Alice in Wonderland Dress Tutorial

Since I had some blue fabric left over from making the curtains from the baby shower, I decided to make the little one an Alice dress. It actually was pretty easy to do, even for an amateur sewer like myself! Here is what I did.

This is the finished dress with apron. 

 First you will need to cut out your pieces. You can make you own pieces by following the steps in the ruffle dress TUTORIAL. You may want to read this tutorial first for all the steps, since I will be running through these quickly. The only piece not included is the collar. That will be in the second tutorial on the Alice dress, along with the apron instructions. 


Also, I cut a V in the back of the bodice. I will attach a button for closure. I did this, so it will slip on over my daughter's head, and I didn't want to add a zipper or multiple buttons. :)

 Once you have your pieces cut, you will need to press the casings for the sleeves. Go ahead and fold it over once. 

 Then press with the iron. 

 Fold over again. You will only need to fold enough to fit your elastic band through. 

 Then press again. Do this to both sleeve pieces.

 This is what you should have. 

 Now sew your bodices pieces. Sew the front two pieces together, right sides together. Same for the back. 

Up close on where to sew. 

 Up close on where to sew.


For the next steps, you will need to sew your front and back pieces together, then add the sleeves. For these steps, view this tutorial. (Instead of repeating all the steps twice, it is easier for me to have you revert to the previous tutorial, since it is done exactly the same.)

 This next step, I didn't take a picture. Sorry! But it is for the skirt. I used 2 yards of the blue fabric. I cut the fabric to the length I wanted. I had the dress end mid calf on my daughter, so if you want it shorter, cut shorter, and cut longer for a longer dress. Once I had the length, I sewed the hem. Then moved on to make the ruffles. 

 You can use a ruffle foot, or use the longest stitch and do it by hand. I actually did mine by hand. It didn't take that long. So I sewed a stitch along the entire top. Here is a tutorial on how to ruffle by hand HERE.

 I pulled my thread to create the ruffles until I had the desired length. Fold your skirt in half, and match it up with the top to make sure it is not too short or long. If it is still longer, keep ruffling. If you ruffled too much, let some ruffles out. 
Once you have the length you need, tie the end so that you don't lose any ruffles. Pin the open side of your skirt together, and sew. You should have a complete skirt. 

 Take your skirt, and bodice, and pin them together. I put my skirt seam in the back. You will need to put the bodice inside the skirt, right sides together. Make sure to match your seam up in the back. Then sew all the way around. Once you have it sewn, finish the raw edges. 

 This is what you should have once you have sewn it together. 

 Then I made my collar pieces. This took me a few times to get the length of them just right. I used tracing paper to make the template, and had to make it longer each time. I finally got it to the right length. I will post this tutorial in a separate (part 2) tutorial. 

 I sewed around the collar, and the edges, leaving the inside open. I turned them right side out, and pressed them with an iron. 

 Then I pinned them to the collar of the dress. (Before pining, make sure to finish the collar edges. 

 Pin all the way around, then sew them on. 

 Here is what it looks like under the collar. 

 The finished collar. As you can see, the inside is not finished. I forgot to do so. So make sure you finish the collar edges before attaching. :)

 And here you have it. Your complete Alice dress. You can even add a sash to this and have your daughter wear it as a simple dress. 

Here is the apron. I made it our of the same front bodice piece. I took white fabric, cut two front bodice pieces, but made them smaller than the dress front piece. I sewed around the arm holes, and neck, leaving the neck strap part open. I inserted the elastic neck strap into the two openings, folded the edges inwards, and sewed it closed. 


 I then took a rectangle pieces for the bottom, hemmed it, ruffled the top, and attached it to the top apron piece. For the tie, I took white ribbon, heat sealed the edges, and sewed them onto the apron. 
This sounds confusing, I know! I will have a tutorial on how to make this, and the collar in part 2. I just don't have time to post it all now. :)


Oh, I almost forgot. I printed the Alice image off of Google. I printed it onto a fabric transfer sheet, then ironed it onto the apron. 


Happy Friday!!! I hope this isn't too confusing of a tutorial. I am writing it while my daughter is finishing her lunch, so I didn't have much time. :)