2019 is the 150th anniversary of Wellington’s founding as a city, and there will be events across the year to commemorate the anniversary.

These launched off with a Victorian themed picnic at the Wellington Botanical Gardens in late January.

If you were really trying to focus on the anniversary, that would have been clothes for 1869, but hoopskirts and bustles on a hot midsummers day? To sit on the ground on a picnic blanket? No thank you!

My original plan was to wear clothes from 1919, as if I were at the 50th anniversary picnic, but the dress I was working on turned out a little too obscure – not obviously historical, just sort of…strange if you didn’t know what you were looking.

So I went for Edwardian, which is what what the advertising for the picnic showed anyway: and gave me a chance to wear my purple Scroop Fantail Skirt (the pattern is currently not available for sale, as I update the size range, but it will be back on sale shortly).

I paired it with my Time Lady Wearing History Edwardian Blouse, a wide leather belt, and a straw boater, for a casual ca. 1900 look.

Eloise of Linen and Lining also made a Fantail, and her own Wearing History Edwardian Blouse – so we were quite a matched pair!

We had quite a nice time, sitting in the shade and drinking cordial and eating strawberries and enjoying the string music the Gardens put on. We liked the Punch and Judy show they staged significantly less…

Good times!