Canton Woman's Club Victorian Tea

A couple months ago I was passed along information for a Victorian Tea being held by the Canton Woman's Club. Although this was the first time it was being held, the event still ended up being sold out.

Kathy Kraus did a presentation on Sarah Emma Edmonds, a female Civil War Union spy, and the highlight was a fashion show of authentic Victorian dresses.

This is only a small handful of the dresses presented, but my favorite out of all of them was the embroidered cotton lawn with the yellow sash in the center.

My young cousin, Samantha, came with me and we both dressed up for the event. She wore her Disney Belle costume, and I pulled out my early bustle Indienne tea dress for the event. We got to enjoy tea sandwiches and snacks, and enjoyed a lunch of chicken pouf and garnished green beans.

We're looking forward to the next time they hold the event since they hope to hold it every six months and have me be involved somehow too.

Gettysburg Battle at Hale Farm, Pt. 2

Here at last, the long overdue Part 2 of my battle Hale Farm weekend. Now for the costuming end of things.

As mentioned in my last post, there were plenty of beautiful ladies there in costume as well and I ran into Sarah Koby from Sarah's Clothespress. A lovely little chance meeting since we used to go to school together and she also does costuming and reenactment.

There were a number of vendors at the event including Amazon Drygoods, a great place for costuming needs. I got to talking with Samantha Hickle, one of the owners about corded petticoats (something I've been looking at on the side for a long time). They sell corded petticoats for a great price and when the time comes, I may look into just buying one from them instead suffering through the headache of making one.

Corded Petticoat from Amazon Drygoods

While at the store, I also picked up a few sewing supplies including this wonderful little book. This is a reproduction of the original and I'm looking forward to reading it.

And last but not least in my little goodie collection is a beautiful embroidered white parasol. I've been wanting a white one for forever, but could never bring myself to buy a battenburg parasol because I'm picky. I found this beauty hiding in a corner of the Artillery Antiques and Collectibles booth and snatched it up.

Unfortunately, I did have a wardrobe malfunction at the event which has lead to my new project, or rather the completion of an old one.

The issue I have with projects is sometimes I stop short of actual completion (time constraints, plan changes, or the common factor - feeling lazy). While I can sometimes get away with it (I have an elliptical hoop with eight pins in it that have been there for 2 years) other times I can't. Because I never finished the casings for my round walking hoop, they kept popping out of place throughout the weekend and required me to constantly rifle through the petticoat layers to fix the issue. 

Culprits of my Civil War wardrobe malfunction

I'm hoping to sit down sometime in the next couple of weeks and the close the casings off so I don't have this issue again. I figure this can be added to that whole Underthings for Every Period project I've been slowly working through.

Gettysburg Battle at Hale Farm, Pt. 1

It's been very busy since Saturday so I'm just now getting to this post.

As I briefly mentioned last week, the local historical farm was doing a reenactment of the famous Gettysburg battle over the weekend. With only three days notice, I pulled out my calico bluebud dress and headed out to join in. Along with the dress, I pulled out my good camera and took it along to take some photos.

At the event, I got to sign a petition for the abolition of slavery (despite the fact I had no voting rights as a woman), watched the drum and fife regiment...

 
Got to wander through the Union and Confederate army camps...

Saw Abraham Lincoln deliver the Emancipation Proclamation...

And saw a bunch of other lovely dresses throughout the day.

The culminating event for the day was of course the battle. I've actually never been to a Civil War battle reenactment before, so it was a bit exciting for me. It's not something you forget soon after either. While I did take a number of photos, this one was my favorite in particular because it caught things "in the heat of the moment" during the Union Army retreat.

These were a few other favorites. 

Eventually I would like to take some of these photos and do some work in Photoshop to give them the overall look of a carte-de-visit or a daguerreotype. Similar to what I did with these photos.

Bluebud dress photo before...

...and after Photoshop play

I had a lot other costume happenings outside of the event itself, including finds and (ulp) wardrobe malfunctions, but these will be posted separately at a later time.

Tavistocks are Here!

I've only had them on payment installment for two months and they're finally here!

My lovely new Tavistocks!

These are the new Tavistock shoes from American Duchess that I have been eagerly awaiting since they were in the initial design phases over a year ago. When Lauren first announced she was going to be making these beauties, I was so excited because I've always loved the Victorian high-button shoes. Imagine my disappointment when it came out that they were only going to be made up to a size 10. I have large, modern day size 11 feet.

Well after a small incident that resulted in my getting a pair of size 10 shoes of a different style, I found they fit rather well. Lauren was already out of black Tavistocks in that size though so when she announced there were ivory ones coming in, I bought them as soon as possible. My ivory pair arrived two days ago and to my greatest joy, THEY FIT PERFECTLY!

And to make things even better, someone returned a pair of size 10 black Tavistocks which I immediately bought. Those are due to be here in another two weeks.

I have never had so much fun with a pair of shoes. In anticipation, I bought shoe button hooks a few months ago and got to use them finally. The fun part was despite never actually doing the process before, I knew how to button the shoes up (an indicator of how many period movies/shows I watch - too many).

I found out today that Hale Farm and Village is going to be doing a Gettysburg battle reenactment this weekend, so I just might button up my shoes and trot on down to check it out (the place is literally five miles from my house). They're not completely period correct for the Civil War, but they'll go great with my cotton blue bud dress.