Mad Men Season Six Withdrawal

Well, folks, season six of Mad Men has ended and Don Draper is not the only one having the delirium tremens. HOW, I ask you, HOW am I to carry on living until season seven comes??? And let's not even talk about what survival looks like when the show is actually over; I am quite sure that residential rehab will be required to treat my Mad-diction.

So here I sit, with Zou Bisou Bisou playing in a never-ending loop, and I thought I'd finally share the rest of the pics from the season six shindig we threw back in April.

In my last post, I shared that our Mad Men season six premiere party had a luau theme, inspired by the fact that episode one was set in Hawaii: 

Back in the late winter and early spring when our party plans were coming together, I was totally on the prowl for a perfect late-60's hawaiian muu-muu. I knew that I found my dream frock when I stepped into a thrift shop in Woodstock, NY named Castaways (which is apparently so retro they don't have a website!) and spotted this little beauty:

I loved the colors, I loved the pattern, and I loved the fit, but I was not feeling the super-long length. Fortunately, I knew that could be fixed easily enough, so fourteen bucks later, this baby was mine.

The dress is a Ui-Maikai brand muu-muu, made right in Hawaii. If you want to snag one of these for yourself, a quick etsy search will lead you to heaps of them.

To get this thing party-ready, I set about chopping off all that excess fabric at the bottom. The faint blue dotted line on the left of this photo was my cutting line.

Whenever I want to shorten a dress, I always pull out a dress that already has a length I like, and use that as a guide:

Once the excess fabric was safely tucked into my fabric stash (and I can't wait to figure out what I'll be doing with it!), it was a simple matter of pressing the raw edge under:

...and stitching the new hem in place:

Now, before I reveal the after shots of the dress, I have a few other party preparations to share with you!

We knew we'd have some very hard-core fans at our gathering, so a Mad Men season five trivia quiz was created:

...and season five-themed prizes were procured for the trivia quiz winner:

In our goodie bag of prizes, we had Heinz Baked Beans, a bag of Bugles, and a mix of our favorite tunes from season five.

  

Since we were throwing a luau, of course there were leis for all:

As everyone knows, if you're expecting the gang from Sterling Cooper Draper Price to come over, you better stock up on booze:

...and going along with our tiki motif, we knocked back Blue Hawaiians and Mai Tai cocktails:

And here's how I pulled my newly shortened dress together with my refurbished earrings and some big, teased and hairsprayed hair:

Steven and I snapped a couple of selfies before our guests arrived:

We had an absolute blast welcoming season six in with a bunch of really wonderful friends. I cannot believe that the entire season is already behind us!

I don't think it's too soon to start dreaming about season seven, and to start pulling together our final premiere party ideas, do you? 

I can hardly contain my excitement over the fashion options for next year's big soiree! (Will somebody please alert the local vintage/consignment shops to expect a run on polyester pantsuits?)