Friday, February 15, 2013

Four at Tea Today and More Fog Fashion

Painting by Edmund B. Leighton, England, 1852-1922

I wonder how E.B. Leighton managed to paint the above picture to look a little foggy.

Today's Fog

Fond of fog: I made the indoor fog for this picture with my camera.


This is the real fog.


I had four guests for tea today so I used my rose shaped placemats from Dollar Tree,

and the Prairie Rose tea set,

and served heart shaped scones with berry cream. Make a batch of scones, and whip up some heavy whipping cream on your electric mixer, adding a few frozen berries til the cream turns light pink or mauve.

It was delicious with blackberry tea, made from blackberries and boiling water.

This cape is perfect for foggy weather, and although it is made of only one piece of 60 inch wide fabric, (not counting the strips used to cover the elastic and the strips used to make front ties) and no pattern, I would not recommend it to a beginner. I will try to post instructions later on, so please check back. It takes a yard, more or less, depending on the length you are making.

You might not see the fascinator hat very well in this picture but it is a piece that is gathered, just like the collar, so it repeats the ruffle style of the collar.

Collar View From Back.
A band of fabric is sewn over the gathering stitches to give it a finished look. Elastic is sewn over the gathering stitches on the inside of the garment.




The fleece is thinner than most fleece and ideal for making lightweight capes. It comes from Walmart and is $2.95 or less, depending on the product. Total cost for this was $5.00, which includes the hair band.


The fascinator is a ruffled piece of fabric, semi-circular, hemmed and hot-glued onto a wide headband from Dollar Tree. I buy the hairbands the same color or as near to the same color as my hair.  You could also make this kind of fascinator by gluing the ruffled piece onto a large hair clip, which you get in fabric stores.

Inside of gathered fleece fascinator. 

This is what the hair band looks like on top.

As I am not tired of the fog or the fleece yet, I have may have another fleece project in the future. It will depend on the weather.

Instructions for cape will be posted here at another time

I am linking to Sarah Collier's "Hope in Every Season" Valentines post weekend homemaking link-up party and to Beverly's Pink Saturday.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I eagerly await your tutorial. This would be beautiful on my daughters. Thank you. Wish I could come to tea:)

Elena said...

What a lovely tea.
I am fascinated by old fashioned capes and yours is just wonderful. Thank you for such kind inspirations :)

Lydia said...

In case I do not get around to posting instructions and you want to sew it up, then be sure to have enough fabric to wrap around so that when you gather up the collar, there is plenty of loose fabric to go around the shoulders. Cut off more fabric than you need . Form a casing several inches below the part which will be the ruffled collar, and run a grosgrain ribbon through it to pull up the gathers. That is all you need to know besides cutting it the length you want and hemming it. I rolled the fabric over twice and machined hemed it all around before gathering the collar area.

Lydia said...

The fabric should be wrapped around the body one and a half times to two times around the body to determined the amount to gather, just like a curtain gathers.

Sarah Coller said...

I really love your adorable pink cape! I'm thinking I better make us some scones here pretty soon as well---they're popping up all over the place! :) Your berry spread looks berry good! Thanks so much for linking up...hope you have a lovely Sunday!

Mrs. Sarah Coller

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for all these wonderful tea time posts :)

Lydia said...

I hope to put up another one soon

Becoming a Woman of Excellence said...

I must admit, Lady Lydia, sometimes when I am at work (I am one of the ladies, that have to work outside our home, thou my heart wishes something else)

I think of you drinking a warm cup of tea, in the quietness of your home, and I dearly wish, I could be there joining you and we could talk.

Perhaps we could even take a nice walk outside and take a look at that beautifull fog ;) You are such a sweet encouragement to me when I am weary and my heart wishes so bad, that I also could be, at home, where my heart is.

Love and hug
Jasmina

Lydia said...

Jasmina, When I get my next project finished we can sit down for tea. You could come for the day. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Ah, you're so inspiring! Keep up the great posts. It's all very beautiful and it just goes to show it doesn't take a lot of money to stay warm and look feminine.

Gentle Heart Homestead said...

Lydia your fog and tea posts have been exquisite!
I've been a little unwell recently and reading through these lovely posts has lifted my spirit no end!
Thank you..
I can't help thinking what a wonderful book companion they would make!
bless you..Trish

Lydia said...

Thank you, Trish. I had hoped to do more but have not had the time.

Anonymous said...

Very cute capes. I love pink the best, especially on you. :)

I appreciated the kind gesture of mailing me some reading materials. Talk to you soon.

God bless,

Cousin Rosemi