Candy stripe plaid dress

I went to Pennypacker Mills with two friends last night for their Victorian Christmas tour; PPM is an 18thc house that was added on to and remodeled in 1901(ish?), and they did a great job of decorating for the season. Everything was lit by oil lamps, and they had Santa, a bell choir, and a candymaking demonstration in the kitchen. And free hot cider after the tour!

None of us have any late Victorian or Edwardian winter-wear, but we've all got 1860s, which always seems very Christmassy to me. Most of the tour was too dark for my poor old camera so I didn't bother taking it out the whole night...at least til we got to Taco Bell afterward! That was well lit, haha. But we made sure to get pics of my new dress while it was still light.

It's made of silk taffeta that I got from Jen Thompson; the bodice and sleeves are lined in pink polished cotton, and the hem is faced in the same.

Most of the dress is machine sewn; just the finishings are done by hand (tacking down the piping, doing the hem, etc).

 There was a crisis of "the skirt is too short!" last week when I got it all put together, which should explain that woolen hem binding... It was a case of just-slightly-too-short-but-not-short-enough-to-take-it-apart, and this was by far the easiest fix.

The collar is rubbishy, but I won't have a chance to wear this dress again for a while, so I should have plenty of time for making a new collar!

Making a stupid face in that last one, but it's very nice for showing off my lovely shawl!

And these pics are from Robin...
How many people does it take to put on a new pair of button boots?

The only picture without a shawl so you can actually see the trim!

Group selfie! Not actually driving at that particular moment, no fear...

Yes, the Dress went to Taco Bell, but no, it did not get to enjoy the tacos. We were smart and took the food home and changed before eating.