As far as bathing suits go, this one is pretty bleh--drop-waisted bathing suits flatter no one, not even this preternaturally thin Vogue illustration lady--however, all will be forgiven because CAPE!!

The pink version would be rad made up in shin vinyl, like a raincoat (raincape?), but the best part of the envelope is View B, wherein the Vogue illustrator gave up the silly notion that any woman would wear such a cape for any purpose other than to be a Bohemian French spy. She is clearly none other than Madame Clouseau on her way home from a jewel heist and clandestine tryst.

In other news, I have finished (finally) the dress I've been working on. I'd provide a photo, but I'm too lazy to get up and find the dress or the camera. It came together well, although I had to do some last minute taking in of the bust, as well as some extra bust gathers, to make it fit at the top. I had planned to cut the dress I'm making for Bronwyn today--it's a Vogue repro design and I'm doing it up in this fabric:


Yes, those are tiny books. Tiny red books. You can't see it in this picture, but they are tiny red books that have little covers reading "LABOR." It's going to go swimmingly!

I hear kids are experimenting with shortness these days...

There are a bunch of really lovely mod designer patterns over at MomsPatterns right now. Most of them are not in my size, or not in my style, but are really lovely to look at. I'm particularly taken with this one [*EDIT* upon re-reading this, it sounds like I think this is a mod design, which it isn't. Most of the others are, this one is anomalous. But for serious, lots of chic, funnel-necked mod frocks with oblong hats to be found]:



I love the sunny yellow and the floral version too--it's beautiful. Unfortunately for me, I'm way too short to pull it off. It would look like a bad nightgown on me, and the sleeves would completely overwhelm my wimpy little arms and puny shoulders. Alas for a bit of height, for this is exactly the sort of dress my sister (who has my proportions exactly, but stretched over a 5'7-8''ish frame) or my mama (ditto) can pull off in a snap. They also have the hair for it. While my straight-as-sticks Molly McIntire hair would be at odds with the free-spirit-yness of this, they both have naturally curly hair that's made for a wreath of flowers and a floor-length floral frock.

Also, it has pockets.

It's definitely a step up from the CHUB-DEB.

WANT

Want. Want. Want.

Firstly, I would like to note how very similar it is to a pink dress given to me by one Ms. Julianna Rose Dow, that to this day is one of my favorite items of clothinks.

However, I am more obsessed with it because of its similarity to the dress worn by Deborah Kerr (swoon!) here:



Yes, there are dissimilarities, but mostly on the plus side, don't you think? The sleeves are definitely better on this pattern, and the tiny jacket that isn't a bolero is kind of all sorts of awesome, don't you think? Unfortunately, the Etsy seller currently holding this beautiful Kimono-sleeved delight hostage has it in B36. (And, yes, I know that I could just resize it. But seriously, if I buy it intending to do that I will just sit around not doing it for years and the whole thing will go to waste. I'll only be depriving some bustier lady the joy of using it)

A more accurate version of the Kerr dress is this one:



Which I have been keeping an eye on for a while, because it is my size, and then it dropped in price and I almost bought it, except that it is a pre-cut perforated pattern and I don't know if I could handle the technical aspects of it in a perforated pattern.

Sigh. I guess my dreams of singing in French to Gramma Janou are all for naught. At least for now.