My Work Wardrobe... suggestions?

My Work Wardrobe by snarkypants

My work is technical (read: messy), which means that my clothes have to be tough, easily laundered, with little ornamentation. Most of my (male) coworkers wear khakis/jeans and polo shirts. I'm also a plus-sized girl who wants to look feminine. I'm on my feet for 8+ hours a day, on concrete floors, hence the Dansko clogs (which are OMFG fabulous). If I'm in the lab (say 1/3 of my time) I have to wear steel-toes (Florsheim loafer-style) and remove all jewellery and/or scarves.

I never know from day to day whether I may be called in to the lab, regardless of the schedule, so skirts are kind of out of the picture; they look ridiculous with steel-toed loafers, if nothing else.

I've found that v-neck tops and 3/4 sleeves are most flattering to me; I've collected L.L. Bean v-neck 3/4 t-shirts (lovely heavy stuff) in a variety of neutral and pastel shades for work. I avoid front-pleat trousers like the plague. I don't wear black or navy trousers because of the practical issues with having a black & white dog and a black & white cat (there's no way to completely obliterate the hair; I've tried for years). Khaki and grey and tweeds work just fine.

In short, I think I'm making every choice I can think of to suit the exigencies of my lifestyle, my job, femininity and being plus-sized, but I'd welcome advice from others!

Firescreen, Day 4

I begin to deviate from my pattern today. The leaves at the top and sides will be covered by the frame, which wasn't the idea at all. So I'm going to rinse the soluble marker off and re-draw the leaves. Eh. Win some, lose some.

Firescreen, Day 3

It's coming together.

Mea culpa...

Mea culpa... I just realized that I got my "original" idea for this project from here, "Kitchen Calamities" by Kristin Mary. No disrespect intended; I loved the series when I first saw it, and even gushed over how cool it is. And then I woke up to a new world and thought my idea was mine alone.

Color me crushed. :'(

1:3 Scale 18th Century Firescreen

This is a step-by-step of an embroidered firescreen to be used as an accessory/photo prop for my Dollfies. The square in the picture is about 3" x 3". I based the design on some miniature crewel designs in this tragically out-of-print book, Miniature Embroidery for the Georgian Dolls' House by Pamela Warner. I bought an actual-Dollfie-scale (1:3 scale) 18th-century-style firescreen from eBay about a year ago, and it has no screen in it, so it is up to me to fix that. You know, eventually.

How much do I lurrve the water soluble pen? I need to make changes to the leaves, so I'll stitch to the need-to-be-changed part and then rinse and re-draw. Ba-da-bing!

The above 2 photos were Day 1.

After Day 2. I worked on it for about 30 minutes today, during breaks.

I'll post updates here, and when it's finished and assembled I'll be sure to share!

I've been trying to collect 1:3 scale 18th-century-looking pieces. I need to make a dress for my female doll, and an appropriate outfit for my male doll.