On Celebrating Hatter Day in This Style!

For those unaware, today in places where the date is written month first, 10/6, is considered Hatter day (for others, it is June 10). This unofficial holiday is based on the price tag on the hat of the Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which rather than the date actually stands for 10 shillings and six pence, but provides an excellent excuse to acknowledge, contemplate, and celebrate "Chapter 7: A Mad Tea-Party".   

Over the past few months, I've been very slowly working to finish the Mad Tea Party set from the November 1965 Woman's Day magazine (Alice and Dormouse both finished in 2012) and a Cheshire Cat from a 1960's issue of Woman's Day that contained a set of cat patterns, and thought it a fitting way to celebrate the day by sharing my finally completed set!

Rather than just sharing them like I normally would, for fun I decided to stage them in scenes from both Chapter 6 and 7!

Some sewing details for those interested in how I almost went mad in finishing up the set and started wondering if I was offending Time in how long I was taking in doing so.   

The Cheshire Cat 

"Did you say 'pig' or 'fig'?"

The Cheshire Cat had the least amount of adjustments primarily due to its simplicity, so I'm going to start with it. I downsized the pattern from the original, so that it would fit in with the other dolls. This made the seam allowance on the inner portion of the legs a bit tricky, which is why my Cheshire Cat doesn't exactly sit flat. This, however, I think it makes him a bit more whimsical, so I don't mind a bit. 

 

Additionally, I opted to leave the tail bare rather than put yarn loops and along similar lines decided I really liked it without stripes. I also tried what I'm thinking of as under-sewing the felt on its eyes and nose (meaning I stitched through the middle of the felt instead of coming all the way up through it) and am happy with how secure they seem to be. For some sparkle, since he might disappear at any moment, I used metallic embroidery thread for the whiskers! 

 The Hatter

The Hatter was a small scale lesson in lining, as both his vest and jacket are lined. I decided to try my own thing on the first sleeve of the jacket; let's just say doing the second sleeve according to the actual instructions went better. 

Next, his hat! Against my better judgement, primarily because I just wanted to be done and it was in my stash, I used poly-poplin. It does not crease or hold in place where you want it to and is certainly one of the most uncooperative fabrics to have chosen. On top of that, I had just barely enough stabilizer, which in the case of the primary piece had to be hand sewn on to the outer layer to make sure the hat didn't fold in on itself. As can be seen, the support for the top of the hat is made up of scraps shoved in there, so that will need to be replaced when I get more. Once again, though, despite spending over 6 hours on the silly thing, I was pleased with how it turned out.

The March Hare

I adjusted quite a bit when it came to the March Hare. The instructions called for the shirt opening to be at the back and the collar piece to be directly tacked to the March Hare's neck, but I didn't like that the Hatter's shirt actually buttoned in front, while the March Hare's didn't. Based on this, I ended up cutting the front of the shirt open, adding a placket, and hand sewing the collar piece onto the shirt (a truly maddening task that was made worse by not cutting the collar piece base at enough of a curve). The shirt was to be closed with hooks and eyes, which I did end up doing except at the front with the buttons covering the stitching from them.

Other minor changes I made were giving him a bow tie instead of ribbon, swapping out the pom pom tail for a gathered circle piece of fabric and not finding any fake wheat shoots that I liked and not wanting to buy an actual wheat bundle, I ended up using raffia on his head, which I think denotes his madness quite nicely.

Now, there is actually one more Wonderland pattern for the White Rabbit included in this particular magazine. I didn't really feel compelled to make it because the White Rabbit does not attend the mad tea party in the book. Additionally, one of my first stuffed animal projects that I drafted and sewed completely by hand was the White Rabbit and being ever so fond of it, I'm willing put this last pattern on hold for a much later date. 

Wishing everyone a happy Hatter day filled with muchness of tea, contemplation on ravens and writing desks, the singing of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat", any other mad tea party activities you should chose to engage in, and, of course, the wearing of a hat!  

 ♥🎩♥

On Things to Do While You're at Home: Dust

If you've let the dust accumulate, now might be a good time to address it, so your Walrus and Carpenter don't call in seven maids with seven feather dusters to try to have cleared (the Carpenter doubts this would do any good and has shed a bitter tear). 

♥️ ♥️ ♥️

On a Magnifying Glass Pin to Match My Nancy Drew Shirt: A Photo Post

Sometimes one just has to make an impromptu felt pin to match one's shirt...

Vinyl is tricky to sew with, but worth the look!

♥️ 🔍♥

On a Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss!

...and not one, but two outfits and a bag to celebrate!

Last year to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday I had plans to make a skirt with a fabric printed with the goldfish from The Cat in the Hat (first discovered when making a book cart cozy with Oh, the Places You’ll Go! fabric), but it didn’t happen. Fast-forward to the last two months and as I’m preparing to actually make the skirt, I get bitten by a Dr. Seuss fabric bug.

I go to buy fabric for a bag lining and I end up with half yards of two more The Cat in the Hat prints with plans to make a bag. Buying underlining for the hem of my goldfish skirt, they have fabric with the Cat on it. After a night of considering, I decide clearly I was meant to make a blouse and I go back to get some. And guess what? I actually got all three items done in time!

The goldfish skirt is made from my most favorite Simplicity 3773 and I wore it yesterday. First, I must say I will never be doing scallops on a hem of this measurement again! Ever! It took me over an hour to get them cut out, since I accidentally put four per skirt panel instead of my planned three (why it’s bad to sew when you’re tired, but at least it was a mistake that looks good!). Then the underling took me three hours to get positioned and sewn on by hand. With the exception of forgetting to put interfacing in the waistband, everything else went smoothly.

Next is the bag. I drafted the pattern myself and opted to use both of the fabrics. The strap I topped with two ribbons.

The blouse was super quick to make (made last night, in fact), since all it required was stitching up the shoulder and side seams, hemming the bottom and sleeves, and folding over the top to make a casing to slip ribbon into. I cinched it as the waist with the bow belt from my favorite dress (conveniently with only one bow end, much like the Cat’s bow tie). 

Version 3

I also made a button this morning as a finishing touch.

Happy birthday to Dr. Seuss!!!

This cat will absolutely not wear a hat. Not in a house, not with a mouse...

 ♥   ♥   ♥

On Displaying Edgar Allan Poe

This past week marked the 166^th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death, which was October 7, 1849. I happen to be a big fan of Poe and generally get the urge to read him as the days grow shorter and the weather grows colder.

Fortunately, my co-worker likes Poe just as much as do and over the past five years we’ve done three Poe’s Parlor displays (yes, we’re that fond of it and I am perfectly willing to claim it as my favorite) each time adding a few more things referencing the works of this master writer. While we’re not doing one this year, I see no reason not to revisit those we have done.

The first year we had some beautiful blue paper for the background. At this point we only had a small number of things referencing his stories and poems.

Excuse the glare, these cases are right next to the door and difficult to photograph.

Then came the second time, in which no perfect parlor paper could be found and we went dark. 

A few shadows joined Poe's parlor.

As you can see this background has some eyeballs peering out, not ideal for a sophisticated parlor, but it was relatable to one of my favorite of Poe’s stories “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”.

The raven isn't the only one watching...

Last year deciding the eyeballs to be unacceptable, I managed to patch over some with some of the remaining background and the framed picture conveniently covered one of the upper ones.

There are about 11 or 12 references to Poe’s works in this last display (including the afore mentioned “Tarr and Fether” eyes-you just can't them since they're on the side). How many can you name?

♥ ♥ ♥

On a 1950's take on...Shakespeare?

This spring I choose to take a Shakespeare course and as our final we had to choose a passage from one of his plays to recite complete with costume. For my presentation, I ended up choosing part of Helena's closing passage of act 1, scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

We were given the option to interpret what we chose to recite in any way we wanted and while originally I was going to wear a dress with a much more traditional Grecian look to it, I decided I would go for a 1950's interpretation.

Because my passage was about love and Cupid was mentioned, I thought my Valentine's heart skirt and blouse from last year would be the perfect choice of costume. It was quite nippy and knowing it'd be even more so by the time I left, I dug out some red tights I'd had for ages. I'd had them so long that it turned out they didn't fit any more (how a pair of bright red tights stayed in the back of the drawer for so long without me noticing, I don't know), so I ended up cutting the top part off and wearing them as stockings. This was a really good reminder that I should buy some colored tights because I love the way they look!  

To add to this, and as a way to incorporate the original Athenian aspect of the play, I also made myself a flower garland wreath for my hair.

I didn't remember to grab it for these photos, but in order to hide the paper with my lines on it (which was allowed) I ended up bringing a flat silver clutch and it worked just perfectly! 

By the time I presented I was quite nervous and while I can't say I recited without a hitch, when I had to explain my choice of costume afterward I felt like I had made the perfect choice!

♥ ♥ ♥