I’ve been playing librarian all weekend, scanning things and researching pattern publications and catalogs. It’s been a great way to distract myself from this weird cold/sinus thing and to play around learning some image editing software. Getting serious about the Etsy shop idea, as most of the stuff I’ve hoarded collected is just too cool to sit on my bookshelf, and a lot of it is really hard to find, in a fragile state, etc., so digitizing it is a good idea. But reading through so much style awesome all weekend has me sort of paralyzed as far as sewing projects. I want to sew ALL. THE. THINGS.
What’s odd is that I’m somewhat oblivious to contemporary trends. It seems like they tend to emerge more clearly in hindsight, anyway, and I’m not at all interested in trying to fit in with any given moment. It’s more like I’m seeking to craft a style using history as a medium for creative expression by picking and choosing from the great designs of the last century. Cascade-y shirt openings seem like a thing now, and I’m seeing more palazzo style pants in drapey, light fabrics with lots of movement. So that’s cool, I guess. Otherwise it’s a sort of blur of skinny pants and weird shapes in jersey and more skin than I like to expose. *shrug* Not a big fan of jersey clingy things either because they make me feel like a walking lumpy sack of potatoes bulging out where I don’t want to.
Anyway, I need some high waisted 30s style swooshy palazzo pants/beach pajamas in my life. (High waisted pants are the friend of the narrow hipped woman with a large stumpy torso who doesn’t want obvious muffin top. Ahem: moi.) And a secretary blouse with kimono sleeves. And now that I *sort of* can digitally pattern draft, I’m going to work on doing those in a pdf format.
Some images of beach pajamas from the 30s for inspiration:
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Image sources, clockwise from left: (here), (here), (here) and (here).
Swoon. I love the ones with a triangular shaped wide waist section (would it be considered a yoke?) in particular. And for the secretary blouse:
The final photo is from Vince Camuto (here) and definitely has a vintage feel with the front shoulder gathering, and the pants it’s paired with have a nice, light beachwear vibe too. Another possibility is the slightly more fitted weskit style (from Etsy here):
Happy weekend!
a word is elegy to what it signifies 
