Let's Have Tea! - Chapter 2

"The world is round so that friendship may encircle it."

                - Teilhard de Chardin

Several years ago a friend was having a birthday and we wanted to give him a surprise party.  We could accommodate 50 people for the party but made a list of only 25 of his friends.  They were each asked to bring a friend who didn't know the guest of honor.  The evening of the birthday all the "friends" hid upstairs and the "unknowns" were in the party room.  When the guest of honor was brought to the room all the "unknowns" greeted him with "Surprise!".  As he searched the room for a familiar face the shock started to show on his face.  Several of the "unknowns" told stories that only "friends" would know and that set the shock deeper.  We finally realized our poor birthday guy was going to truly believe he had lost touch with reality and all the "friends" poured into the party room with a "Surprise!" chorus of their own.  He has always been a gracious individual but what he said that evening touched us all.  He thanked the "friends" for the party, for their friendship, and for enriching his life because as of that evening he had made 25 new friends.

Following the wonderful lesson I learned that evening I had invited 11 friends to the Tea asking each of them to bring a friend of their own knowing that by the end of the afternoon I would know 11 more wonderful ladies!

With it's beautiful grounds and rooms, Mosteller Mansion hosts many weddings and other special events.  The lady coordinating all of the activity for all events is Lee Bogle.  Lee and I worked with the Mosteller Mansion chef, Joseph LaMarca, on a menu that we felt sure would have something delicious for everyone.

As with a traditional Victorian Tea we served finger sandwiches with cucumber or ham fillings, a beautiful selection of fresh fruit, and (everyone's favorite!) chocolate-covered strawberries.  We added fresh salmon on mini bagels, cream puffs filled with chicken salad, assorted cheeses, and a warm-from-the-oven raspberry and blackberry cobbler.  Hmmmmmmm!  The featured teas were Stash Premium; Chai Spice Black, Peach Black, Chai Green, Blueberry and the two favorites:  Mango Passionfruit Herbal, and Lemon Ginger Herbal.

  
The ladies started to arrive, found a favorite teapot....

....and food, fun, and friendship circled the room!

 

Time for a little break.....

And now the Show!

Victorian Dressing From The Inside Out

Or

"How Did They Wear All That Stuff??!!"

Victorian underpinnings can be just as beautiful as the elaborate dresses and gowns that covered them.  With the help of a vintage dressform named Victoria, I showed the ladies examples of combination undies, pantaloons and chemises, corsets, corset covers, trained bustles, lobster bustles, cage bustles, and petticoats.

Lacing a trained bustle...

Lacing a lobster bustle...

Using a present-day dressform named Vickie, the ladies were shown the layers as a Victorian lady would have dressed for a daytime stroll in the park.  Embroidered stockings and lace-up boots, underskirt, overskirt, collar and cuffs, bodice, hat and hatpin, gloves, chatelaine and reticule, fan, and parasol.

At the end of the afternoon we all agreed on two things:  First that we had had a magical time!  The world with all its challenges was furthest from our minds for these several hours.  We had stepped back in time and lived as our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had lived, enjoying each other's company and the beauty of Victoriana.  Secondly, we agreed we had to do it again!

Lee and I planned a series of Teas over the next several months.  A Mad Hatter Tea with a hands-on hat-making class, a Victorian Weddings - Traditions and Superstitions Tea, and a Victorian Christmas Tea.  Sadly, Lee left her position before our dreams came true.  But as I said before, a dream only fades if you wish it so......................so who knows what might happen.....and when!

With love,

Let's Have Tea!

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change,

the courage to change the one I can,

and the wisdom to know it's me.

                Author Unknown

A pilot is meticulous about a flight plan.  Checking charts, calculating times, knowing all the wheres and whens.  But for all the planning the pilot knows full well that the weather can change at a moment's notice and so the plan must change in the moment following.  The economic hurricane had changed my flight plan not only for The Perfect Touch but for my life, my family's life, and the lives of so many others.  So in the eye of the hurricane it seemed to be the perfect time to say "Let's Have Tea!".  And so we did!

Invitations were written, ribboned, and delivered.

Tea For One teapots were ordered from The English Tea Store and Distinctive Decor.  The perfect lace linens were found.  Fresh flowers arranged and the setting was ready to welcome guests.

The Tea is being held in Mosteller Mansion in the large main level room that was originally the master bedroom.  There is a wonderful chandelier, mirrors to reflect the beautiful woodwork, a seating area overlooking the gardens, an entrance onto the rear patio, and two incredible baths.  You may remember the tub with the glass surround from my previous post?  That was the bath for the lady of the house.

 

You have probably noticed the many different teapots.  Part of the fun was having everyone select their seating with a teapot they enjoyed.  There were no more than two of the same teapot with the intention being that it would be fun to find your "Tea Sister" - the lady with the same teapot as you -  and get to know her!

Everything is ready, let's have tea!

To Be Continued..........

Dreams Are Whispers From Your Soul

Dreams are whispers from your soul.

The beauty of a dream is that its life is as unending as you choose. So when life's responsibilities take priority over a dream, whether for a day, a month, or a year, the dream is still as vivid as the day it first whispered to you that it wanted to become real.

And so it has been with The Perfect Touch. The dream of a place for Victorian-inspired creations to be enjoyed in their making and offering had to be put to the side for a bit. In late 2008 when the economy forced many companies to cut budgets and personnel and the housing market was rapidly deflating, we sold our home to ensure our freedom to live and work wherever necessary. That choice brought us to the beautiful complex of Mosteller Mansion in Hickory, North Carolina where we settled in to wait out the economic hurricane. The dream that was The Perfect Touch came into reality during this time and its beginnings written here.

My last post was March 1, 2009. The Fashion Show was tentatively set for two showings in May featuring mothers and daughters. Amy and her daughter Finley were the models for the 1860s gowns. Amy worked at Mosteller Mansion but her husband had been offered a wonderful new job opportunity and Amy and her family would have to relocate. Sad news for both Mosteller Mansion and the Fashion Show. But every cloud has a silver lining and Amy's replacement already lived at the complex and would do her best to keep the Fashion Show moving forward. Amy's replacement was me! So in mid-March I began my new position. Could I work in more beautiful surroundings? Take a peek...

And could anyone appreciate these surroundings more than a lover of all things Victorian?  And so the story continues for The Perfect Touch, but on another day...


With Love,

March - In Like a Lion!

Silent, soft and slow descends the snow.

--Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

It's the first day of March, the daffodils are up and a few have blossomed, but the snow is white and blanketing everything. So it's a perfect day to be indoors enjoying the view, drinking hot chocolate, and thinking about the Spring Fashion Show.

But first, I'm thinking how wonderful it is to see that The Perfect Touch has some followers! Thank you D. Leigh Quist, Bella Lucille, Shabby Lane Shops, and To Tea, or Not To Tea! Thank you to Amanda who inspired us to add the Playlist from Playlist.com so that we could have something for our readers to listen to while they watch the behind the scenes at The Perfect Touch. If you have a favorite song that you would like added to the Playlist, please let us know.

While the shoppes at The Perfect Touch will have creations that are Victorian inspired as well as some vintage and eco-chic, the Spring 2009 Victorian Fashion Show will be reproductions of gowns and accessories that are as close to period correct as we are able to do in the current century. The Show will have two parts. The first part will be entitled "The Proper Victorian Lady". We will demonstrate all the layers it took for a lady to be properly dressed in 1874. Some of the items we will use will be beautiful recreations, and some will be breathtaking vintage pieces. You will have a chance to see all the items here as well as the online version of the Show prior to the actual Show.

The second part of the Show is entitled "Four Decades of Queen Victoria". In this part we will have ladies and their daughters showing fashion from the 1860's, 1870's, 1880's, and 1890's. The truly special part is that all the daughters are three or four-years old.

The mother and daughter who have so graciously agreed to portray our mother and daughter of the 1880's is Natalie and her daughter Sarah. Sarah is 3 years old and will be 4 in April. She is beautiful, bright, and will be an artist some day. Of that her mother is sure! (I hear the bedroom walls show some of this talent already.)

Natalie will wear a gown created by Lady Leigh, a wonderful historical reproduction seamstress with exceptional talent. She has taken this 1880's inspiration and brought the fabulous gown into reality.

The color is the sage green of early spring leaves and the embroidered organza reflects the best blossoms of spring. Even the bodice buttons have painted flowers. Lady Leigh has here, as she does in all her gowns, searched for and used all the special details and trim that made Victorian gowns so lovely. To compliment Lady Leigh's gown, I created a completely hand-sewn hat with silk blossoms cascading down the front and satin buds on the top and under side of the brim. Natalie loved this ensemble from the moment she saw it and is looking forward to wearing it! It will be stunning on her!

Natalie's daughter,Sarah, tells us that her favorite color is pink and so we looked all around the sewing loft and found our best pink satin and trims to create a coat that this sweet little lady will love. Our inspiration is the coat and hat on the right from a Harper's Bazar fashion plate of May 6, 1882.

Sarah fell in love with the boots on the left and wanted to know if we could make those for her too. I told her I could make the spats on the right and she agreed that would be perfectly fine and we also thought white stockings with ribbon embroidery might be pretty. We'll decide later. Right now we are starting with the 1877 Girl's Walking Coat pattern from Ageless Patterns shown here with our pink satin and the 3" pink trim. We have several other trims with shades of pink and white and some insertion lace to finish the edges.


We made a muslin mock-up for Sarah and she was so sweet to try it on. We have to add to the length to recreate the fashion plate, add a center back box pleat, and will use a single cape rather than the two in the pattern. We were so impressed with this sweet little lady trying on our mock-up and holding the hat on her head so we could imagine the right proportions that we forgot to take a picture! But we'll get a picture when she tries on the second mock-up, we promise. You have to see how adorable she is! Just to give you an idea of Sarah's size, the straw hat in this picture is 10" in diameter. Sweet and petite! And she is excited to be in the Show with her mother!



Time for another cup of hot chocolate and a bit more sewing! Wishing all a wonderful week!

With Love,