Windshirts 1, 2, and 3. #1 has donated its sleeves to lining another jacket, and its zip and trim to #3. #2 has its own story to tell.

Last week I finally got around to making a new windshirt (#3) from fabric I bought about 3 years ago. I dug out the toile and pattern I made for the last one, and off we went. We? Me and Flora, my 1951 Singer. The first challenge (there are always challenges) was that I had only bought a metre of fabric, which meant that I had to be creative with the layout of the pattern pieces. Front and back were fine, but the sleeves had to be pieced – although there was enough fabric, it wasn’t in the right shape to cut them in one piece each. So a good bit of footering was had. Then I remembered the piece of pretty trim I’d attached to the very first windshirt I’d made, back in 2013, and I dived into the stash. Out it came, and with it so many memories.

Bolivia, November 2013. Purple Pertex from Pennine Outdoor; the first outing for #1.

Peru, Atacama Desert, November 2013. With the fabulous hat made for me by the lovely Marie.

Peru, Atacama Desert, crossing into Chile, 23 November 2013. Just over a week later I had a disagreement with a surveyor’s post in roadworks, ending up in hospital to have my broken elbow pinned. I do my own stunts.

Bolivia, High Andes, January 2015. There’s that pretty trim; it came in a bag of offcuts from Pennine Outdoor back in the mists of time. Dry potatoes and dry, chewy bits of meat. It was that, or starve.

Peru, November 2015. I can’t remember what the discussion was about.

USA, Alabama, January 2017

USA, Buescher State Park, Texas, February 2017

USA, Sanderson, Texas, February 2017

USA, Arizona, November 2017

Mexico, Durango, December 2017

Mexico, Guanajuato, January 2018. Definitely fading.

Scotland, Gourock, October 2018

Chile, Puerto Octay, March 2019

Argentina, General Roca, March 2019

Scotland, Cromarty, July 2019

England, Bridgnorth, January 2020. Trauma starting to show in the repaired rip at the hip…

England, Bridgnorth, January 2020

Spain, Huelva, March 2020. Windshirt #2 makes its first appearance. Check the date. We didn’t know then the chaos that was to come.

Portugal, Cabo de Roca, 14 March 2020. 3 days before we had to run for home ahead of the border closures.

Scotland, Fa’side, February 2021. Still in lockdown.

English Border, Berwick upon Tweed, May 2021

Scotland, New Aberlour, April 2022

Portugal, Praia de Mira, March 2023. A return to Portugal to continue our interrupted journey.

Portugal, Redondela, April 2023

Ireland, Mullingar, May 2024

France, Calais, May 2024

Germany, Wischhafen, June 2024

Germany, Kiel Canal, June 2024

Denmark to Norway ferry, July 2024

France, Tours, November 2025. It’s always at the top.

France, Massieux, 19 November 2025. Ahhh. The fateful day. A few hours after this picture was taken, windshirt #2 had to be cut off in the hospital at Givors, France.

But I couldn’t leave it like that. Once I’d recovered enough to wield scissors and drive Flora, I mended it. Battle scars, like mine!

Battle scars and stories aside, it was perhaps time to make something a little smarter. Enter Windshirt #3. Zip and trim salvaged from Windshirt #1.