Edwardian Party Dress with Vintage Lace

Original auction description:
Soft Green Party Dress ~ a Needle special design: The dress is made from lovely soft green cotton with a delicate floral pattern in a dropped waist style with large full sleeves. A delicate cream colored vintage lace inherited from my late grandmother decorates the edge of the large collar all the way around with a small satin cream ribbon bow at center front. The same lace also decorates the neckband, sleeve bands, and hemline. Back ties and button closure. The wide cream colored hair ribbon will also be included with the dress.

You can also see the original auction photos in a separate blog entry.

Edwardian and Victorian Coats

Various styles of winter coats from the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Molly's Peach Checkered Dress

A lovely peach dress by Dollies' Dressmaker.

Souvenirs from Wonderland

Nellie (who also likes to traipse around as Alice) has brought back some souvenirs from a tea party.

"I guess someone needs to take care of these teapots!"


"What's all of this?" cries Samantha.


Nellie-Alice: "These belonged to the Mad Hatter. The Queen finally caught him."


"Gasp! Does he still have his head?!"


Nellie-Alice: "Well, he still wasn't making much sense when I last saw him. (Probably all that mercury poisoning.) But I believe the Queen has just thrown him in jail. He asked me to take care of these pots while he was away."


Nellie-Alice: "Aren't they so pretty?"



Nellie-Alice: "By the way, my entire outfit was made by the Enchanted Designer. It's based on the new Tim Burton movie. The blue coat Alice wears can also be seen on Violet in the Lemony Snicket movie."




The purple walking dress Rebecca is wearing was made by Doll Clothes of Yore. Samantha's purple dress was made by an unknown seamstress. Nellie's ensemble was made by Enchanteddesigner of Etsy.

Samantha Beach Combing

Whew, Boston has been suffering a heat wave lately.

I took these photos in November as I was about to sell them and trade them. I live about a 10 minute walk from the Atlantic Ocean (well, the Boston Harbor technically) and I wished I had snapped some photos at the local beach during summer. But poor Samantha had just retired and her outfits were fetching great prices at auction. I ended up trading the bathing outfit for a slightly damaged copy of Josefina's writing table. I thought I got the better deal. I sold the the middy outfit and bicycle outfit. Oh, well. Though the middy and the bathing outfit were made of thicker fabric unlike the rest of the flimsy stuff in Samantha's collection, I was never a fan of the nautical look. So I don't miss the outfits...except perhaps for the missed photo op.

Colonial Gown by Crafty1sews

This colonial gown made by crafty1sews on Ebay has very nice detail. Even the kerchief has a little lace trim. It also came with a little hand purse.

I try to imagine characters wearing these dresses. Have any of you read Johnny Tremain? I think the dress is too fancy for working class Priscilla Lapham, but someone like Lavinia Lyte, the Boston socialite might wear it. But she probably would wear silks. Perhaps I should dig out an Ann Rinaldi book?

And you know what I'm psyched about? The Americas wing finally opening up at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Entire corridors devoted to colonial art. Mmmmm. John Singleton Copley and Paul Revere. And John Sargent for ye lovers of costumes in paint.

My Alice Costume

The dress Nellie is wearing is from the Enchanteddesigner on Etsy. See my previous post. I like the diaphanous material. This is best rendition I've seen so far. It so much prettier in person.









I found a comprehensive description of the dress from Rebel's Haven, who is attempting to recreate the movie dress.She does great research right down to the buttons, which were apparently procured by the movie costumer from Huscco Buttons.