That familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer

And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.

To get you in the proper frame of mind, go read Hark! A Vagrant's series of Great Gatsbys. Go ahead. I'll wait.

All set?

What better way to spend the first full day of summer than to dress up in 20s garb and go to the Gatsby garden party at Spadina House. I didn't manage to take a lot of pictures because my battery was dying and also because I gave the DC control over the camera and he's just not as snap-happy as I am.


It was a perfect day for it. Beautifully sunny, not too hot, not too windy.


The outfits were great. Something like 200 people took part in the costume parade. (We didn't, because we got there too late to register.) There were a lot of amazing outfits, but I think my favourite was the lady who wore a 20s bathing costume.

There were many fun things to do: picnic on the lawn, listen/dance to various bands (sadly, this is where the bows I tied to my shoes met their demise), uke jams (and me without my Kala!), tours of the house, craft tables...

...and croquet on the lawn.


The Dapper Cyclist lived up to his name in his lovely linen jacket (he-made, naturally).


But enough about that handsome lad. Let's talk about my outfit. I already had the net overdress, girdle, and headwrap from last year's speakeasy, so all I had to do was make the under-dress. I used the "wrong", darker & matte side of an acid green crepe-back satin and the Sorbetto tank as a base as before, but this time I tried to make the neckline a square U instead of a V. I didn't have enough fabric left over to make bias binding, so I turned under twice and stitched, which of course made the neckline go a bit wonky. I'm pretending that's exactly what I was going for.


I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I felt like the bees knees.


A head-wrap with feathers would not have been appropriate for a garden party, and also not so fabulous for keeping sunstroke away, so instead I wrapped the head-wrap around the straw cloche I bought in Kensington last month. There was a big bump where the original had band loop was, so very much at the last minute I got the bright idea to throw some pleats in to try to hide it. Sadly, my sewing machine threw a giant hissy fit when I tried to sew the pleats down, so there are a lot of pins involved in this creation. Thankfully the DC offered to hand-stitch the pleats down after I threw the hat across the room in frustration.


The Gatsby party was a great deal of fun, and next year I think we'll try to do a picnic and I won't forget my ukulele. As to what I shall wear, I feel that the metallic embroidery makes this more of an evening dress; at least, that's what I'm telling myself because I really want to make the ribbon hat and chiffon squares dress from the Loran's World Art of the 20s dress sewalong (behold! a sewalong I officially took part in!).

Incidentally, prepare for an onslaught of blog posts as I catch up. I've got unfinished posts dating to last summer (and beyond) and I'm going to work my way backwards through them which will no doubt play havoc with blog readers and sidebars.