Jenny La Fleur

I had a truly delightful day yesterday at Kat's Victorian Picnic. Bridget came with me (so happy I had something she could wear that she liked!) which of course made it even better! :>

{Jenny-Rose Photos} - my photos of the event & my favorites from others

Kat | photos | (flicker)
Gloria | photos | (flicker)

Bridget wore my Poe Dress, which looked amazing cute on her. It fit really well except for being a bit short in the skirt and the sleeves, Bridget being my younger but taller sister. So I added a ruffle to the bottom of the skirt and moved the top ruffle on the sleeves to the bottom.

Luckily for me the new skirt ruffle was already cut out, the result of running out of time the last time I wore the dress. The plan was to add a total of 9 ruffles to the bottom of that skirt but I only got two on. That was in 2009 so it felt good to get that lone half-prepped ruffle out of my pending bin.

I still have the fabric for the remaining 6 ruffles although as I was working on it last week I remembered why that hasn’t happened yet. What a pain! This fabric is a rayon-poly-something and while it moves nicely on the body it is slippery and shifty to work with when cut on the bias as these ruffles are. Oy. I still say "someday" to the ruffle madness (it will be such fun to wear!) but probably not someday soon!

I wore my Black & White Bustle. Thanks to the twill interlining with silk taffeta combo that I used (I was silly enough to actually follow pattern directions for once, silly girl) it's definitely a cold weather outfit so I haven't gotten to wear it very often. It was fun to wear it again and it was perfect for this autumn outdoor event.

It also looked awesome with my very un-Victorian RED hair. I do love this hair color - and all the compliments I get on it - but of course the disadvantage is having to start all over with hair pieces.

Ebay was good to me in the form of some cheap Cosplay "dark red" wigs that were a great match. So the wigs were taken apart and I used some of the resulting wefts of hair to assemble and curl into Victorian submission. In the end I was really happy with my hair styling but I do need to refine the pieces a bit. Which is good for you since I'll be taking pictures of the process along the way next time. This time I was too busy trying to figure out what I was doing!

After the drudgery (dramatic sigh) of the shifty ruffles and the seat-of-my-pants hair piece making I decided to have fun by trimming a new hat. This 18th century hat from the National Trust popped up on my Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and I fell in love right away. It then occurred to me that I had a small black straw hat & striped ribbon in the stash and could wear the resulting cuteness with both 1870s and 18th century frocks. Sold!

Originally I was going to use some black & white striped ribbon I have in the stash but when I pulled out my ribbon bin I found this tan and stripe ribbon that is almost an exact match to the original photo. Clearly this hat was meant to be.

The black straw hat blank is very nice quality but rather floppy for my taste so I added some millinery wire to the edge of the brim before covering it with the ribbon.

The pleating along the brim was done by just eye-balling it and pinning it on the brim as I set the pleats to make sure I got the shape right. All of the ribbon was sewn on by hand using a straw needle and silk thread.

I'm really happy with the results! It's a little plainer than I usually go for with my hats (my philosophy being one can't put too much crap on an 18th century hat - I've tried!) but it's charming and will go with so many of my costumes. It helps that so I'm tickled with the fact that I saw a picture on Pinterest and was able to recreate it from my stash on a whim! It totally makes me giggle inside...

I'm happy to report the Victoriana Fete was a great success! I had a wonderful time, the food was fabulous and the company even better. Thanks to Dad volunteering to be our Chef for the day (Chef Blanc-de-Blanc) my simple little Fete morphed into a 6-course luncheon (with wines!). We are insane!

The food went off well, thanks to lots of pre-planning and excel spreadsheets with Dad. And of course the help of my kitchen slaves helpers gilded_garb & girliegirl32786. They helped me clear plates, pour the wine and serve. We make such a good team. It was a lot of work but it was a lot of fun. I don't expect to do anything like this for a good long while though! Whew!

The Menu:

Each course had it's corosponding beverage too:
hors d'œuvre - Blanc-de-Blanc Champagne
fish - Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio
entree - Shiraz (Penfold's Bin 128)
cheese - Ruby or Tawny Port
dessert - coffee, & more champagne & port

We also had an alternative entree for my vegetarian guests, Wild Mushroom Ragoût in puff pastry. I nibbled off of Aubry's plate and that was tasty too - yay! I'm getting more comfortable with working around everyone's food allergies and diet restrictions, it's challenging but fun! I think my favorite course was the Stilton with local honey, walnuts and port - it really hit the spot! The creamed carrots were an untried recipe from the Titanic cookbook and they turned out to be pretty fabulous too.


I'm happy to say my cake was good too, a huge thing since cakes are my weak point in baking. The marzipan was surprisingly easy to make, the marzipan roses not to much. Apparently I suck at making marzipan roses, Dad ended up making them all for me. Hee.


My outfit came out wonderfully, as did my hair (I watched a lot of Daniel Deronda last week to figure out the hair!) and I felt very much the pretty, pretty princess. I totally need more bustle in my life! For some reason all the pics of just me have the neighbors oddious shed in the background (blah) so I'll need to wear it again and take better pics. Oh darn! :>

After the rest of the party left gilded_garb, girliegirl32786 and I went outside for more pics and ended up in the woods behind my house for silly pics - it was such a ridiculous thing to do in our frocks but SO fun! After that we stripped down to our frilly Victorian undies and spent the evening drinking the open bottles of champagne, sparkling lemonade and wine - plotting and planning costumes for CosCol. A perfect way to end the evening.


The next day we were off to DC to see the pre-Raphaelite exhibit at the National Gallery (which was wonderful!). gilded_garb had never been to DC so it was really fun to show you the sights (there's the White House! See an obese squirrel!). Hee. The picnic on a bench on the Mall and the long cold walk back from the Lincoln memorial were bonding experiences we decided.

The weekend ended far too soon and the house is now far too quiet! I am looking forward to catching up on my sleep though - we didn't do much of that!

My photos (plus a few favorites stolen from A&S!) are here:
The Luncheon | DC Trip


Other's photos:
Isabella - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubileel/sets/72157625714693415/
Sara - http://www.flickr.com/photos/21105913@N05/sets/72157625732099741/
Aubry - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aubrytamar/sets/72157625864026594/

The bag lining has been conquered - whew! I ironed and steamed it into submission and am reasonably happy with the results. Dude it sucked getting there though!

On to sleeves and buttons...

Well I could probably continue to make the fit and sleeves better but frankly I'm tired of toileing so I'm declaring it GOOD ENOUGH. I guess I have to decide which fabric to use now... the hard part!

Option 1: Matching cream fabric with contrasting black piping and black lace accents.

Option 2: The "vestee" out of matching cream fabric with black glass buttons - the rest out of black silk taffeta, creating a jacket-over-dress-effect like the archery dress from Daniel Deronda.

Both options would be lovely so I'm having a hard time deciding. I could always make both but then which one for the party?

I think dinner is in order and then I will decide...

Thanks so much for your responces to my piping query - you guys are the best! So basically it's up to me. I like that answer!

I j ust finished cutting out the mock-up. Moving kinda slow today and finding myself easily distracted... silly Jenny.

Another day, another migraine. *sigh* So far I'm not too impressed with 2011.

In the evening the meds had finally taken effect and I was tired of sitting on my butt so I started de-Christmasing. I took all the ornaments, tinsel, beads and lights off the big tree and my feather tree. Dad helped me pack the tree bits in garbage bags and packing the rest away will be tomorrow's project. 'Cause I am NOT having another migraine. So there.

There is something so depressing about taking down the Christmas. In the end I enjoy having less clutter in the house but it's still sad in a way. Especially the Christmas tree lights, I truly enjoy the soft glow of the trees in the evening. Some of the post-Christmas depression is the site of all the bins and boxes again. I hate boxes lining the walls, it unsettles me. I'll be glad when the house is back to normal and things are tidy again.

I'm not ready for Monday. I'm really not. I'm so glad I have lots to look forward to to keep me going. I'm having tea at a friend's house on Sunday. She always does such a nice job and I can wear a costume if I want. We'll see what my mood is on the day...

Then the next weekend is Sara and Aubry's visit. I'm SO beyond excited about that!! I have been researching recipes and decorating schemes for the Victoriana party - I'm tired of the same old things - and found some yummies to experiment with. The cake I really want to make is probably too ambitious, especially since cakes are my weak spot, but it will be awesome if I can pull it off. Also we recently got a few more pieces of my great-mother's china, silver and such. There is a particularly stunning silver vegetable serving dish I'm dying to use - I keep picturing asparagus with hollandaise in it but that isn't a very practical dish to make in costume (which I would have too since hollandaise shouldn't sit). So we'll see, I'll use it for something. I just love excuses like this to use the fancy stuff. :>

Oh yes and I have to make SOMETHING to wear to the party. Remind me again why I picked Victoriana as the theme when I don't really have any Victoriana costumes? Oh yes to do something different and more challenging. So I either have to re-make the Poe bodice or make the bodice for my Black & White bustle outfit or be insane and come up with a completely new outfit between now and then. I was going to go with the Poe, only because I know that is the era Flirty and Saucy are doing but at the moment I'm leaning toward the bustle. I'm more confident I can whip that out between now and then and frankly the hair is much easier. We'll see. If all else fails I can always wear my Erte Dress or my Titanic kimono... Heck I can wear whatever I want; it’s my party after all! :P