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So!
I have some new-to-me clothes and some straight-up NEW clothes. And I also have some fabric.

I have turquoise cotton fabric to make a shift/sheath dress (same style as my pink one that I made a few years ago), turquoise corduroy-esque fabric to make a skirt - maybe one like this - and we'll see if I have extra left over for anything else.
I've also got 2m of heavy black suiting fabric with a tone-on-tone geometric glittery print, which I used to lengthen my GGLA gown, and I'd like to make a suit-like ensemble with it. A bit like if you crossed this with this and/or this.
Basically, I want a knee-length, possibly-asymmetrical, mermaid skirt with a matching cropped jacket with full-length sleeves.
I can figure out the skirt. I might even have a pattern I can tweak to get it to do what I want.
And I can probably make the body of the jacket, even if I have to do it in a fairly wasteful way where I make a boxy jacket and then tailor it so that it has a bit more shaping. But the sleeves are scaring me to death. I've only done sleeves once, and they wound up puffier than I'd like (it was for the black-net bolero/shrug I made to go with my wedding gown in 2012, so that extra poof was fine... it's just it was also not quite what I was going for and I'm not sure how to avoid that when working with heavier material).

So that's what's on my mind. >.>

I am now the trepedatious owner of a dress-maker's dummy.
It's... okay.
Easier to work with than trying to pin a shirt while I'm wearing it, I will give it that much. But I have to pad the waist out a bit in order to get it to be me-sized. (The tits are fine in their lowest setting, and the hips have been appropriately adjusted, but the waist is a problem).

I've got a purple blouse on it, now, which I've pinned (for the second time) to the point of fitting reasonably.

My question is: How do you make (or taylor) a blouse so that (a) it fits when your arms are at your sides, but (b) allows you to raise your arms without pulling the whole damn blouse with you?
Help?
Suggestions?
This thing where I can't (elegantly) get things off of high shelves without having to adjust my clothing significantly is... irritating. I want full range of motion, dammit! :-P

Sleaveless blouses and knit shrugs. That's the way to go. :-P

I am, once again grumbling about not knowing what my "personal style" is.
I mean, I know what I default to. Cotton tank top, cotton (ideally) skirt of around knee-length, and a cotton (ideally) cardigan if it's chilly out.
And that's fine for what it is.

But it doesn't dress up very well. ( cut to spare the details for those who aren't that interested )