Sunday, August 21, 2022

What's Wrong With Pink?

I've been doing a deep dive into Barbie history and lore.  And storage cases.  I have opinions about those now!  But most of my ire is reserved for the article I read on CNN the other day talking about "Barbiecore."  Which as a fashion trend pretty much seems to be "wear hot pink."  Which irks me, because if you want the pink end of things, the movie Legally Blonde did it so much better.  And also because Barbie hasn't always been heavily identified with pink!  That started in the 1980s, when everything started to get Needlessly Gendered.  And the color of pink associated with Barbie has only gotten brighter and brighter as time goes on.  I predict that within my lifetime, only shrimp will be able to see the shade that Mattel uses to market their golden girl.

Nonetheless, I finally had enough energy the other day to sew up those three pairs of trousers.


The pink-leaf blouse, alas, turned out a smidge too big for Petite, so her sister gets it instead.  And since I experimented with fully lining it, here's a shot of how that ended up:


It's quite nice, but the plain muslin does add a bit of bulk.  I'm trying to get ahold of a vintage Barbie dress or two to study the seam finishes and see what was used for lining back then, but I keep getting outbid.

Meanwhile!  My next project is inspired by this photo:


The text that goes with the photo says "Hippies dance at a psychedelic rock concert at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, California, early summer, 1967".  And I think this pattern will get me pretty close:


Assuming the illustration is accurate, I might lengthen the pattern just a little bit?  So I looked through my scraps of fabric and found these:


The one on the right would be ideal, but there isn't enough of it.  So maybe the one on the left?  Or, then I found these two:


What do y'all think?  Any opinions?

1 comment: