On a Little Bit of Carroll Fun!

Still here...just can't manage to get all the posts I've started writing up in a timely manner and I was determined to get this one up before the year ends!

In October, I had the pleasure of going to the opening of an exhibit on spectral science and technology and a magic lantern show. 

This required the making of a coat, of course. A fellow Carrollian brought this marvelous Mad Masquerade by Riley Blake fabric, which is made up of advertising cards with illustrations from Carroll's Alice books, to my attention quite some time ago, but I'd been putting off using it because it's such a busy print and I wanted something that would do it justice. I ended up deciding that my revised pattern version of McCall's 9130, would do very nicely. 

Aside from choosing to cut it out during a heatwave and not really clearing enough space to do so in a convenient manner resulting in very sore muscles for several days, this coat came together without too many issues. As an added note, unlike last time I made it, this time I happily remembered to include facings and the front seam allowance.

Normally I would spend a significant amount of time searching for the perfect buttons. Nothing I looked at seemed quite right for this coat, though, and then I couldn't decide between what I did have. As a result, there are two round metal buttons, two grey rose buttons, and two cream colored rose buttons, which I find perfect considering the theme.

A wide width ribbon tied in a bow finished off the outfit! 

As for the exhibit, the big highlight for me was seeing a distorting mirror that belonged to Lewis Carroll! As you can see, I was upside-down with delight over it! 

Other fun things included a board of Houdini's keys used by his wife in attempts to contact him after he died (part of continued efforts to expose frauds, which became a large part of Houdini's later life), a variety of magic books and tricks, and several magic lantern projectors. 

 

As someone who doesn't go out and about often, it was a delightful event to attend! 

❤ ❤ ❤

On A Few Wonderland Ornaments: A Photo Post

I bought these about a month ago and decided rather than save them to share in December along with the rest of my Alice ornament collection, today I would go with a Christmas in July themed Photo Post.

I managed to find these three in one bunch. There are a few larger sized (as in about 4 inches versus the little 1 inch wooden ones) wooden Wonderland sets that you see around regularly, but I had never seen these ones before and am actually quite curious to know if there might be more that go with them.

 

I'm very taken with this particular King of Hearts, his mustache, and bright yellow outfit!  

 

 

Then there's this four Christmas Hatter with his teapot, which I thought was awfully cute!   

♥ ♥ ♥

On "Animated Classics: Disney Alice in Wonderland": A Book Review

Title: Animated Classics: Disney Alice in Wonderland
Genre: Fiction/Picture Book
Publisher: Studio Press Books 

About the book...
A short adaption of Disney's 1951 movie Alice in Wonderland with artwork from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library including the works of artists such as Mary Blair, Frank Thomas, and Ward Kimball.

What I Think...
I actually bought this more out of interest in the art rather than as movie to book adaption and am really quite pleased with it. The story is, as expected, a very simplified summary version of the Disney movie meant to accompany the the images that were chosen. In terms of the art, I really enjoyed seeing the mix of concept art, story sketches, and animation cels all in one place and variation between the artwork, although as a warning it is primarily made up of Mary Blair's work (being a huge fan of her, I never mind adding new books with her work to my collection).

The book concludes with a brief write-up about the Disney movie, which I thought was a nice way to tie everything up and offer a tiny bit of movie history, and a glossary that provides a short biography of the artists included along with the page numbers their artwork appears on.

Overall, the book itself is well bound, having a cloth cover and a ribbon bookmark (though, for an adult, it is very much a quick one sitting book). The cream colored paper used is a very nice quality and the artwork is beautifully printed.

To sum it all up...
A lovely little book for any fan of Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951) and some of the art that was used in the making of it.♥

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 Chess Piece Felt Queens and Some Action Figures!: A Photo Post

The White Queen and Red Queen are ready to attend this weekend's virtual Lewis Carroll Society of North America meeting on my sweater!

And continuing with the Alice theme, I'm completely enamored with the set of Furuta action figures I treated myself to last month along with the Kaiyodo White King, Haigha, and the standing White Queen figures towards the back. The Furuta ones aren't quite as detailed as the Kaiyodo ones I've been collecting over the past few years, but I still absolutely love them and they cover a few illustrations Kaiyodo did not.

♥ ♥ ♥

On It's Adventures in Wonderland Day!

Today marks the 168th birthday of Alice Liddell (1852-1934) and is the day that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland takes place!

I was planning to make tarts today, but the warmer weather we've been having is making me feel very sleepy and stupid (considerations of daisy-chains were made, no rabbit ran by) and left me with the inclination to watch the 1931 movie version of the story instead. 

This movie was the first sound version of the story to be put on film and, while not the greatest skipping large portions of the book, it has a few bright points in the theme song by Irving Berlin, some of the card court costuming, and I can now say that Leslie King is officially my favorite Hatter. He makes such marvelous faces and sings horribly! 

 

Happy Adventures in Wonderland Day!

♥️ ♥️ ♥️

On Alice in Wonderland Wall Decorations!: A Photo Post

A few weeks ago I was browsing on Etsy and was delighted to come across an almost a complete set of Dolly Toy Co. pressed cardboard Fairytale Pin-ups for Disney's Alice in Wonderland. Needless to say, I bought them right away and now they're living on my one of my walls! While I doubt I'll be able to track down the missing story placard that goes with them, I did manage to find a picture of one, so I think I might just print that out on card stock and place it next to the lantern.

♥️ ♥️ ♥️

On "Everything Alice": A Book Review

Title: Everything Alice
Authors: Hannah Read-Baldrey and Christine Leech
Genre: Arts and Crafts

About the Book...
An instructional book that presents 50 crafts inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

What I Think...
This is a fun book that really covers a lot of ground when it comes to the variety of crafts included and the various skill sets crafters might have. Some of the things are very simple like paper doll pages to copy and then paste on cardboard and tips for egg decorating (you know, just in case you feel like making Humpty Dumpty), but it also includes things like recipes so you can have your own tea party, decorations you can make, and sewing patterns for things like  character inspired aprons, an Alice envelop pillows, a March Hare teapot cozy, and lavender dormice (the ones I made are below, though I skipped the lavender). 

In the case of each project, supplies are fully listed at the beginning including amount needed, which is helpful in comparison to just being presented with what supply you need (a major pet peeve of mine), and the instructions are presented in an easy to understand manner and when necessary lovely photos accompany them. The only thing I wish was different was that instead of being bulleted that the steps were numbered.  

The book itself is a pleasure to flip through with appealing images gracing just about every page. Most of the crafts are accompanied by the original illustrations and quotes from the Alice books that relate to the items being made or baked. There are also fun little write ups such as how to play croquet Wonderland style, a Tweedles' newspaper page, and other "ads".

To Sum it All Up...
A fun book for those who are fans of Carroll's Alice books and who love to craft! ♥️

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Carousel Book": A Book Review

Wrapping up my month of Alice with what I think might be my shortest ever book review!

Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Carousel Book

Publisher: Macmillian Children’s Books

Genre: Children’s fiction

About the book…

An artful 3-D adaption of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

What I think… 

This is one of the more visually interesting Alice books I have in my collection.

Divided into six sections when you open it and tie the covers back, it does a nice job of capturing the pretty much the whole story with just a few sentences per page. 

The artwork, based on John Tenniel’s original illustrations, is beautifully colored and looks great the way they layered it. I especially love how dreamlike the layering makes each section look, which is, of course, very much in keeping with the book!

Quality wise, the binding is quite sturdy, which made me very happy, since it's more fun to look at when it's completely opened rather than flipping through.

To sum it all up… 

A wonderful addition to any Alice fan’s collection! ♥

On a Charming Bracelet

I figured since the last three weeks have had Alice topics I might as well keep going and let it be this month's theme. 

A good while back while looking for something else, I came across this Disney Alice in Wonderland charm bracelet on Etsy. Normally I don't wear a lot of bracelets that have things that dangle or that are chunky because it can make it difficult for me to type or do a number of other things for that matter, but I decided to get it because how often do you find a vintage charm bracelet for one of your favorite Disney movies?

 
Mine is missing the Alice and the dormouse charms (you can see the complete set on the Vintage Disney Alice in Wonderland blog here), which I passively look for on occasion. It turns out this is one of the harder Disney charm sets to track down (unlike the Jungle book bracelet, which seems to pop up everywhere), but who knows maybe someday I'll stumble across them accidentally! 

♥ ♥ ♥

On Alice Day Fun!

Today is the day the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland takes place on and what would have been the 165th birthday of Alice Liddell, the real Alice it was written for.

While I didn't do much to celebrate today aside from wearing this outfit and a button saying it was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Day (center of the above photo), yesterday I did a bit of mad tea party celebrating in making teacup hats with kids at work.

This, of course, involved decorating a wall and wearing a teacup skirt because if you're going to wear a paper teacup hat you might as well go all out. 

Twinkle, twinkle little bat...

I made this skirt, I think, in 2014 shortly after I made this one and I just haven't seemed to be able to get in on the blog to share. Happily it finally made it up today, though!  

♥ 😺 ♥