This Week's Fog Fashion and Tea

Ladies at 19th Century Railway Station

(from allposters.com)

I included the painting, above, because I liked the sage green and the lavender suits of the Victorian women pictured in it.  The green one is like Marilla's go-to-town suit in the movie "Anne of Green Gables." Of course, I am thinking of ways to make that lovely peplum (the flared piece on the waist of the jacket) in a future sewing project. I also like the way they put the floral pieces  underneath  their hats, as well as on top.  Notice the round box and the trunk that is being pushed by the porter.

Marilla Cuthbert  in her sage green suit, walking with Anne (Anne of Green Gables movie)

Marilla wearing the sage jacket, seen here with her brother Matthew. My favorite quote of Matthew is "Marilla, we've got no call to raise this girl as cheer-less as we were raised!" 

If you want to get a better view of the peplum (ruffle) in the back of her suit, you will just have to see the movie.

Now back to the fog.

Today's Fog

This week I have completed a short hooded cape made from the thin fleece from a rhuana shawl which I had shown in a previous post. Since there was no stitching on that shawl, I was able to lay the fabric out on the cutting table and use it again to make this cape.

The hood is lined with lightweight white muslin.

The pattern is a shortened version of  View A, on the right (the brown cape with hood) of the above photo, with an added ruffle around the front edge of the hood. This pattern might not be available anymore, but there are plenty of updated patterns like it. The cape you see at the bottom right is called a rhuana shawl, like the ones I made in previous posts. 

The hair clip is made with a small strip of the fabric, gathered into an oval, and hot glued to

a hair clip, which comes in a bag of several sizes at the fabric stores or Walmart. If you have thick hair, the large clip works well and it is also tight enough to prevent the hair clip from slipping off the hair.

On it I put one of those fabric roses which I showed in a previous post on the fog series, with a string of plastic pearl beads, also found in sewing stores. All are hot-glued to the ruffled piece. There is no hemming or finishing of the raw edges, because fleece does not ravel. However, I did hem the edges of the cape, for a more finished look and to strengthen the edges. This clip is strong enough and tight enough to clasp all of my hair in a bun.

First I glued a doubled strip of fabric on to the top of the hair clip, to give it a base. Then, I glued the completed ruffle on to that, and then I added the string of beads and the fabric rose. There are many instructions online for making these fabric roses, so I will not do a tutorial here.  It is time for tea, anyway.

Tea today is in front of the fire. Someone reminded me to include this article on the virtues of taking tea at home, which is well worth the time to read. I like the part where she states how it reduces hunger between meals so that you can have a more calm approach to making dinner. If everyone is not so hungry, you do not have to feel so rushed to make the evening meal. 

These are some of the colorful primroses in the garden centers now. They thrive in cold weather, so this one is going back outside after it serves as a centerpiece on the tea table.

I have served tea-of-your-choice with my oat squares.

I had no flour in the pantry so I put oats in the little coffee grinder (by the way, if you purchase a coffee grinder to refine flour and oats and other grains, if you also grind coffee in it and the coffee flavor gets into other things you grind, you shoud get a separate one for the coffee beans.)

You might need to double this recipe.

1 stick (half cup) butter melted

1 cup finely ground oats (it should be as fine as flour)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 cup molasses

1/8 teaspoon grated orange or lemon peel.

Mix it all together and add more flour if the mixture is too liquid-y. Pat it all into a cookie sheet  and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. It should be thin and wafer-like--not too thick. When done, it should be brown around the edges.  While warm, cut it into squares.  You can alter this recipe in many ways.

No one came to tea today and my  young photographer could only stay briefly, so I made it just for you. I hope you enjoy the blog-food ;-)

Just after I posted this, someone who was inspired to do the same, sent me this photo of her tea setting:

She has set this up for tomorrow. We both have these small electric fireplaces that we just turn the light on without the heater part, to enjoy without the expense. The light bulb used in these heaters is just a night-light.

The cost of the fabric for the hooded cape was about four dollars, and, I like every thing about it except the length. I think  the longer ones fit me better, but I wanted to try this. This a a bright white, unlike the vanilla white of a previous cape I made. This one is a very nice snow white and took one and a half yards of 60 inch fabric.

I'm looking for light lemon yellow now so I can dress like a lemon pie ;-)

I have finished lining the hood of the lavender ruffled-hood cloak and made a matching fascinator. I posted pictures of it on the previous post, here. 

I must emphasize again how nice it is to use the thinnest and cheapest fleece for these projects. They sew up a lot faster and do not bog down a regular machine like the thick fleece does.

 If you are wanting to make something with fleece and are not a confident stitcher, just to go Walmart and buy a fourth yard of fleece and experiment with it on some small things, such as a purse, a stretchy headband (keeping in mind that this $2.96 a yard fleece only has a one-way stretch), a hat, a pillow with a fringe, or child's toy.

 The lower the price, the thinner the fleece, usually, and the thicker the fleece, the higher the price. I have sewn with the thick fleece and it truly makes a great big warm coat but I find it too bulky, so I'm enjoying using thin fleece. I have one more piece someone gave me that I want to make, before I end the fleece projects.

There is one color I have been looking for, but have not been able to find, so I will be using the piece I have left, a cherry red, for the next fleece project. 

 The fog is turning into rain recently and there have been a few storms. I saw some water-proof type fabrics that just came into the fabric section and I'm curious to know what it is like to sew it, so I may be having rain-tea and fashion.