March and April seem like the time of year for Alice in Wonderland themed tea parties. In the past I have attended two at the Old Lyme Inn, one of which I hosted last year. This year I wanted to do it differently. What if instead of spending time in one thoughtfully decorated room and having a creatively curated on theme menu for a few hours, we had an entire property with a pot luck based menu and a few rousing games of croquet?

The location of the venue was obvious. My partner has been collecting Alice themed tea cups  since moving into his home and has decorated his entire kitchen with characters from  Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I would be the communications lead and defacto party planner and his house would be the destination.  Color me shocked when we had 16 people RSVP to the tea party. (This is more than we can usually fit inside the room the Old Lyme Inn reserves for our group). I was initially worried about parking in the driveway, but then I learned that my partner intended for folks to park on the lawn as well so we could probably have had twice as many. 

I told folks to wear something inspired by a character from the books/movies, or just to have motifs that work like sweets, rabbits, time pieces, etc. Pahl of course is always the Mad Hatter, and I seem to vacillate between being Alice or the White Rabbit. Looking back at the group photo, I see a number of other Mad Hatter interpretations, as well as Rabbit themes. Perhaps they are the most popular to try. I also enjoyed Ren's version of the Red Queen on the lower right. I hope to one day be able to pull something like that off myself! 

Pahl's Mad Hatter outfit seems to keep getting more and more refined with each iteration. He pairs a cream colored collared shirt with an Alice in Wonderland themed light green bow tie, an earthy colored paisley waistcoat, matching striped pants, a long wine colored tail coat, brown oxfords, and a slightly off center black top hat with an emerald green hat tie on it. His posture and the expression on his face is utterly deranged.  But don't worry, this is about the extent of the madness he exhibited during the event. He is good at getting all those little details down like acquiring themed paper plates, putting finishing touches on the decor well into the night before,  and making sure guests have so much to eat that there are leftovers the next day.

I decided to be Alice while wearing a navy blue and white printed dress with rabbits in a dream state on the skirt. This is actually one of the first dresses I ever purchased, along with the blouse I am wearing. I've worn this dress for several group meetings at this point, so to make the coordinate a little different, I wore it with a long sleeved blouse (instead of short sleeve like in the past), as well as a half apron. This year I am also becoming more comfortable with wearing bows on my head, and I had this one for about three years before finally putting it together with an outfit. It is navy with gold trims and gold and pearl beading. To repeat the gold, I also added gold based jewelry as well as gold tea party style shoes. I am wearing printed navy tights as well. I wouldn't have normally had navy on navy, but the white apron visually broke up the navy more than if I had worn it without. For bags I had two--a functional pearly gold bow fanny pack, and a white rabbit stuffy backpack. I put the ruffled rectangle headpiece that came with my dress on my white rabbit bag--another thing I did not think to do in the past. It is one thing to dress one's self, but another to also dress up your bag!

Sarah M. pulled together a very nice white and black themed coordinate for her White Rabbit interpretation. Details like a floral dress with a white apron and a large black cape, black and white striped floral under the knee socks, and white boots with black accents soles and lacing tie it altogether. She craftily made the ears to her straw hat, and I was surprised when she told me her white rabbit head cross body bag was actually a gift card holder she found on clearance! You never know where you'll find accessories for an outfit!

The attendees brought so many delicious treats to the event!!  We requested that folks bring items that were either gluten free or vegan friendly. We've been to so many teas where food sensitivities or diets were not really available and we wanted to change that. Pahl made cucumber sandwiches (both vegan and vegetarian friendly varieties) while I made deviled eggs as well as spicy chickpea curry sandwiches (vegan friendly). Colleen made the pink vegan cake, Cole made salad and cookies, Jax made bagels, Van made protein muffins and brought purple peeps, Gary brought a no bake peanut butter chocolate pie, Sarah M brought the blue and purple macarons and spicy deviled eggs, Sarah F brought vegan spring rolls, and Aly brought a variety of cream puffs. Ren made a gluten free shepard's pie, but applied the mashed potatoes like icing on a cake (center). What I've learned thus far is that not only does this group know how to dress on theme, but also that they are quite skilled at speciality food production!

After a few hours of sitting and socializing, my body always yearns for movement, and I am glad that Jax volunteered to bring their partner's croquet set for the tea party. Outside of the table top Pall Mall game I played at the Masks & Mischief Bridgerton Masquerade Ball, I think this is the first time I've played actual croquet. Luckily Aly had played before and knew roughly about where we should be putting the wickets (or metal arches that the balls go through) on the lawn.

I definitely had a huge learning curve in Round 1 of croquet. It took me a few turns to figure out how hard to hit the ball with the mallet and get it to go anywhere in particular on the grass. Aly, Jax, Ren and I were the players in the first round. We only played a half game, so we zig zagged through the middle and right wickets to the other side and back. We were very cordial to one another, but what I learned is that every time you hit someone else's ball and/or go through a wicket, you get additional turns to hit your ball.  And that can be great and necessary with more competitive players. 

Round 2 of croquet brought much more competitive players.  These folks frequently took advantage of the wicket and ball touching and ruthlessly hit other players balls to knock them off course and gain additional turns. 

Playing croquet with this group I must admit I was more focused on watching other people's turns than my own. It was fascinating to see how the players positioned their balls to stay on course and knock others off while gaining so many additional turns in the process. Sarah M was way behind and the last to go in this round, but going last definitely is an advantage in this game. You can see the other players balls and plan accordingly your rise to the top. We thought the boys might be the ones duking it out, but Cole and Sarah M were very close at the end, with Sarah M becoming the winner!

After the second round of croquet and the group photo, most of the attendees left around the same time, but a few stuck around for some posed porch photos. 

We realized afterwards that we underutilized the porch as a place for guests to hang out. It is a fairly large porch and we probably could have fit everyone on it at once rather than socializing in two separate rooms inside. 

It was a pleasure to co-host the Alice Tea! I keep hearing about how much fun people had at it (and it's the end of June as I am recounting this wonderful event).  We are already planning to host it again next Spring, but to invite more people, including some of the neighbors! 

One of the groups I started last year was a sewing group comprised of three people. Two very eager to learn novices with one enthusiastic and experienced teacher. Even though I am a teacher of many things, this time I am the student. My friend Nina has over twenty years of sewing and drafting patterns experience, and she enthusiastically volunteered to teach me sewing. I have made things in the past with my mother's help, but for some reason, I have some kind of residual negative or fearful feeling around those times when she taught me.  My friend Barbara has a similar experience attempting to learn sewing in her youth from family members, and we both just wanted to get past those feelings and get into the good part of altering and making pieces that work with our wardrobes. 

At about the same time, I had joined a sewing discord specifically for EGL fashion. The intention of the group is to learn sewing skills with project "steps" to teach you how to work with and alter patterns to create accessories and eventually actual dresses and blouses for your wardrobe. There are always teaching assistants around online to help with sewing questions and many of the more experienced members are also into cosplay or historical fashion, so they are used to working with a variety of types of fabrics, trims, and machinery. 

So between the online group and the real-life friend group, I had essentially two accountability teams and I knew where I wanted to go with the sewing projects. The first time we met up as a group, it was more of a repair/alteration meeting where I needed to reattach a bustle in a pair of trousers and Barbara needed to hem some pants. 

Step 1 according to the sewing discord is to create an accessory for your wardrobe that is non-fitted commercial pattern with grain lines and notches. They even offered this free head bow pattern to get you started. I printed out this pattern and I was so eager to learn, Nina came over with some scrap materials she acquired and she showed me all the basic steps from laying out the pattern correctly, how to pin it, how to cut it, and how to follow the instructions. We each made a bow with scrap material in the course of an afternoon. 

If you look carefully, you can see there are two A pieces, one is just slightly less wide than the other. The initial pattern has you basically end up cutting out two A pieces, but you only need one. I made a creative choice to use both of them, but to make the second less wide. This probably would have been more obvious with a contrasting navy blue fabric, but remember, I had nothing at this point as far as notions, fabric, or trims, so this is the best I could do.

This bow is a bit floppy because it lacks interfacing, and really needs to have piece A and A.5 sewn to piece B, so that the A's don't slip out upon wearing. It's also not very big. It's probably the width of one's hand. Very subtle, demure. 

Months later after I had ordered the material, trims and notions I needed to actually do Step 1 following all the directions for the pattern, I made this entire headpiece all on my own one afternoon. See my intention was to make a red tartan and black head bow and matching ruffle heart tote bag because I have a lot of red tartan main pieces in my alt wardrobe, but nothing other than black to put on my head or for a bag.  Nina and I had started on the bag together, and it took us about three full sessions to make the bag, and then after all the learning from that project, I felt confident enough to revisit the head bow on my own.  I got the interfacing behind pieces A and B, and I even got black cluny lace trims, which I learned how to sew inwards on the edges so that when it was pulled inside out, it would appear as an unbroken trim all along piece B. I even attempted to cut scrap material on a bias and wrap and glue it around a metal headband. It was going so well. 

But as you can see, these bows do not look the same even though they are from the same pattern. It's because I accidentally swapped pieces A and B for every direction. This bow takes up most of your head. I'd say that's a perfect punk interpretation for the pattern. It actually looks really cool, and even the person who designed the pattern said they liked this mistake. 

These types of ruffle heart bags are very popular in EGL fashion, but I rarely see ones that are red and black tartan, so I decided to make my own. I purchased a pattern off of Etsy for this project, materials from Michaels's online, thread and other notions from Amazon like the interfacing, wadding, and pins.

While the head bow by itself would have qualified for a completed Step 1 project, the Ruffle Heart Tote bag taught me everything else I needed to know about how to make ruffles, pinning, and ironing seams. I learned so many things during the course of it, I felt a huge range of emotions from delight to various levels of frustration, even with Nina's guidance. New neural connections were happening in my brain as I learned to sew things backwards and inside out to reveal a complete product at the very end. Nina tried to reassure me saying that this project was a bit of a stretch for a beginner, but believed in me the whole time!

This is the initial idea of the front of the bag. The pattern doesn't tell you about adding a patch or adding lace trims on top. In fact, this little venture was an additional couple of hours of my time, trying to get that lace trim to stay down as I carefully sewed it down after already having fused the interfacing to the back. I also learned that the pins are not facing the correct way, they should be pinned inwards to the center of the heart so that when you are sewing you can pull the pins out before they destroy the needle of your sewing machine. 

I learned all about basting stitches from making the ruffles for the front and back of the bag. Another time consuming venture by the way. I throughly regretted choosing cotton twill and cotton thread during this step for my project. Basically you're taking a semi-stiff material that does not ruffle easily and putting in a few rows of loose stitches near the edge to pull and then pull down on the fabric, similarly to the way you would pull out a missing drawstring cord in a hoodie or sweatpants. I can't honestly tell you how many times the threads broke or how frequently I lost the basting stitch. The pattern's directions were not very specific either, just saying to try to make the ruffle even looking and to keep doing it until it fits around the heart shaped pieces. I think I did the front one in approximately 50 minutes, and the second one I lost track, as I had to take a few days breaks between the breaking and losing of the stitch.

After I got the ruffles down, it was time to add the handles in. I purposely chose contrasting red thread for this. It's not the most even sewing, but I did it. And again, it's a punk style bag---it's okay if things are a little off!

After that I had to make the grand sandwich. This photo shows me about to sew the wadding (structural lining) to the inside of both sides of the bag. I never took a photo of the actual black lining step, but that's basically sewn separately and then attached all around the bottom and sides of the wadding pieces with a tiny hole in it at the top. At this point you've got a giant thick heart shaped sandwich that a regular sewing needle may or may not be prepared for. If it doesn't break and you get to the end, you get to pull everything out of the little hole in the lining. It's like a magic trick and to be honest I still have trouble wrapping my head around that part. 

I imagine there's easy tote bag sewing projects, and then there's this tote bag sewing project. I finished both Step 1 projects in December 2025, and was ready to start using them in my wardrobe in 2026. I was also ready to start sourcing materials for the Step 2 project, which is to take a pajama pants pattern and alter it into bloomers of a style of your choice. I thought it would be a perfect time to get the group together, give everyone a copy of the Step 2 pattern to assemble on their own time, and go out on an adventure, starting at Cate's Sew Modern, a local sewing shop, a Goodwill to check out the textiles for sale (good for bloomers or mock up patterns), and a little social time at Bones & Botanicals, a witchy themed speakeasy in the heart of an otherwise unassuming strip mall. 

Nina wanted to know what we should wear to the speakeasy, and I initially I said black, but then I thought it was the perfect opportunity to test drive all my hard work on my Step 1 projects. 

My main piece for my look is a red tartan punk style bondage mini skirt from Tripp NYC. Even though this a printed tartan, it's very sturdy and has 4 deep functional pockets despite the level of purely aesthetic straps, zippers and d rings. I guess I took the bones theme to heart, and added an open shouldered t-shirt with a day of the dead face from the brand Sullen that I've had for years (seriously since probably 2012). To repeat the bones theme, I have medium gray tights with black skulls and crossbones on them. To add a little more black to balance out the tartan, I added a cropped length showman style black jacket from Killstar (which also includes unnecessary straps and d rings, and platform black patent mary janes that have metal rivets and additional metal dangling bits. I found a studded black choker in a drawer as well and you can see in other photos that I was wearing medium length black fingerless gloves. I was going for a vibe that combined feminine elements with an overall edgy execution. 

All in all it was a wonderful day. Barbara and I picked up some very interesting printed quilting cotton and notions at Cate's Sew Modern. We each got something at Goodwill- Barbara found a perfect King Size white sheet for her bloomers project, along with an entire new spring wardrobe. Nina found a beautiful pink with gold stars dress and I found her a matching gold clutch. Nina and Barbara found a black lace 3/4 sleeve crop top that they wanted me to try on, and it fit well so I purchased it.  At Bones and Botanicals, we were able to purchase snacks as well as cocktails, mocktails, and freshly brewed hot tea from their own house made blends. We spent a few hours there utilizing the various decks on the book shelf next to where we sat and talking about life and I suppose death in my case.

I was really happy to be wearing my Step 1 projects and have seamlessly fused them into other outfits since that point, so I am really glad I finally started learning to sew!  I know what the gaps are in my wardrobe and knowing now that I can alter or make something that truly fits me with support both in person and online makes a huge difference. This year I will be working on the Step 2 bloomers project, but next year I will be making my own dress! Hopefully once I get the basics of EGL patterning and assembling down, I can move into designing my own pieces that are historically inspired!

At the end of March 2026, my partner and I attended the Masks & Mischief Bridgerton Ball,  in Hamden, CT.  This Masks and Mischief Ball was similar to the first one we attended in October, where the dances were from the actual Netflix show from Seasons 1-3 of Bridgerton as well as Queen Charlotte, with the addition of at least three new dances from Season 4.  Another difference was that instead of a professional photographer offering couples and group portraits during the event, there was a separate games room with five different games to play including a table top Pall Mall (a pre-cursor to croquet)!  And there was a scavenger hunt that I did not participate in because I was committed to wearing my mask all evening and therefore detailed distance vision evaded me, for the most part. 

It was about a month and a half from our return from Venice, so we wanted to showcase our less historically accurate 18th-century costumes and pretend to be part of Queen Charlotte's court which focuses more on Rococo style rather than Regency styles. 

Pahl had purchased this burgundy 18th century outfit complete with blouse, arm cuffs, jabot, and matching tailcoat and trousers before we knew we were going to Venice. We initially thought it would be fine, except that later we learned that it wasn't historically accurate enough for the events we would be attending in Venice during Carnivale. The person who made it used plastic sequins and an embroidery machine to create the beautiful decorative edging design on the coat. We did not want to commit a faux-pas in Italy, but with Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte, the one thing that is always true is that both of these shows are historically-inspired and often mix fashion from different time periods together in the same outfit. And they are not that committed to historical fabrics or finishing techniques either. Bridgerton is definitely glamorous and fantastical, so if you are going to any Bridgerton ball, keep that in mind when dressing yourself.  

To this extent, Pahl actually mixed a gold/ivory Regency style waistcoat and black under the knee riding boots into his outfit. He also made this owl-like gold mask out of paper mache, clay, and gold leaf. 

My outfit is a combination of an OP from Chinese indie brand Miss Point, and accessories that Pahl bought me in Venice at La Bauta. The Lilyka Garden Classic OP from Miss Point features a striking contrast design with bow decorations on the chest, delicate pin tucks, elegant half sleeves, princess sleeves with ruffle cuffs, pockets on both sides, detachable waist ties, and a cotton lace ruffle hem.  I got the Green Wall Flower full set, which also included a giant back bow that pinned on the back of the dress in 6 places, a medium size wired bow on the waist, a bow neck brooch, a bonnet, and gloves. I also purchased the Forest Waltz 4-tiered Multi-Layer embroidered skirt in ivory thinking I could use it to extend the dress length to the floor, but when I put it on altogether along with the Nolaria High Volume White Puffy Petticoat, it was too heavy for me to dance in.

See, again, I got this dress way before I knew we were going to Venice, and I was under the impression that with the floor length skirt it would have been close enough to 18th-Century style because of the princess sleeves and the tiered shape of the skirt along with the ruched swirling ruffles at the hem, but it's not the right shape, at all. The skirt would need to be much wider to hold proper panniers, floor length as well, and the yoke of the dress while absolutely astounding with the delicate chiffon pintucks is unfortunately not at all like a decorative stomacher in a historically accurate 18th-century dress. 

But as I've said before, this works for a Bridgerton ball, especially if you're moonlighting as a lady of Queen Charlotte's court, because while it has elements of 18th-century fashion, it is tying in some 19th century choices in the patterning and construction. The rest of my accessories are hands down more 18th-century leaning from the under the knee socks with the ivory bows and the ivory and gold bow low-heeled fabric shoes. The mask and the cape are actually historically accurate pieces from Atelier La Bauta in matching velvet turquoise. The mask is a type of Columbina party mask, made with paper mache and covered in velvet, lace trim, and rhinestones, while the Velvet Cape has a hood and tie at the neck, and is lined with satin.  The fur stole is actually two stoles cleverly combined with a satin lining and tie that we purchased from a friend. It was particularly cold the evening of the ball, and I decided that the fur stole was necessary and not in fact, over the top.  I usually have a rough time wearing masks comfortably, but I have to say that this was the most comfortable mask I've worn in my life, so kudos to La Bauta for making a beautiful decorative and wearable mask!

​The dances at this ball are certainly more focused on "sweet little choreographies for couples", as well as some unchoreographed waltzing and mixer dances like dance from Season 2's "Harmony" episode and the lively Scottish-style dance from Season 4's episode, "The Beyond".  But don't assume you have to attend with a partner, dance with same person the whole time, or that your partner has to be the opposite gender. It's a free for all really--if you want to dance and find someone who will take the opposite role, all is fair!  I usually prefer to take a follow role, because I get confused easily when changing directions, but there are plenty of people who dance both roles! Everyone is very kind and it is okay to ask someone to "be on your dance card"; do not assume you have to wait for anyone to ask you first, especially if you are not a lead. I danced with just about as many women as men, and skipped a few dances to play a competitive game of Pall Mall with Pahl. I was way behind at first, but I came through as winner at the end! 

You might have noticed that I changed my shoes from my initial photo and that's because I'm so committed to dancing, that I'm wearing actual jazz shoes. If my dress was floor length, you might not have seen them at all. The waist bow is looking a bit skewed, but that's to be expected after dancing on the balls of your feet for some thirty minutes or more. Luckily the wired bow is very adjustable. 

It seems as if the folks that chose to wear spring colors are all centrally located, while the darker colors frame the sides and back of the group.  For more photos from this ball and the October one, go here. 

We had a wonderful time dancing and socializing with friends old and new. To be on the lookout for more events from the same dance instructor, Susan de Guardiola for Bridgerton, Regency, and other historical balls and events, please visit the Masks & Mischief page for upcoming events!