Longwood Gardens

Before the Victorian tea in Delaware at the DuPont Hotel, last January, a bunch of us went to Longwood Gardens. There was costumed photography but because I was baby-wrangling and tired, I just went in Muggle clothes and changed later for the tea.

Elena was very recently walking and she held mine and Gloria’s hands and walked, and it was super cute.

Here’s some pics!



Elena wore her robot jumper, gifted to her by her namesake, Jasmin, all the way from England.

The little boots were from my Mom.

Victorian Christmas Tea 2019

Back to costumes! We’re finally at the Christmas season! (And it’s only May of the next year! Progress!)

These photos are from Caroline’s Victorian Christmas tea. I love her parties! Victorian is a huge hole in my wardrobe, so I rewore my 1840s plaid gown, but that’s ok because I like this dress. (I have since bought a couple Victorian gowns on a FB buy/sell group so I’m hoping to mix it up more in the future. Just don’t have much sewing time right now.)

Anyhoo, it was a fun party, here are photos!

(Mike and Gloria of In the Long Run Designs were experimenting with a new lens and I was happy with how these turned out. I also asked them to try and get a shot of my antique Victorian star comb. My earrings and necklaces are classic Dames a la Mode.

Victoria Day Party

Caroline held a Victoria Day party in May at her lovely Capitol Hill house. I was a bit late to it and as always I haven’t had sewing time and my Victorian wardrobe is not as deep as my 18th century one is. But I threw on my plaid 1840s and a tiara. I didn’t have time for fancy hair and make-up so I don’t have a ton of pics of me, but everyone else looked awesome. :-) Also, we had sparklers! And two cute kids, a boy and a girl, were riding bikes in laps around the block over and over again. And IIRC, the girl had a supergirl shirt? Anyway, every time they went through our sparklers, we cheered for supergirl. It was a really fun night (Caroline throws a great party!) and I’m glad I was able to go, even if my Victorian costume game is somewhat weak. :-)

Here’s Chelsea in her “Hufflebustle.”



With Jess:



And possibly my fav pic from the night. Taylor’s expression in the back is the best.



Food!

Big Bustle Birthday Party

Caroline had a Big Bustle party for her birthday in October, held both at the Arboretum in DC and at her lovely Capitol Hill house.

I don’t have a bustle gown, and I was also a month from my due date, so I was unprepared to sew one! She kindly let me wearing 18th century since it was kinda bustle-y. It’s a stretch, but I appreciated it, since I wanted to see everyone, especially Merja who came all the way out from Finland!

I wasn’t sure what I had that would fit, but I was inspired by Chelsea wearing a Francaise when she was very pregnant, and mine totally worked. I just let out the back laces and worked great! I did wear stays, but I wore them unlaced. Mine are sorta permanently laced and I just have a very very long single spiral lace that I knot so it doesn’t come undone and I can loosen it a lot to get in and out of them. So I just wore them like that, totally untightened. I actually found it they provided nice belly support without squeezing.







I was so happy to see Merja, and to get to see this lovely costume in person!





There was a gorgeous picnic spread of delicious things:

Victorian Christmas Tea

Who’s in the mood for Christmas? Yeah. I’m still super behind on blogging anything.

BUT I did get to go to a superfun Victorian Christmas tea, hosted by the lovely Carolyn, in the gorgeous Capitol Hill row house that her and her husband are staying in while on assignment in DC. It’s the perfect place for costume parties! The food was also delicious.

I don’t have a ton of Victorian outfits - BUT I had only worn this plaid 1840s gown once or twice very briefly. AND since then, I had gotten real 1840s repro boots, courtesy of American Duchess, but never really had the opportunity to wear them. So I was actually pretty excited to wear them with the outfit I intended to. They were really comfy and I loved how they looked with this long-sleeved dress.















I also wore Dames a la Mode earrings (https://www.etsy.com/shop/damesalamode), an antique necklace and brooch and bracelet and rings.

Citrine earrings

These were a lucky find from <a href="http://www.cjantiquesltd.com/">http://www.cjantiquesltd.com/</a> (formerly nalfie.com)

"An antique English, pinchbeck-type gilt yellow metal pair of drop earrings; set with faceted golden natural citrine drops." They are dated "Early /mid 19th Century"

 

Here are their photos:

 

Winterthur extent clothes and things!

Winterthur also had some lovely extent clothes and other embroidered pieces on display.

This was a set of 18th century pockets which were *huge*. My hand is in one of the pics for scale.

















These are pieces that were once the border of an embroidered petticoat - I want one!