Sweet little Alice-blue gown

So, you know how I really wanted to do theatrical costuming?

I got my wish. A drama group has just started up here (it met for the first time last week), so I went along and offered my services as official costume wizard, which were enthusiastically accepted. And it turns out we're going to do a twenty-minute version of Alice in Wonderland. How anyone gets that into twenty minutes is beyond me, since I haven't yet seen the script; but I suppose if people can do five-minute Shakespeare, then it must be possible.

We do not have many actors. That means that some of the roles may get quietly written out, but the other ones are likely to be doubled up... mostly. From a costuming point of view, that's basically ingenuity over dressmaking skills, because you have to give people things that they can change as fast as possible to be worn over some neutral base layer. So it's going to be cloaks, hats, shawls, and a whole raft of accessories. Alice herself, however, is likely to be in every scene; so she requires a little more thought and care. And, besides, as my sister observed, everyone knows what Alice looks like.

That is, at any rate, broadly true; but if you do an image search, you'll find variations. A very few people have bucked tradition and put her in red, or updated her outfit, or made her an adult and dressed her accordingly (there is an Alice in an off-the-shoulder dress). Moreover, the Disney Alice is not quite the same as the Tenniel Alice, so even if you're going for something that is familiar to most of your audience (which it makes sense to do for a production like this), there are still choices that need to be made. Her stockings, for instance. Tenniel always gives her striped stockings, but the Disney version wears plain white ones. In general I want to push rather more towards Tenniel, if only because Disney are so notoriously precious about their copyright; however, I think we can go with a little bit of simplification. Tenniel's Alice is always shown with a set of horizontal lines parallel to the hem of the skirt of her dress, which I've always taken to be pin tucks, though I've seen them coloured as white stripes. I think those can be quietly omitted. It's a very full skirt and I'm not sure anyone has time to make several pin tucks all the way round.

And so, on Friday, I sat down and waded through - I kid you not - 50 pages of dress patterns, looking for the perfect Alice dress. There were a few that were close, but they'd need alterations of various kinds. I tended to pick for the sleeves, since they are the hardest parts to reshape, but even so I found a few patterns that had the right kind of sleeves but too long (usually elbow length), and those went on the provisional list. Otherwise, either the skirt would need altering (the easiest thing to do); there'd be a back zip, which would have to be taken out and replaced with a front button fastening, because Alice is a Victorian character; or the neckline would be too low and would need either alteration or a modesty panel of some sort. It's worth mentioning here that this is most likely going to be theatre in the round, out of doors, with the audience (or at least some of it) quite close at hand. Otherwise I wouldn't be so fussy about things like zips, or, for that matter, the fabric (I've nixed polycotton, although it's cheap, because you do get a bit of shine from it if the sun is shining on it - it's very subtle but it's there). On a stage, at a distance, you can get away with a lot more, but here I need to be a bit of a perfectionist.

Several hours later, I had a list. I turned to the very last page, and... there it was. In all its glory. It's perfect, isn't it? It ticks every single box! The sleeves are right, the skirt is right, the neckline is right, there isn't a zip (the fitting is mostly done with a belt, but Alice's pinafore will function just as well for that), and, astonishingly, it even comes in a whole range of cup sizes. I can fit any Alice they throw at me without having to think about annoying bust adjustments. It's a dream. Thank you, Gertie!

I also found a couple of options for the pinafore, but that was a lot easier. You just need an apron with straps (rather than a curved neckline, which is probably more common) and a waist tie. The petticoat won't need a pattern at all - I can run that up in a jiffy. All I need to know is the waist measurement and the length of the dress skirt.

I also know exactly where to get authentic-looking striped stockings (and the hardware to hold them up). There is a splendid lady on Etsy called Charmaine who runs a shop called Victorian Socks, which does not only socks but stockings, garters, suspender belts, and one or two weird things whose purpose eludes me (one day I shall pluck up the courage to ask her what a chest harness is actually for). She has these available at the moment, which I think should be fine, but if anyone decides we really need blue and white rather than black and white, then I'm fairly sure Charmaine can come up with a pair of Queen's Park Rangers stockings at the drop of a mad hat. (She does some wonderful custom jobs. I buy all my suspender belts from her; they don't actually suspend anything, but they do do a grand job of keeping the pad in place over Sibyl the stoma.)

So I e-mailed the drama group organiser with a whole load of links - the dress pattern, the options for the pinafore, fabric picks, and all the rest of it. (The best option for the dress appears to be a light cotton poplin in a colour bizarrely called Wodge. I do wonder if they wanted to call it Wedgwood but were being super-cautious about copyright issues.) She's currently delighted, and I intend to do all I can to keep her that way. We might even get some funding for it from the local arts group and possibly other bodies. (I am somewhat ambivalent about the local arts group, who provided no help at all with my mini concert series other than making a few encouraging noises, and then went into raptures over a particularly ghastly abstract sculpture that someone's put up in the area. Still, costuming doesn't come cheap, so if they do come up with some funding I shall feel better about them.)

Oh, and given the ethnic mix of our drama group, there's a fairly high probability that our Alice is going to be Indian. Which I think would be pretty cool. If so, we might just have her wear black khussa shoes rather than the traditional Mary Janes; after all, the main thing about Alice's shoes is that they're flat, and khussas are certainly that (which is why I have a number of pairs of them myself).

Watch this space, folks. It's going to be fun!