Light Pants and Light Blouses

Eddie Bauer makes good travel pants for women in a range of sizes, from petite to plus. They have a sale right now, 40% off everything. Maybe something like this:

https://www.eddiebauer.com/p/23151315/women's-departure-ankle-pants?sp=1&color=Dusty%20Violet&size=XL&sizeType=Regular

It appears to be a pull-on style with wide stretch waistband, which is very comfortable for travel.

For a shirt, my favorite lightweight top is the Carve Designs Dylan gauze shirt. It packs very small, dries very quickly when washed, and the gauze fabric is naturally “wrinkled” so looks great. It comes in a wide range of sizes from XXS to XXL. I am giving the link to the REI photo, but you can often find this shirt on sale for $37-$48 on Amazon or the Carve Designs website.

https://www.rei.com/product/163863/carve-designs-dylan-gauze-shirt-womens

I would go with a medium to dark color, and the fabric is very thin and might be a bit “see-through” in the lightest colors.

The only problem with Eddie Bauer is their Petite sizes only go up to Large, although they do have nice selections. You might want to check Talbots - they are having a 70% off sale right now. And their Petite sizes go up to XL or in some cases, the plus sizes. https://www.talbots.com/petite/blouses-and-shirts?srule=price-low-hi&start=0&sz=18

Do you have a particular budget in mind? There is also Chicos, which has a Traveler's Collection of clothes that are wrinkle-free and easy to wear and dry. They do not have Petite sizes but their sizes are flexible (you would probably wear a 3) and my daughter, who is 5'2" wears them comfortably.

Also, if you have a Nordstrom Rack near you, you might want to stop in there and check all their clothes. I almost always find stuff there (and I'm an XL as well). You can also look online at https://www.nordstromrack.com.

Oh I forgot about this - one of the regulars on this forum (Pam from Coeur d'Alene) posted about a shirt she bought at Eddie Bauer that she was raving about. She wore it on one of her trips for 2 weeks - she said it was wrinkle-free, easy to wear, dirt-free (she even rubbed up against a dirty brick wall and nothing stuck) and very wear to wash and dry. I'm planning on getting this shirt for my next trip. As I said, the Petite sizes are smaller than you need, but you could probably get by with the regular XL, since the sleeves are 3/4.

I linked the Eddie Bauer ankle pant because the 28” inseam may be OK in Regular XL. That is what it suggested when I ran her height and weight through the sizer function. If not, maybe she can shorten them.

That is a nice shirt. It doesn’t work for me as even the smallest size it too big. But if Sandy ( or anyone else) likes the Dark Red, the XL is the one size left in clearance, which is an extra 40% off, bringing it down to $36 ( if I did the math right).

I usually travel with a sun shirt from either of the links below. They also have pants. The shirts wash out easily in a sink and dry overnight.

https://www.sunprecautions.com/
https://www.coolibar.com/

Hahaha...thank you Mardee! Yes, I love that Eddie Bauer shirt! I wore it in Italy for 3 weeks and it never showed dirt. At the end I was TRYING to get it dirty - leaned up against walls in the Metro, against grungy garden benches, museum elevators, lol. I wore it over a tee shirt every day as it is 50 UPF.

On that trip I also took LLBean Vista Camp capris. They are lightweight and once I got the right size fit well. I would NOT recommend them however because when I got back home and washed them I realize they'd pilled in the crotch. It ticked me off to pay that much money for something with poor fabric.

You'll have a great time and I'm glad you are looking at packing light!

Pam: Is your Eddie Bauer shirt swishy sounding?

Thanks to Pam and others, I bought that Eddie Bauer shirt last year. I love it so much I just bought another one when it came back in stock. I don’t think it has a swishy sound. I have a short sleeve shirt I bought from EB several years ago for travel and it does have a swishy sound. This fabric is different and has more stretch to the fabric.

On occasion it’s worth looking at buying men’s shirts. Doubt very few individuals notice.

I’ve done it with a Royal Robbins long sleeve Expedition shirt.

@kdh, I agree with Patty. This shirt does not sound swishy and I know exactly what you mean. Eddie Bauer DOES have some swishy sounding fabric though as I went to the outlet to try them on.

I just bought the Eddie Bauer shirt, too - it's on sale right now for $45 and if you sign up for texts (which you can cancel right after) you get $10 off

On occasion it’s worth looking at buying men’s shirts. Doubt very few individuals notice.

Claudia, it would have to be a pretty small man - the OP is 5' tall. 😊

Hi Sandy, I think that we have similarly petite and curvy shapes. My current go-to for pants are from the Kohl’s reasonably affordable Croft and Barrow Effortless Stretch line which comes in a wide range of sizes including petites with some super cute extra short ankle lengths. They were perfect for Paris last April. I’ve never tried to sink-wash them as we usually do laundry at a laundromat once or twice on a three week trip, but they machine wash and dry beautifully.

For tops, I reliably find light-weight, sink-washable and dry-overnight blouses at Old Navy. They are very size inclusive and often a ¾ sleeve blouse is a long sleeve blouse for me!

In my never ending quest for the perfect travel pant, I recently ordered the Eddie Bauer Departure pant linked above. Although they were very comfortable, sadly, I returned them because the fabric was paper thin. The pants were the weight of lingerie and on, they looked too slinky/casual for my taste. I was really bummed because the EB pants met several of my perfect travel pants criteria:
all-day comfortable, at least one usable pocket, easy wash and dry. They just missed the “do they actually look good on me” box.

Currently, I’m waiting for the JJill Pull-on Jeans in the Moon Wash (Black) to become available again in my petite size. I have great hopes for those. Always looking.

Last year, before our trip to Italy, somebody on this forum mentioned Rip Skirts and I thought I'd give it a try. They come in different lengths, sizes and colors and are basically a velco-ed wrap skirt with pockets. I bought a navy one in the below the knee model. It was the thing I wore most on my trip. It was cool, flexible, comfortable and long enough to be comfortable in a church or on a beach. It wash-and-dried like a dream. I can't wait until it warms up so I can start wearing it again.

@kdh and @Pam. I also love the Eddie Bauer Departure long sleeve shirts as well as the Departure ankle pants. I lucked into both pieces at Costco last year. The shirts are not swishy and look more feminine than a similar EB shirt that has large chest pockets and a rip stop fabric. That rip stop fabric is very noisy! The Departure pants are light and have decent pockets. I am 5’2” and they fit me more like slim leg pants than ankle pants.

I really like Columbia tamiami blouses. I have both short sleeved and long sleeved ones. I only buy them on sale or at the Columbia outlet. They come in both standard and plus sizes. Here's the long sleeved link and the short sleeved link:

https://www.columbia.com/p/womens-pfg-tamiami-ii-long-sleeve-shirt---plus-size-FW7278.html

https://www.columbia.com/p/womens-pfg-tamiami-ii-short-sleeve-shirt---plus-size-FW7277.html

I'm 5' 4" and about 145 pounds and, for blouses, wear a roomy XL, standard size. I wear my blouses loose. These dry overnight easily on a plastic folding hanger in a hotel shower. They have snaps rather than buttons, so no lost buttons.

For pants, I like Duluth Trading Company dry on the fly boot cut pants. You may have to hem these, though, as the shortest inseam is 29 inches. I wear a 10 but these run big. Expensive, so wait for a sale! Did a test sink wash and they dried overnight from dripping wet. They are just a bit swishy but are quite comfortable, so I don't care.

https://www.duluthtrading.com/s/DTC/womens-dry-on-the-fly-bootcut-cargo-pants-46708.html?color=BLK

https://www.duluthtrading.com/s/DTC/womens-plus-dry-on-the-fly-bootcut-cargo-pants-46709.html?color=BLK