Victorian Christmas at the Painted Lady

I did it!  It happened!

That is, everything except the sleeves, which were sacrificed in favor of quick pull-through puffs hand stitched on that morning.  I still like it!

We drove down to Myrtle Creek to the fabulous Painted Lady B&B and Tearoom for a full (read: very full. Very very full) afternoon tea in a tea room delightfully crammed with antiques and knick-knacks for sale.  As far as I can tell, this is the closest place to Eugene to get the full tea experience in an historic building (Wendi, the owner, puts it around 1910) and I can't recommend it highly enough.  In between delicious courses, we played I Spy and took a few pictures.

From thepaintedladybbtearoom.com

Charlotte just finished finished an amazing 1890s tea gown from a certain well-known Harper's Bazaar fashion plate, and looked like a Christmas queen!

And now more pictures:

Allll of the shirring.  And puffs. And swags. And paniers.

This is in the bathroom because it was green.

I was trying for an awkward fashion-plate pose, I think it worked! (Isn't it so hard to know how to pose in gowns?)

Happy Victorian Christmas!