into sandals when I land. I learnt my lesson a few years ago when we changed planes in Paris and I had to walk through 7 inches of snow in flip flops after disembarking from the Mumbai flight. Never again.

Vintage ethnic print sundress (£3.95 YMCA) worn with a suede Country Casuals belt (50p Age Concern) and heaps of ethnic and vintage jewellery

We take two bags with us and put half our clothes in each, that way if a bag gets lost in transit we still have our own clothes to wear.

Vintage St Michael Bri-Nylon nightdress (Charity stall on flea market £1) worn with a 1970's denim waistcoat and a bronze headband (Boots' The Chemist 99p bargain bin)

I never buy new clothes for my travels, everything's old and well-loved and most of it has been to India many times.  I try everything on first to ensure that it still fits and requires no running repairs. I've spent a couple of hours today sewing over the hems, replacing old elastic and taking in seams.I don't want to be wasting valuable holiday time stitching.

Vintage Berketex maxi and matching scarf (eBay 99p) worn with huge hoop earrings (courtesy of the divine Helga) and my gorgeous Swedish Hasbeen clogs (Courtesy of the beautiful Sarah Misfit)

So that's the dresses sorted, it's separates, toiletries and books next.