Alice Royal Suit: Part 2

"How fine you look when dressed in rage" The Cheshire Cat

This is part two of the making of the Royal Suit, which will cover the lower sleeves, the bow, the skull, and the Vorpal Blade.

Lower Sleeves

These are made from black vinyl. I painted red stripes on with red acrylic paint. These "sleeves" were designed to be tight around the upper arm and loose around the wrist, but I added elastic to the wrist portion to create gathering. These are a bit rough and I wish I'd added more crenallations, but they're not too bad.

Bow

Alice's bow isn't a simple rectangle. It seems to be a tube or loop of fabric; it's a bit hard to describe. I used some leftover black satin and a lot of interfacing.

The gold details are more interfaced spandex. I cut out a lot of gold hearts and "ribbons", glued them on, then stitched them down.

I sewed the rectangle into a loop, then gathered the centre.

I covered the middle of the bown with a black rectangle of fabric. 

The bow attaches to the waistband with hairpins! 

The Skull

I originally made a skull for this costume years ago from upholstery foam and paper-mache. It was pretty rough and not very accurate.

I added details on to the basic skull using paper clay.

Once the clay dried, I sanded it down to make it a little smoother.

I painted the skull white, added details with grey and black, got annoyed at how dark it was and added more white, and finally got a reasonable-looking skull. 

Here's the final skull. It attached to the bow with a large safety pin.  

Vorpal Blade

 "The Vorpal Blade is swift and keen, and always ready for service." The Cheshire Cat

I based the Vorpal Blade on this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckAVEnPXBU&t=1s 

I used foam mats and a wooden dowel (from an old coat hanger)

 I used a template I found here: https://www.red-lilly.com/en/props/alice-liddells-vorpal-blade/ and cut out the pieces. 

 I forgot to photograph the next steps, but I used paper clay to smooth out the blade and to create the shape of the handle. After a lot of sanding I managed to make the knife fairly smooth, but since I don't have a dremel the knife is a little bit rough in places.

 I used 3D paint (puffy paint?) to add details to the hilt. I used a craft knife to cut the details on to the blade, and used heat to expand the cut, creating an engraved look.

I spray-painted the whole knife black, then painted the hilt gold, and the blade silver. I weathered the handle with brown/black acrylics, and the blade with watered-down black paint. 

Alice: Royal Suit: Part 1

"Is it mad to pray for better hallucinations?"

I have been wanting to making Alice's Royal Suit from "Alice: Madness Returns" for the longest time. Probably since the game came out. 

But I never felt confident enough to make this costume until now. This is partly due to the amount of detail involved, but also because for the longest time I couldn't figure out how to make the bodice.

 I finally figured out how to pattern the bodice after I saw this post on tumblr: http://lilu-me.tumblr.com/post/104274407078/process-of-making-my-royal-suite-dress-it-took-me . ParadoxJane's blog was also very helpful: https://paradoxjane.wordpress.com/?s=Alice

I also found some second-hand satin dresses that seemed perfect to reuse as materials for this costume. 

I finally got the urge to make this costume a few weeks ago. I managed to finish the dress, and start making the apron. 

The Mockup

The mockup (which is also the lining) is made from a poly-cotton pillowcase. I used a basic bodice pattern from Burda, then drew on the seam lines for the black and red pieces. I transferred these lines to paper and made pattern pieces. 

The Dress

I cut out the red and black pieces. Unfortunatley I didn't have quite enough red material, so I piece some of the sections of the bodice. I stitched the red and black pieces together to form the basic bodice.

Once the bodice pieces were sewn together, I started planning the applique. This involved maths and placing bits of paper around until they looked good, so I'm not going to go into much detail about it. 

The appliques are made from interfacing spandex. I had a lot of gold spandex for a costume that I never ended up making, so I iron the interfacing on to it, and cut out the appliques. I used fabric glue to attach them initially, then I stitched them on by machine.

When the gold appliques were sewn on, I started adding trim. This costume requires a lot of trim. This is gold trim almost everywhere, and a surprising amount of white trim on the bodice too. 

I used a white loop trim and a gold ric rac. The bodice took up a huge amount of trim; I actually had to buy more white trim because I was 20cm short!

To make the skirt portion of the dress, I was lucky with the red dress that I'd bought. The skirt had enough volume that I was happy to use it for the Royal Suit. I added a panel of black fabric to it to get the correct colour.

 The black panel is copies from a red panel that I had cut off the skirt before. The gold appliques are also gold spandex. I used gold ric rac to form the stripes.  

I also added trim to the skirt. The trim is made from gold piping, white ribbon, and black ribbon. This trim was really annoying to sew on, especially the piping, and involved a lot of pins and fabric glue. The good thing about this trim is that it makes the hem of the dress stiff and gives it a nice shape. 

 Then it was time to sew the skirt to the bodice. I messed this up the first time because I put the gathers in the wrong place, and the front was too bulky. I had to unpick the stitches and regathered the skirt to make it more flattering. 

 I also made a collar for the dress. The artbook shows Alice wearing a ruff, but in the game the dress has a simple collar. I used another pattern from Burda to make the collar. I used gold piping on the edges instead of sewing on trim, because I thought the thinner lines might look better. 

 I also had a chance to make Alice's necklace. The Omega is made from polymer clay. I painted the clay first with acrylic, then with spray paint. I used to jump ring to attach it to a chain necklace. 

 Sleeves:

I followed this tutorial to make the sleeves: http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/2010/11/snow-white-sleeves-tutorial.html

I used a pattern for a slightly puffed sleeve, but instead of exactly following the tutorial. I added diamond shaped pieces. The resulting sleeve was a bit floppy, so once the bodice was lined I ended up stuffing the sleeves with tulle to add volume. 

The sleeve bands are just rectangles of satin with some interfacing iron on. The gold hearts were cut from spandex and glued on. I did try to sew them on but they looked terrible. The fabric glue is not terribly secure, so I might give in and use hot glue to properly attach the hearts. The gold stripes are made from piping. I had a huge bag of gold piping from when I first started cosplay and tried (and failed) to make an Ouran blazer (we thought gold piping would look fancier). 

Lining:

I made a lining for the bodice and sleeves. I sewed it into the dress by hand, using small stitches and trying to keep everything neat. 

Once the zip was sewn on and the lining was ready, the dress was basically done! 

Costume Thoughts: Alice through the Looking Glass

I often choose a costume just because I like the way it looks; probably just as often as choosing to make costumes because I like the character. Sometimes a costume is just so interesting that I want to try my hand at recreating it. Such is the case for Alice's costume in "Alice: Through the Looking Glass". The first film, in my opinion, was a little disappointing. I have yet to see the sequel, but the plot sounds strange yet dull (not a good combination for an Alice-inspired story)

But Colleen Atwood came back to do the costumes, and I think they are gorgeous. My favourite is Alice's Mandarin inspired costume.

I have no ideal why I like it so much. I don't normally like these colours separately, and I never thought I would like them together, but it works so well. Colleen Atwood you genius!

In the film, Alice says her outfit is inspired by the Dowager Empress of China; makes sense, since in the last film we saw Alice setting off for China to expand her family company's trading routes. It features a purple blouse with a Mandarin collar, a decorative collar, wide-legged trousers reminiscent of hakama or hanbok, and boots.

The Blouse

Alice's blouse has lots of interesting details. It seems to have a Mandarin collar and slight puff sleeves: there's a seam on the sleeve, so I think there's a puff sleeve sewn to the lower sleeve, 

According to Colleen Atwood, the costume department embroidered the purple silk themselves with a design including rabbits and little hats. A purple brocade would work very well, unless you have the time and skill to embroider (or print) metres of silk. 

The blouse is covered with beautiful floral embroidery. There's also red piping along some of the seams, and red buttons on the upper sleeves. 

The way the blouse closes reminds me of a Cheongsam, closing on one side along the collar bone. The blouse might tie shut with ribbons, because in the picture below you can see a red ribbon hanging down on Alice's blouse.  

Alice seems to be wearing an orange shirt under the purple blouse: you can see it through the slits at the waist and sleeves of the purple blouse. In some shots the orange shirt seems to have pleated details on the sleeves and near the waist.

The Collar

 Initially Alice wears this beautiful ornate collar with this costume, though there are some scenes where she isn't wearing it. 

Colleen Atwood made the collar from leather and fabric, with gold pieces that apparently came from inexpensive Indonesian wedding crowns. 

You could probably make this collar from leather, vinyl, or craft foam (not many Indonesian wedding crowns in my part of the world, so I'll be using one or more of these materials)

The Trousers

According to Colleen Attwood, Alice only wears trousers in the film, though many are disguised as skirts. The trousers are supposed to be more practical. This pair remind me of Hakama.

  The trousers seem to be made of emerald green material, probably silk, with golden yellow stripes. They are pleated, and decorated with a wide purple and red trim at the hem.

The pleats are a little more obvious in these exhibition pictures. They look like box pleats to me. 

The boots

Alice wears some very comfortable looking boots. I think the colour scheme is a call back to her shoes in the first film:

I think the boots are inspired by traditional Chinese boots. They might be made of canvas, but I'm no expert of shoes.