A thirties style tea party

It's my father's 80th birthday today and this week I have been rather busy preparing a variety of things in relation to this. He rather loves recreating the 1930s style afternoon teas he remembers from childhood, and so he has organised an afternoon tea party for friends and family this Saturday to celebrate. (I had planned to organise something for him, but he got there first - but then he loves playing host!)

My grandfather was a keen cinefilm user, and so we have many hours of footage from Dad's childhood, and I have been busy this week finishing off editing together a short film of his life to play at the party. Going through all the old film, there are some glorious dresses that my grandmother and her friends used to wear. I thought I'd share here these clips of a lovely red patterned dress she wore while gardening with my Dad one beautiful summers day all those years ago;

I love the colour and pattern (though the colour in the film has faded over the years), but I also love the way the collar and sleeves fall over each other. I'm now looking out for vintage patterns that have a similar style so I can try and recreate it.

Meanwhile, I have also bought a set of very cute vintage-style bunting to help decorate the hall he's hired, and hopefully will make some more if I have time tomorrow. I've also had printed off a range of old family photo's captured from the films, as part of one of his presents.

Now I just need to work out what to wear. I had been veering towards my favourite white with blue pattern cotton 50s dress with bolero, but it's occurred to me that my 1930s blue lace dress with matching peplum jacket doesn't get many outings because of it's delicacy. After watching these clips of my grandmothers lovely thirties dresses, this seems like a very appropriate special occasion to wear it to...