The "Patisserie" Dress

So around the beginning of the year, a friend posted on her FB page that she would hand make something for the first 5 people who commented on her post, and the catch was that you had to repost the offer. I commented because my friend, Christine, is always a crafty person and is also an amazing photographer. When we were in college she did pressed flowers for a bunch of us who were close friends with her and I still have mine, framed, in my sewing room.

When I reposted, I got replies from 4 friends quite quickly but was surprised that I didn't hear from my friend, Lindsey, since she's a fan of my sewing work. I made a baby quilt for her younger daughter last summer and she loves it. When I saw that she hadn't replied to the post about a free handmade something, I messaged her to see if she'd seen it. She hadn't, but she jumped at the chance and when I asked if she wanted something for the baby, she said that the quilt was enough but could I make something for her older daughter, BB, who is my Gwyneth's good friend. BB is a girly girl and I immediately started thinking about dresses - something she could wear in the summer but also in spring and fall with maybe a shirt underneath. I showed her the Feliz dress in the SCKL book and she loved it.  BB's favorite colors are pink and purple so I poked around on the Fashion Fabrics Club website to see what was available and came up with a pastel plaid chambray, a purple chambray, a pink striped shirting and some coordinating voiles. But when the fabrics came, I stopped being so enthusiastic about them. Normally I use some kind of a print as the main fabric and I'd planned to use the plaid as the lower ruffle on the under-dress, as well as some of the ruffles on the back and make the body of the under-dress from the striped pink shirting. I stopped liking that and decided that the way to go was with the plaid as the body of the under-dress. But then I started thinking about needing a smaller print to tie everything together - the plaid is good but bigger than I'd anticipated. I dug through my stash and somehow came up with a 1-yd. piece of pink abstract print of dots/egg shapes that had all the colors from the other fabrics. I can use this for the sash and as one of the ruffle fabrics. The purple chambray is the over-dress. But how to tie it all together?

The most famous French macarons. These colors inspired the theme of the dress.

BB is interested in all things French and I thought that the perfect way to embellish the plain fabric of the  over-dress was to embroider it. Suddenly a lightbulb came on for me - Huups.de has an embroidery set called 'Bonjour Paris', of a French girl with her dog, an Eiffel Tower, a pastry shop and the phrase "Paris, Je t'aime" (I love you, Paris).  And it's done by my favorite embroidery designer, Nic, of Luzia Pimpinella. If I changed up the color scheme from the original design of the embroidery to go with the dress colors, I could make a whole scene of the girl going to the pastry shop. Okay, technically the shop says 'confiserie', which means 'confectionary' and really refers to a place that makes desserts of various kinds (cakes, pastries, tartes, chocoates, ice cream) and not just a pastry shop. But, if you add some ribbons with cakes, cupcakes and ice cream cones in those same tones of French macarons and you get a pastry shop dress! So now I'm inspired. And also, hungry. However, the macarons can wait.


So the end product:

As you can see, the apron/overdress is the focal point. I wanted the "Paris, Je t'aime" to stand out so that the theme would be kind of obvious, so I went with a lighter color. White seemed too stark, hence the light pink. And the jade green for the Eiffel Tower letter 'A' is a good way to introduce that color, plus it links to the straps; I was afraid that doing the straps in the green would look odd but they bring a nice bit of contrast. And they look adorable with the dark pink rick-rack at the edges - that part reminds me of the lace paper doilies that some pastry shops use.

I wanted to set up the street scene at the bottom in such a way that there was an Eiffel Tower in the background, but I realized that it was going to be too heavy after I finished the pastry shop, simply due to the amount of embroidery on a dress this size. So I moved the Eiffel Tower to the back of one of the side panels, which kind of gives the feel that Paris is all around and ties the theme to the back of the dress.

The back of the dress involved adding ruffles and ribbon - normally not something that is too difficult, just time-consuming. That and with this dress it has to be done before sewing the dress pieces together, so it seems like it's taking forever to finish. Surprisingly, this was more difficult than I anticipated, since I had to figure out how to incorporate the ribbons in a way that made sense and didn't look like I'd just thrown a bunch of ribbon at the dress.

The wide cake ribbon posed a problem due to its width, but I made it work, though I ended up using far less of it than I anticipated. At first I'd thought I would simply serge the raw edges of the ruffles and, after gathering them, sew them so that the serged edge would be under the ruffle, the topstitched so that it wouldn't show. I soon realized that the green voile was far too thin for that and that the plaid ruffles would have been too heavy done that way. Instead, I stitched the ruffles with the raw edges facing up, then added ribbons on top of the raw edges.

This not only serves as a way to finish/conceal the raw edge but also adds a nice surprise underneath. That's what I did with the cake ribbon, though I only used it on the green ruffles, since using it on all of the ruffles would have been a little too much. Even cakes should be taken in moderation.

To make the other ribbons stand out, I chose the lavender with the ice cream cones for the yellow seersucker ruffles and used the yellow ribbon with the cupcakes on the purple chambray ruffles. You know, contrast colors and all that. The purple chambray is topped with pale pink ribbon and the yellow seersucker got a yellow one, though I wish I'd had a darker pink on hand and maybe a greenish color for the yellow, just to make it more interesting.

I'd contemplated using the multicolored abstract dot print as the bottom ruffle but it seemed to work against the plaid of the dress, so instead I used an embroidered pink voile, very similar in color to the rick-rack that I used on the straps and on the jade green ruffles. 

When I brought the dress to her, BB. immediately tried it on and declared it her new favorite dress, which is always a good feeling. I so enjoy making things for people and it really makes me happy when they like it this much. I made a size 122/128, which is a little roomy on her right now but that means she'll be able to wear it that much longer. When I left her she was still spinning in it every now and then, just to see it twirl.

Mustache Man

My T-bird is currently very into the whole mustache thing. I don't know why, except that he thinks they're hilarious. So when I noticed that he was in need of another long-sleeved shirt or two, I decided that he ought to have one with a mustache, and I reasoned that it would be an excellent first project for test-driving my embroidery machine. So I checked out Urban Threads, a cooler-than-average website with lots of trendy embroidery downloads for sale. The search term 'mustache' brought up quite a few embroidery designs and I chose a rather large mustache that was fairly simple in design.

Mustache detail.

I'd already sketched out a plan for this shirt -2 layer sleeves (short over long) with a slightly scooped neck from the Fall 2008 issue of Ottobre. This is the "Pekka" shirt, design #25 and made up in a size 110. It's slightly large right now but it won't be in the fall. The main body of the shirt and the short sleeves are made from a cafe au lait-colored interlock that I got from The Fabric Fairy. The longer sleeves are a two-toned brown striped rib knit from my stash and the brown ribbing is from my stash, as well. The ribbon trim on the sleeves is a green frog print that is reversible and came from Banberry Place. I was a little nervous about the embroidery, since it was the first time I'd used the machine; however, it was really easy to do and now I want to embroider all kinds of garments! Next project, a shirt with a triceratops embroidery.

Frog ribbon - I used both sides.

The pants shown with the shirt are also mommymade and they're also from Ottobre, this time from the Fall 2003 issue, design #13. These are made from olive green ripstop cotton that I had left over from making shorts a year or two back. They have pleated pockets, golden brown-colored topstitching and a striped ribbon detail on the pocket flap. The bottoms of the legs have drawstrings of black shock cord with black stoppers. My one problem with these pants is that the snaps on the pockets aren't really functional, due to me accidentally getting carried away with the hammer when I put them on. It's not my fault - I wanted them to be on securely! Anyway, this pattern is fairly easy to put together and I've got another pair cut out already - this time in brown and tan, using some leftover denim and recycling part of a pair of daddy's pants. I hope to get those finished soon and then it's back to the maternity bathing suit, which got put on hold due to lack of good elastic and the need to finish this shirt so it could be a birthday present. And then there's the dress I made for a friend's daughter, but that's another post.

The Shape of Things, aka Does This Dress Make Me Look Fat?

I'm dying to sew for myself. I have tons of projects in my queue that are for me and I even have the fabrics already. But I can't make them - yet. I don't want to make them yet. Why? Because I won't be able to make them the right size now so that I can still wear them in the summer or fall.

Why is that? Because I'm pregnant. Ta-dah! Did you see that one coming? I didn't really. I mean, I kind of hoped but thought I was just getting too old. Lucky for me there seems to have been one good egg left and I'm now 15 weeks along, with a rapidly disappearing waist. And that means the awesome ideas for dress making I had will have to stay in a holding pattern (no pun intended) until next year some time. I'm not complaining, mind you - I can still make some cute summer maternity things for myself. I've already got plans in the works for a maternity bathing suit, since the regular one I bought at the end of last summer is about to not fit any more. I mean, I could wear it but I love it and don't want to stretch it out. Ottobre had a tankini in the 2011 Spring/Summer women's issue that I should be able to adapt and I ordered some cute red and white polka-dot swimwear fabric from The Fabric Fairy.

After searching the internet for tutorials on how to alter a normal bathing suit pattern to be a maternity pattern, I determined that I wouldn't have to add a ton to this tankini, since it's already ruched along the sides for the overlay. So with that in mind, I decided to add to the front width-wise and length-wise and then added a similar amount of length to the back. Because this tankini is essentially an empire waist, I only had to add to the bottom panel. I did add a little extra to the bra portion by extending the back edges slightly.

For this, I used the largest size as a starting point - a size 52 - and then added onto the center of each of the front pieces. Because both are cut on a fold, I added 1 1/2" in width so that I would end up with a total of 3" for the finished product. This may seem like a lot, given the stretch of swimsuit fabric, but I tend to really stick out towards the end of pregnancy and it'll be summer at that point so I'll want to be at the pool or the splash park. Because I'll need extra length to accommodate the projection of my belly, I also added 3 1/2" to the bottom.

I didn't bother to add width to the back of the suit because I don't think I'll need it there. I added the extra length, however, since the ruching is on the back as well as the front. I've cut it out and now need to start sewing it. But first I have a quick project to make up for Maeve, so the suit is on hold until then.

Roses are red, violets are blue...

When I think of violets, I think of spring and even though it's really winter, I couldn't resist the call of this fabric. Actually, I'd sort of been planning this outfit since about June, but then I got sick, and we moved, and it just didn't happen. I finally had some time in September to do the shirt and skirt and then made the leggings in November. And of course, I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.

I'd been dying to do the Laguna skirt and leggings by Studio Tantrum. I love Nancy's patterns because they are truly unique. I mean, this is a simple circle skirt but it's made by cutting the circle into spirals and then sewing them together. I don't think I'd be able to come up with something like that in a million years, particularly since it probably requires math and that's really not my strong suit. Anyway, I got the pattern from Banberry Place a while ago and had intended to make it for Maeve but suddenly she grew too big for the pattern. So I left it for a bit and then, this past spring I was going through my fabrics to look for something when I spotted the floral printed poplins next to each other and said to myself, "Hey, those would make a great pairing in a skirt." The Laguna popped into my head and that was it. I wanted to do a shirt with it and knew that Gwyn likes the Farbenmix Antonia quite a bit, but I wasn't sure of the fabrics. Then I got sick, etc. and it got put off.

The fabrics here were all already in my stash, which means I didn't have to buy anything for this particular garment, though I will say that the smaller floral was something that I'd gotten about 5 years ago but didn't have any plans for at the time. The larger floral is a Baby Nay poplin that I got on ebay about 5 years ago, too. I'd already used a good portion of it to make a Farbenmix Sasha dress for Maeve and really had to work hard to squeeze the skirt out of the piece I had left. The waistband is a bit of Stenzo poplin left over from the Delft dresses I made the girls 2 years ago.

I finished the hems with two different colors of ric-rac, which was no mean feat, since I went through 2 packages of each color of rid-rac to do it. I like the effect, though. Of course, I added the label that came with the pattern, because how could I not? Gwyn thought it looked like a mommy owl and her baby, and since she loves owls.... And see the blue flowers? Those are the violets.

On to the shirt - a double-sleeved version of Antonia with the keyhole:

The rose print that makes up the front and back plus the shorter sleeves is a beautiful Stenzo cotton-lycra knit that I got from Yvonne at the now-defunct Bunte Fabrics. Hence the roses in the title. The sleeves are a blue and white gingham-print cotton-lycra knit that I got from The Fabric Fairy during a sale. The neck binding is simply some dark pink ribbing I had on hand.Then, naturally, there are the extras, since this shirt is for Miss Gwyn.

I love freebies, don't you? Well I got the pink decorative elastic as a freebie with a fabric order at some point, and I jumped at the chance to use it on this shirt. The ribbon on the left sleeve came to me as a freebie when I ordered some ribbon from Farbenmix directly. It was basically a leftover from a roll and all I had was enough to use on this sleeve. You can buy it here.

The rest of the left sleeve features a round patch with a rose on it. This one I bought 5 years ago in Germany - it cost me 1 euro, I think, and it goes perfectly with the roses in the ribbon. Finally, the trim at the hem of the long sleeve is a blue and white decorative elastic that was also a freebie.

The right sleeve has the same pink decorative elastic at the short sleeve hem and the same blue at the long sleeve hem. The difference is the red and white dot Farbenmix ribbon and the Farbenmix tag, naturally. Since the weather isn't exactly warm enough to wear the skirt without tights, I also made up a pair of leggings with the Laguna pattern. These are made from a cotton-lycra knit in aqua-blue and raspberry stripe from The Fabric Fairy. I highly recommend this knit - the recovery is great and the fabric is super soft. As a whole, I love this outfit but she can also wear these separately, so that's a bonus. It's currently a favorite in the rotation and she even calls it her "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue outfit".

Adventure Down the Rabbit Hole, Part 3: The Queen's Bodice

An Alice in Wonderland needs a Red Queen. As I mentioned before, my oldest decided that she preferred the costume worn by Helena Bonham Carter in the recent Tim Burton version of the classic tale, rather than the standard animated Disney version. I don't blame her - the Tim Burton costume is far more interesting. It is, however, quite an undertaking but since I'm not one to shrink from a challenge, I went with it.

First, we decided on a pattern for a jumping-off point. Simplicity actually makes a pattern for the Red Queen and Alice, based on the movie costumes but I didn't like it and neither did Miss Maeve. It doesn't really do a good job of copying what you see in the film. So I decided to go with McCall's 5954, view E. It has the same type of sleeve as the original, and though it doesn't have a separate corset bodice, I can give it the illusion of one.

The skirt isn't the same as the original, but I'm loathe to have her dragging a full-length overskirt around. I made a sketch to indicate the changes. I'm no fashion illustrator, but you get the idea.

As you can see, there are some small differences from the original. First, I decided to add some hearts in order to make it more recognizable as the Queen of Hearts. My daughter, apparently, doesn't like the idea of being called the Red Queen, since that's a reference to the other Alice book, Through the Looking Glass. The movie happens to be an amalgam of the two, but that's another blog post altogether. Anyway, I figured that not everyone had seen the movie or might remember the costume, so we added a heart at the center of the bodice front, and then hearts along the bottom of the skirt. The original costume has a velvet bodice, with a gold silk center panel. I had some leftover black velvet from another project in my vast fabric stash, so I used that and made the center portion from gold damask upholstery fabric.

The gold is darker than the original costume, but it's as close as I could get without spending a fortune. I couldn't tell from photos online what kind of fabric the over-sleeves were made from, so I went with black taffeta from my stash. The under-sleeve of the original is a black net with an underlining of a light gold fabric. I substituted a bonded lace fabric for this, and it works pretty well.

Of course, the sleeves themselves are decorated with fred ribbons, both on the puffed over-sleeve and on the longer under-sleeve. The originals have some kind of black embellishment on them and I couldn't tell if it was sequins, beads or something entirely different. I decided to use a combination of black sequins and black ribbon roses, and the effect is pretty similar to the original:

I did all this bead and sequin work by hand. It's taken me a while to do it, since I have to do each one individually, but I've been doing this embellishment while waiting for the small ones at gymnastics lessons, and even did some while Miss Maeve was at an Irish dance competition and wasn't dancing. Of course I stopped sewing to watch her dance. Eventually there will be beading on the top portion and all kids of wonderfulness - I hope. I'm kind of running out of time! But I have all morning and afternoon to finish this, plus time at gymnastics tonight, which should be enough, as long as I can get the White Rabbit done today. That one is going together pretty quickly, thankfully.

Adventure Down the Rabbit Hole, Pt. 2 - Alice

I was planning on starting my Wonderland costume extravaganza with the Queen of Hearts, but that would mean that I need my oldest to be able to drop what she's doing every couple of minutes so that I can fit the muslin of the dress bodice and she's been inundated with homework. Ah, the travails of middle schoolers! Since she wasn't really available, I moved on to the Alice costume, since I knew it would require a bit of hand work for the hems and lining, and I like to have hand sewing to do whilst the small ones are at gymnastics and I sit in the bleachers, watching them.

I made a few alterations to this pattern to make it look the way that I wanted, but not a lot. The only change I made to the dress was the addition of a collar. There are many Alice patterns out there and the one I wanted had a dress with a collar and a separate pinafore. That one wasn't available at my local JoAnn's at the time, so I went with this one:

As you can see, this dress doesn't have a collar and the pinafore is not a separate piece. This pattern actually calls for the bib to be sewn directly to the bodice, with the apron skirt being a separate piece, sewn to a ribbon and then tied around the waist. I knew my Gwyneth was not about to go for that, since she is a stickler for authenticity as much as I am. I recalled a shirt in one of my back issues of Ottobre which has a similar collar and traced that out, but when I tried to see how it would fit with the dress neckline, it was clear that it wasn't going to work. So I skimmed through some other issues with the vague notion that there was a dress with a peter pan collar in one and, to my delight, found this dress:

I traced off the collar piece and added giant seam allowances. Normally I use a 1cm seam allowance with Europeans patterns, but the dress pattern had standard 5/8" seams, so I used that width in order to keep everything the same. The first try didn't work when I tried to attach it to the dress - the curve was too deep for it to lie properly. So I cut off the entire seam allowance and re-pinned it and found that it was the perfect size. Thank goodness, because I didn't have enough of the blue to make another one and was reluctant to go buy more. A make it work moment that worked out.

The pinafore was a different story. First, I curved the neckline slightly and used the size 7-8 for the bib. I wanted the bib to be in front and in back, so I cut 4 pieces and sewed the shoulders together in pairs, then stitched them together along the outer edges. Next I turned them right side out and used bias tape to bind the neckline. Unfortunately for me, the bias tape is slightly yellower in color than the bib of the pinafore, but I didn't notice that until I had sewn it on all the way. It really looked white when held next to the bib, so I'm not sure why there is that subtle color difference. Anyway, I used the pattern piece to cut the correct length of apron but I used the entire width of my fabric in order to make the apron skirt fuller. This was important to me, since the skirt of the dress is really quite full and I felt that the narrower width looked kind of skimpy against it. I gathered the top edge, then sewed narrow hems at the sides.

The pattern calls for a wide ribbon but my kids like their Halloween costumes to be dress-up clothing, and that means they get washed. Ribbons don't launder well, so I made a waist tie out of the same white muslin as the apron skirt and bib. I interfaced the portion that would be sewn to the skirt and bib, then sewed the skirt to one side and the bib to the other. I kind of just made it up as I went along, though I did use the pattern pieces as a guide.

All in all, a highly successful costume, in my opinion. The thing that was great about this one was that it did require a little bit of hand finishing, which allowed me to have some sewing to do while I watch the kids at gymnastics. I hate sitting there with nothing to do and I always feel like I'm wasting time that could be spent in front of my machine. Now that Alice is done, I'm moving on to the Red Queen. I lucked out, because Maeve is getting big enough that I don't have to do as many alterations to the adult-sized pattern in order to make it fit her, so I can pretty much just start cutting out. But I'll talk about that in a different post.

An Adventure Down the Rabbit Hole, Pt. 1

So it's that time of year again - fall. And that means Halloween is just around the corner, so you know that I'm getting ready to start on a massive amount of costume sewing. Every year, it seems, the costumes get more and more elaborate and I suspect I missed my calling somewhere along the line. This year's sewing promises to be no exception, since the 3 have decided to go as characters from a popular book/movie. And not just any characters, oh no. They have chosen one of the most iconic children's books and characters out there. And no, I'm not talking The Hunger Games and Katniss, although I'm sure Maeve would jump at that if given the chance and she quickly spotted a pattern for it in a pattern book at JoAnn's. No, I'm talking Alice in Wonderland, and the characters of Alice, the Queen of Hearts/Red Queen, and the White Rabbit.

Now, given the ages of my children, it's clear who is dressing as Alice and the White Rabbit and it makes sense. Their costumes really won't be difficult to make, although I plan on making some changes/additions, as always. For T I'll be using the standard McCall's pattern # 6101 for the bunny suit, but I'll also be making a waistcoat (aka, a vest) with a large pocket for his pocket watch (which I am making out of wood) and we'll also have a bow tie or ascot. I'm leaning towards bow tie as that's the iconic Disney animated image; Scott seems to have a fondness for the ascot idea, since the newer Tim Burton version has the rabbit dressed in a shortened version of a frock coat, worn with a waistcoat underneath and a jabot of lace at the throat. My 3 year-old son is probably not going to tolerate a jabot of lace, though he may tolerate an ascot. He's already running around saying, "I'm late! I'm late!"

For Miss G I've also chosen a McCall's pattern, # 4948, mostly because the Simplicity one with the collar wasn't in stock at the JoAnn's I go to and I wasn't waiting for it. Naturally the dress fabric is a lovely sky-blue cotton with a white cotton muslin pinafore. I plan on adding the peter pan collar to the dress, and I'll be making real ties for the apron, rather than using the ribbon ties that the pattern instructions say to use. Add white tights, black Mary Janes and a black headband and you've got classic Alice.

The real challenge, though, is Maeve. She decided to dress as the Queen of Hearts but she wasn't really sure that she wanted to go with the animated version's costume, since she really liked the more Elizabethan look of Helena Bonham-Carter's Red Queen. (photo via: http://alice2010.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html)

After looking at patterns from which to base this look, I chose McCall's 5954, and then started to think about modifications that would make it look more like the photo above. First, we decided to use black for the bodice, except for the middle portion, which will be gold, with red ribbons to imitate the cording on the corset-style bodice of the movie costume. The sleeve puffs will also be black - either in taffeta or velvet, depending on whether I have enough black velvet in my stash, although taffeta will probably hold the shape better than rayon velvet. The red ribbon trim on the sleeves has some sort of black embellishment but we couldn't find any ribbon like it, so we've decided to sew black ribbon roses to the red ribbon in order to achieve a similar look. The lower half of the original's sleeve is a netting; I found a remnant of light beige-y fabric with a lace overlay that is very similar in look, and also more practical for trick-or-treating on an October evening. The cuffs look like they're made from a dotted chiffon, cut on the bias, but so far I haven't been able to find anything similar to it in the store. Looks like a trip to Hancock Fabrics might be in order. In the meantime, I've seen others' copies of this outfit which have used ruffled eyelet trim, but I think that the cotton looks a bit cheap next to the other types of fabric, even if it does give a similar look. Also, I'm going to have to add some black panels and the white shirt collar portion to the bodice. The only thing I really have to worry about is the size of the collar, but that shouldn't be too difficult to reproduce. I'm also considering a slight deviation from the movie dress by adding a large heart appliqué on the bodice, in order to inject more of the red/hearts theme.

The skirt portion will be more difficult to imitate. In the movie costume, the Red Queen has a red underskirt, with the front panel made of a red with a heart motif in black and gold, and an overskirt in a gold brocade. The pattern I chose has an overskirt that is shorter and draped - more like a polonaise, though they refer to it as a peplum, for some reason.

Dress with a polonaise, via http://historicalfashion.tumblr.com/

I could alter the pattern so that my version has a longer overskirt and then the underskirt, but there are 2 difficulties that present themselves if I do that:

1) This means more fabric, which is expensive and impractical when it comes to a Halloween costume for a 12 year-old. If this were something for a convention, like DragonCon or some other mega event where people would be judging her on a costume's authenticity, then I might. But's Halloween and she needs to be able to move. Also, she'll probably want to wear this at the next feis for Irish Dance, since they're having a costume special event. Extra fabric would get in the way, and I'll need to be able to drape the underskirt up à la polonaise just so that she can dance the reel in it.

2) A large overskirt would require hip rolls to support it, as Maeve has no exactly got large hips. I have no desire to make hip rolls for her to wear or to ask her to wear them. So I'm going with the shorter overskirt.

In order to achieve a similar look to the movie costume, we decided to use a dark gold brocade for all but the front panel of the long skirt. The front panel will be red taffeta with a flocked vine design in black. The shorter draped overskirt will probably be black, but we haven't finalized that. Also, we're giving a nod to the traditional Queen of Hearts' costume with heart appliqués on the skirt. Normally they're on the front panel but we decided to place them around the hem. While this is a departure from the Tim Burton costume, it's a way to reference the more traditional Alice that the other 2 costumes follow. Plus, it's a way of making our own statement, since there's always a risk that people won't make the connection to the newer movie and end up thinking that she's just a queen.

I'm also going to be on the lookout for lace-up granny boots at the thrift store that I can spray-paint gold, and I'll be looking for striped tights or something similar. I'm going to try to document the process of these costumes as much as possible, though I can't promise every detail will be photographed, since I frequently don't know where my camera is. I'll try, though. On with the sewing!