Sew Susan

This is the third “Victorian teenager” dress I made for Alice in Wonderland. Alice’s big sister has two friends who tease Alice. This particular actress is so tiny and short waisted, I didn’t have a lot of real estate to decorate in Victorian fashion. I ruffled a ton of dark purple lining fabric and tried to recreate a look I’ve seen in historical pictures, but just came out funny and it would have totally overwhelmed her frame. You can see that look in the last two pics below. So I scaled way back and just went for some pintucks on the skirt and sleeves, plus a purple ribbon for the belt and a little bit of the ruffles, turned into one dainty flower. This actress is also the petunia later in the show (remember the scene when Alice is small and the flowers are mean to her and call her a w**d?). So I made sure she got the purple dress and I tried to make the flower petunia-ish.