New(ish) costumes: mending and adjusting one costume to work as a different one.

vintage 1940s poster.

I've been watching the Historical Sew Fortnightly costume activity for a while; although I've never had the time to finish anything on schedule, it's fun to see what everyone else does.  The current (well, the due date just passed, but you still get full credit even if you finish late) project is a "Make Do and Mend" theme.  I have such a pile of mending, both costume and mundane clothing, so I've gotten out a few projects to work on for this challenge.

The first one was fixing my hooped petticoat.  It's one of the cotton petticoats-with-tucks-filled-with-hoop-wire numbers that have been around for years, and it's served me pretty well for over 12 years.  I had removed the top hoop wire (it's a 5-hoop petticoat) because the petticoat was too long for me, and threaded the drawstring through the now-empty space where the wire had been, shortening the petticoat by about 6 inches.  No hemming -- all was good.  Unfortunately the drawstring was not all that strong, and it broke on my friend, who had borrowed it to wear to the Dickens Fair.  While she was wearing it.  Thankfully, it had been slipping down all afternoon, and she was in a dressing room when the breakage occurred, but we panicked for a while!  She ended up buying a new hoop petticoat at the Dickens Fair, and I brought my old one home, and shoved it in the closet.  Until now, when I looked through my stash and found a length of corset lacing that I had bought years ago, that ended up not being nearly long enough, but was a good length for a waist drawstring.  I promptly took it out, found my bodkin (I love those!), and threaded it in the empty drawstring space.  My hoop is usable again!

A Raspberry Bread Pudding and a Viennese Tea!

Raspberry Jam Bread Pudding.  Photo: Elizabeth Urbach

I've had these croissants taking up space in my freezer for a few months, and with all the fruit I've been bringing home from the farmers' market -- for making jam and freezing for next year -- I needed to get the croissants out.  Then they sat in my fridge for a month; they were wrapped in plastic, but still ...  Then, I got a bunch of raspberries at the farmers' market, intending to make jam with them, but a week went by and they were still there, looking at me sadly every time I opened the fridge!  After spending a lot of time looking through recipes for the perfect ones to use, I finally got the croissants and raspberries out the other day and did something with them!

Originally I was going to make bread pudding with the croissants -- I had been looking for a Victorian recipe (that I never did find) that called for grating the bread before adding the custard -- and jam with the raspberries, but as I was mixing the custard for the pudding, with the jam simmering in a saucepan nearby, I got a brain flash: why not put some of the jam *in* the bread pudding, and have a sort-of-raspberry-cream bread pudding?  I checked the fridge: no cream, but I did have some half-and-half.  Maybe white chocolate chips instead?  Checked the pantry: no white chocolate.  So, it will just be raspberry, or maybe Raspberry Jam-and-Bread Pudding ...

Ku Day Ta -- Milpitas' newest tea lounge

our private tea table
Ku Day Ta Tea Lounge - Milpitas
447 Great Mall Drive, #124, Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 935-9107
Hours:
Monday - Wednesday: 10am - 9pm
Thursday: 10am - 10pm
Friday & Saturday: 10am - 11pm
Sunday: 11am - 9pm

Said to be a play on words (from the French coup d’etat), Ku Day Ta’s unusual name is not the only thing that sets this little tea lounge apart from the others. I set up a private tea tasting there, in March 2009, for the South Bay Ladies’ Tea Guild, and we received top-notch service, tea, and “tea snacks” for $25 per person.

The tea lounge is located, surprisingly, at the Great Mall in Milpitas, right by Dave & Buster’s arcade and grill, and Coldstone Creamery ice cream booth. Accessible from outside the mall, as well as inside, the lounge has a stylish, yet calm ambiance, and the staff is helpful and knowledgeable. The owner, Bee-Bee, was in the store every time I went there to check it out, and she presented our tea tasting. We found her to be interesting and well-informed, with a pleasant soft-spoken manner. She corresponded with me personally when setting up the tea tasting, and gave careful advice when I asked about the teas and the tea snacks. Some of the tea guild members have dietary restrictions, and Bee-Bee and her staff treated our concerns with respect and seriousness, finding appropriate foods for us, which enabled us to relax and enjoy our time at Ku Day Ta.

Our tea tasting was a general overview of the main varieties of tea, and included Chinese Silver Needle white tea, Chinese Dragon Well and Japanese Sencha green teas, Taiwanese Formosa oolong tea, and Chinese Keemun black tea. In addition, she brewed some Chinese Jasmine Silver Needle white tea and Chinese Pu-Erh, which is an aged black tea, for us, gratis. The teas were all carefully prepared, and we enjoyed every one. The “tea snacks” served were candied ginger, cassava chips, and the apparently famous Alice’s Stick cookies, which we found deliciously addictive! Bee-Bee and her staff obviously put a lot of time and effort into preparing and presenting their products, and in educating themselves about their teas. We will definitely be returning to Ku Day Ta in the future!