New York Society Tea 2014

Yesterday the Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild hosted its not-quite-annual New York Society Tea at The Palace Hotel, San Francisco. This event is often also called the Bustle Tea, since the time frame is late Victorian. No fewer than two of my sewing buddies have birthdays between Christmas and New Years, and both of them wanted to be costumed for their birthdays. So we decided to make this year's tea a bit of a birthday party.

An afternoon spent with my gal pals, in costume, is always a blast, even more so after going nuts for weeks on end getting a new frock ready. More on that later.

But who wants to read me talking? Just enjoy the photos!

The two birthday girls, Ms. G and Sahrye.

Noelle and Mia.

Ms. D and Ms. H.

Total attendance was something near 50.

Mr. Hal and your friendly neighborhood blogger.

Birthday girl, Sahrye.

You may recognize Sahrye's dress as Mina Harker's dress from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Sahrye did an awesome version of the dress. She blogs over at It Came From the Stash! Head over there to read more about this fantastic dress.

 

I love Mia's dress above for how absolutely period it looks. Small wonder, here's the dress she used as a model:

Dress, 1879, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ms. H provides our obligatory anachronistic moment.

Tea was followed by shenanigans in the bar.

Lastly, here's yours truly.

More chit-chat on this dress (and what is up with my hair) will come later. Right now I need to rescue my house from multiple weeks of frantic sewing.

Too much shopping...er, fun, at the Dickens Fair

Last weekend was my yearly visit to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco. My costume was the same old, same old 1868 gown I've had for years, so I'm not going to talk about that. Instead, I'm going to talk about the lovelies I bought during my visit!

For several years I've admired the feather arrangements and ornaments by PiumaMia Feather Creations. This year, I decided I wanted a feather ornament to put in my hair for the office holiday party. I picked out this collection of blue feathers, flowers, and clear crystals.

Hair clip in shades of blue and clear crystals,
by PiumaMia Feather Creations.

But buying one gave me the encouragement, for better or worse(!), to buy another! So I also bought this large arrangement with red cock feathers, peacock eyes, black ostrich plumes, red flowers and copper leaves. This one works great at so many different angles.

Red and black feather clip or pin
by PiumaMia Feather Creations.

I also paid a visit to Morgyn Owens-Celli of Strawbenders, and picked up this utterly FABULOUS straw hat. It's a modern design, but I find that it works for 1900 or 1930 or 1940 or 1950, depending on how I wear it. I really need to get photos of it on my head, but wasn't set up to take proper photos.

Straw and feather hat by Strawbenders.

Unrelated to shopping, my 1830s bonnet also had its first outing, on the head of my friend Sahrye (this is her blog, check it out, she's extremely talented and creative!)

The very talented Sahrye, in a late 1830s gown by her, and wearing my 1830s bonnet.

Sahrye made her FABULOUS late 1830s gown, inspired by the movie "Young Victoria." Read more about this amazing gown at her blog, It Came From The Stash!.