A Limited Knowledge of Alice’s Wonderland
To be completely honest, I don’t really know anything about Alice in Wonderland. I have never read any of the books by Lewis Carroll, I only watched the Disney movie once when I was a child, (and was promptly scared by it) and have never watched any of the newer versions for the same reason. This quote, pretty much sums up my knowledge of the story:
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
However, despite the fact that I don’t really know anything about the story, I have seen several Alice in Wonderland inspired photo shoots before, and they have always been rather fun and surreal, so I thought it would be fun to do one myself, and I even had a vaguely Alice inspired outfit to wear. (And my sister had a fun saturated setting on her camera that she was wanting to try out.) I actually had to Google “Alice in Wonderland” to see what it all entailed, before I could do the photos. (I also learned, via that search and from snippets of my memory, that the story involves a tea party, talking flowers, a potion and a rabbit with a clock.)
I decided that this most recent sewing project would be a good “Alice” inspired outfit to wear. This is another skirt made with the same technique as my dutch wax, black floral, and recycled bed sheet skirts. (Definitely a tried and true pattern!) I find them to be so versatile for summer, that I decided to make another out of a remnant of denim I’ve had for a few years. I used to have a dress made out of this cute fabric, when I was 12, and the remnant leftover from that dress was so small, I could never squeeze enough fabric out of it to make anything. However a gathered skirt was the perfect choice. There was just enough fabric to get a gathered skirt, suspenders, waistband and a button placket up the front instead of a zipper this time. (Just so they wouldn’t all look exactly the same!) There was only about a 10″ x 6″ square of material left over. Definitely a stash busting project!
With the outfit ready, I added in a potion bottle necklace, a miniature teapot tchotchke, a clock, an oversized teacup, and “talking” pansies. So, here is the result of my limited knowledge of Alice’s Wonderland.
Outfit Details:
Skirt: Sewn by me
Peasant Blouse T-Shirt: Owned it for years
Shoes: Miz Mooz, This style is no longer available, but they have similar styles.
Bottle Necklace: Thrifted
Headband: Handmade, bought from a local boutique
September 13, 2016 @ 7:47 am
Absolutely adorable! Today, I plan on going through my stash of fabric to make this skirt. I also enjoyed your guest posts.
September 13, 2016 @ 4:12 pm
Thanks so much- I’m glad you enjoyed the guest posts too- they were a lot of fun to write 🙂 I hope the skirt works out for you!
September 13, 2016 @ 9:42 am
Such a sweet little look. Lovely inspiration too. The book was wonderful and very silly. You should try reading it, not scary at all. Just bizarre!
September 13, 2016 @ 4:14 pm
Thanks Christina 🙂 That’s good to hear that the book is not scary, often books are completely different than the movie versions they come up with. So maybe I will give the book a try and see what I think after all!
September 13, 2016 @ 8:21 pm
Enchantingly marvelous ensemble and series of photos. You’ve definitely done Alice (and her creator) proud here, sweet dear.
xoxo ♥ Jessica
September 15, 2016 @ 10:18 pm
Thanks Jessica- it was fun to do a different style 🙂
September 14, 2016 @ 5:23 am
Such lovely photos! I read the Alice books years ago now, they’re wonderfully whimsical, you should give them a go. I had a go at this sort of thing years ago, with my bunny if the time accompanying me x
September 15, 2016 @ 10:30 pm
Those photos must have been so sweet 🙂
September 14, 2016 @ 7:32 pm
To be honest I don’t believe you missed out on much not reading the book! I tried really hard to get into it but found Carrol’s writing style to be slightly irritating to read in the sense where you can really tell he was probably consuming a lot of opiates at the time he wrote it. The Disney film however will always be a favorite of mine, I love everything about it 😀 The suspender skirt turned out so wonderful and looks fantastic on you!!!
September 15, 2016 @ 10:32 pm
Thanks so much, I’ve only worn it once so far 🙂
I had always heard that about the books, so glad to have my suspicions confirmed! haha!
September 15, 2016 @ 10:34 pm
Love this outfit. I have to admit that I also haven’t seen the movie since I was a kid. I remember a few movie versions and all scared me. I only remember the tea party, hehe. I love the idea of and look of these photos. So magical and fun!
September 15, 2016 @ 11:39 pm
Thanks so much. And glad to know that I was not the only one scared by the movie! 🙂
September 18, 2016 @ 3:51 am
There are some things in life that are fabulous, but you have to be the right age for! I can imagine Alice in Wonderland scaring you off. It took me a long time to be willing to watch any Dr. Who after some traumatic episode watching when I was too young for it!
If you hadn’t confessed, I would have been none the wiser, since you did a great job through your googling of creating the right mood in your shoot! Well done. And I love this skirt as much as, if not more than, the previous ones.
September 18, 2016 @ 10:51 pm
Thanks so much Tanith 🙂 And you are totally right- if you are too young for things, rather than being properly spooked, you are just plain scared instead!
September 18, 2016 @ 6:44 pm
This is so fun! You make a really adorable Alice. It was one of my favorite books growing up (although I must confess I’m not that fond of either of the movies), and I love seeing different photo shoots inspired by it and the different things that people pull from it for inspiration. It’s really a bottomless well – so many different moods, characters, and settings.
I think it’s really fun how you incorporated the different props in, and the look is pitch perfect. You did a fabulous job, even if you’re not a huge fan of the stories.
September 18, 2016 @ 10:57 pm
Hehe- glad to hear from a seasoned Alice fan that I wasn’t too far off the mark! 🙂 It is just too good of a photo opportunity to pass up. I remember seeing your great outfit post recently, which was also Alice themed- and they are both so completely different!!! An endless source of inspiration for sure.
September 25, 2016 @ 11:04 am
I think you captured the mood really well here. Looks like a fun photo shoot!
September 25, 2016 @ 5:32 pm
Thanks Kate-Em 🙂 It was a lot of fun!
September 30, 2016 @ 3:28 pm
Lovely photo story! x
October 3, 2016 @ 9:25 am
Thanks Porcelina 🙂