Alice in Wonderland

We're went to the 'Alice in Wonderland' day at Sudeley Castle last week.

Daughter was Alice of course... Dress based on Simplicity 1507 - Mixture of dress A (for the sleeves) and D (for the dress with collar).
Using a pale blue poly cotton with a white cotton broderie anglais trimmed underskirt.

(Re-used the white 'victorian' apron from Little Red Riding in post below.)

Younger Son went as the white rabbit in his Herald Costume  :o)
Teenage son point blank refused to wear any sort of costume  :o(

It was a wet day at Sudeley unfortunately, so all the 'Alice in Wonderland' props and activities etc had to be moved inside.
Stil we got to meet 'Alice', and sit in a very big chair.

So the make...

DRESS:

The blue dress was a fairly quick and simple make.

Easy to follow pattern instructions, other than...

There is a mistake on the pattern for the front sash band, which does not match up with the notches on the bodice. It's obvious where to put it, but there were a few moments of confusion!

The bodice was very fitted, so if your child is between sizes, I would recommend going for the larger.

I made the Age 7, and I wish I'd made the age 8 as this dress will probably not fit within a matter of weeks!

I made the outer skirt in the same blue poly cotton as the bodice, and the underskirt in a white poly cotton with a broderie anglais trim so it hung out the bottom.

One thing I added were 'bands' along the bottom of the blue skirt hem, as I noticed these on the original drawings of Alice's dress. I just did this by 'zig-zagging' the material a couple of times and sewing over the folds.

I made my seam allowances a bit large whilst sewing, and the collar ended up a little thinner than I would have liked.

The bodice lining I just hand-sewed to cover the join of the top and the skirt, as by then the several layers of material were getting a bit thick.

We finished off the dress with a net petticoat which helped to give the very 'full-skirt' look.

Daughter enjoyed wearing the dress for all of 5 minutes, before she started to complain about the 'puffy' skirt and sleeves... She is not much of a 'girlie' girl - I guess from having older brothers, she'd much rather run around with them than 'dress-up', and suffers from having a 'mum-that-sews'!

Son No.2 was still up for a bit of dressing-up!

So we went for the White Rabbit in his herald costume...

This was the only image we had to work from, so sort of just made it up...

Using a gold velvet upholstery weight fabric, I made a basic shape, and joined at the shoulder seams.

I then edged it all with a red velvet ribbon, and made a cross from a thinner ribbon.

The hearts were just cut out of red felt, glued on with a glue gun, and then appliquéd.

The shoulder bits, were again just guessed as to shape, and I backed them with red felt to give them a bit more substance.

The ruff is something I make as a sideline (see www.renaissanceattic.com).

The herald trumpet was a simple make by grandad on his wood-turning lathe, and we painted it with gold spray paint.

It came out a little larger than I expected, but all-in-all, looked OK.

Although the Queen of Hearts thought he was the knave who had stolen her tarts, and not the white rabbit! So I think most people don't recognise the rabbit in this costume.

Son didn't like wearing the ears, and the ruff very quickly came off, so like his little sister's the costume didn't have much of an outing... oh well!