Earlier this year, Tula Pink released a fabulous Alice in Wonderland inspired fabric line called 'Curiouser and Curiouser." Tula Pink is a fabric pattern designer that I have admired for a few years now (and is a long time favourite of Angela Clayton) and Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time favourite books, so this was a very easy purchase. Of course, deciding which print to make a dress out of was much more difficult, which is why this dress is made with two of the prints. The print that I used for the patch pockets and collar depicts the scene where Alice cries herself a river, and they all float away in it. The print that I chose for the whole dress is the scene where Alice falls down the rabbit hole, and the print has so many delightful details in it, such as birds in bird cages and Alice's striped tights. All of the prints in the 'Curiouser and Curiouser' collection are just as detailed and just as bright, some of Tula Pinks trademarks.
It is a bit odd that Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite books. I have never particularly enjoyed fantasy, and as a child I was strangely strict about what animals could and couldn't do in fiction: they could not wear clothes, they could not talk to humans, and they could not do things that humans do but animals do not, such as drive cars. However, despite my very specific way of enjoying things, I absolutely loved the bizarre and disturbing world of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I didn't care that animals spoke to humans and did things that animals shouldn't do, I thought it was fascinating that the caterpillar smoked a hookah. One of my favourite parts was when Alice is bringing the Duchess an invitation and her cook is making soup with far too much pepper, which makes the Duchesses baby turn into a pig. I also have a strong fondness for the Mad Hatters Tea Party, since there is nothing I love more than conversations that just skate the edge between interesting and making no sense whatsoever.
One of the best parts of the book is the beautiful classic wood engraved illustrations by John Tenniel. Illustrations are possibly my favourite form of art (other than dressmaking, if you are of the mind that it counts as a visual art), and there is something about these ones that show the most magical parts of the book in an incredibly matter of fact way, which makes all of the situations seem almost possible. Also, they give Alice such a personality - some of her confused expressions are quite sassy. And her dress with her white apron and mary janes is such an iconic look! I did my best to copy this look many times.
I used the same pattern from the 1950's that I used to make my cat shirt dress earlier this summer, although I did make a few alterations to make it more Alice-y. To begin with, I chose the shorter sleeve option so that it would hopefully look as different from my other shirt dress as possible. I then shortened the dress a bit so that it ends just below the knee instead of mid-calf, and I drafted my own patch pockets to topstitch to the front. I was in between this pocket shape and hearts, but I chose this one since it could fit my phone.
Another detail you may notice on this dress is the buttons. They are in two different sizes on the dress, with a larger one at the top by the collar and on both of the pockets. The rest of the buttons are slightly smaller. This is sort of by accident, since these buttons are vintage (from the 1950's), and the buttons on this dress are all of the ones that I had. I only had five of the smaller buttons, but I felt like five was one not enough for the bodice, so I decided to use a larger button at the top in the hopes that it would look like I did that on purpose. When I chose this shape of patch pocket, I thought that I would add the last two larger buttons to them, since it tied everything together and used up all of the buttons of this kind that I had.
Everything about this dress makes me very happy. I love the colours, the little details, and the story that the print tells. And stay tuned for more Alice in Wonderland inspired items, because I have been making another dress with the same theme! I am working on the goal that one day my closet will be filled with book themed garments.
Thank you for reading!
~Katherine
