Final Major Project - Alice in Wonderland

For my Final Major Project, I decided to pick for my project Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland because I LOVE the Costume Designer Colleen Atwood because she always works with Tim Burton. Her work with costumes was brilliant because the colours she uses really reflects the mood of the film.  I bought a book from amazon and it was good, lots of information, pictures and interviews with the cast of this film. I really enjoyed reading the book and found it very helpful linking to my project.

After lots of research into the era where the costumes were influenced from, I had travelled to different museums to visit the costumes from the Elizabethan era, 18th century and Victorian era fashions. I also researched various books. I found the pictures that I used to pick small ideas of Elizabeth's bodice with beads and lace, 18th century skirts and Victorian men's outfit to compare to my work. I looked into the detail, the designs and fabrics. I also looked at books for pattern blocks to compare the costumes I wanted to make. Also I had found 2 models for the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter.

Queen of Hearts

I became quite obsessed with working on this outfit because there was lots of detail and it kept me busy and excited because of the different types of era it covered.  The bodice was 17th century and the skirt and petticoat 18th century. The work on the bodice involved boning with a drill fabric and I put it with a bumroll and petticoat on the model who was thin and I found it difficult to make alterations, it was a big job to change the pattern so I decided to find a more curvier model

Finally I found the model for Queen of Hearts. It fits perfectly so I decided keep her until the end of the project.

I added a Bumroll, Petticoat and Silk red skirt and checked the hem line to make sure it touched the floor. I enjoyed doing the pleating on this as it needed to be accurate.

Nearly finished, I added all of them on the mannequin because I added polonaise to the measure from waist to floor and add more longer. I was very pleased to see it. Later I added Gold small hearts on the centre front skirt sewn by hand.

I added pearl beads with a gold chain on the chest, net fabrics with red ribbons and black beads on the sleeves. I was disappointed I didn't add black fabric with a white collar onto the chest to cover the skin and sewed on a black gather around the gold hearts on skirt after DEADLINE. I was happy that this costume was finished after 1 week working on it.

Mad Hatter

This is the first time I made a proper man's victorian outfit, I always wanted to make men's costumes. I started making the pattern block from this book - Men's Garment, 1830-1900 Guide to Pattern Cutting and Tailoring by R. I. Davis. I made some calico and it was LOTS of work, lots of alterations. I did the  calico 3 times because I had to move the seams around to compare Mad Hatter's jacket. I kept fitting on my brother to check there were no mistakes or complications.

Finally, number 3 jacket fitted well on my brother and the seams were in right place at the back of jacket but I had to add the waistcoat inside.

I liked making the waistcoat because some I was able to improve my skills by making pockets using Welt Pockets. After the was waistcoat finished, I dyed it darker using a grey colour to make it look old and worn.

Very pleased all costumes are finished. I worked on dying and distressing techniques - waistcoat, trousers and bow tie were dyed darker and made to look old, dirty and worn. I distressed the jacket using a cheese grater and added some coffee powder because the Mad Hatter loved the Tea party.

Little Alice

This is an underwear blue dress for Alice who was 2 foot tall so I found a mannequin which matched the height (2 foot tall). I made it pretending for it to be damaged by Alice growing from small to big, so I added detail using zig zags, gathers and overlocks.

My final work after 3 years studying Costume Construction on Screen and Stage. This is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I was supposed to set up 4 costumes but the last costume was big Alice using Queen of Hearts' colours, I wasn't confident with it and felt it was wrong so I decided I didn't want to involve it in the display. The pictures were taken by professional photographer Kate Evans.