Tea Party

It was the Lady Detalle's birthday, so we had an 18th century chemise gown tea at Green Spring Gardens. It was a lovely venue in a historic building. I didn't want to have to deal with making a chemise gown, so I did a white voile round gown, which I figured was appropriately pastoral. So many gorgeous ladies in their many variations of the gown! It was really interesting to see the different takes of what is essentially the same thing.

I loved all the sashes! This is just walking to the building from the parking lot.


My gown ended up being just a touch too scooped out in the neckline, so I kept having to pull it up in the centre front. Wearing a fichu or having a tucker would totally fix this and I do plan on making a suit of ruffles in the future to avoid this problem. I wore my Dames a la Mode necklace and earrings plus a beautiful sash and buckle borrowed from the Lady Detalle. The sash was really the perfect shade of pink. Reminded me of the portraits of children from the end of the 18th century like this and this.


The back of my dress is cut en fourreau. Here's a picture by In the Long Run Designs, who was nice enough to do some mini photo shoots of people when we were wandering about the grounds after the tea. :)


There were some great flowers and they really attracted the butterflies. I saw this little guy and managed to get a couple of shots before he flew away.


And here you can see us milling about on the lawn with the historic building in the background:


After this, we headed back to the Lady Detalle's house and hung out, ate more food, drank champagne, and watched a couple of movies. It was great! The next day we had a photoshoot with the Lady Detalle's jewelry and then went out for a bit of shopping and then I headed home.

( The costuming loot I brought home with me )