Alice: Madness Returns Steamdress

Finished and debuted! Whew! I was finishing up my gloves (oh the straps!) the morning of wearing it, so it was pretty close. While it's a pretty easy wear costume compared to others I've worn, it's still a little warm. Joy hasn't worn the full bunny suit because it was too many layers and the bodysuit part was the heaviest. She dropped down to just her waistcoat and bunny hat which accomplished the effect. We wore our costumes to the Halloween parties at my work and at Lee's. Lee's was definitely cooler and where this picture was taken. Click on the 'Read more' for the breakdown.


Baby Girl's costume was a conglomeration of 2 costumes. A pirate princess one and of course, a bunny one.

I had to get a larger size white rabbit costume because it was all they had and the bodysuit didn't fit her (not to mention it was only a wider neck opening and getting her in and out of that for diaper changes would have been maddening to both of us). So I also got a white chenille pajama to stand in for her bodysuit. I added the footpads on the bottom. Got rid of the belt and faux dress from the pirate princes to get down to a red coat and added some gears to the back. Oh and I added the teeny top hat to the bunny hat. The clock was made of a clock sign and some upholstery foam covered with fabric and ribbon. I had to make it squishy and chewable because that's exactly what she does to anything in front of her.

My costume was a bit more involved. But first, I neglected to put up a reference shot of the back of the dress.

And for the comparison:

I started with the Simplicity 2827 pattern and added some modifications: changed the neckline, shortened the skirt length, added snap opening to the front. I attached the apron to the dress to cut down on the weight that the belt harness would have to hold up. The icons are painted onto the apron, but I'm going to have to thicken those lines to make them show up more.

Lesson learned: if I'm going to use a moleskin cloth type of fabric to get a leather look without having to work with leather, I should pick a fabric that doesn't require finishing to make the edges look nice. The straps (galore) on this dress took a lot of extra seams to clean up the edges.

The belt harness required some internal boning structure to hold up to the 3 belt buckles on the front and hold it's shape. I attached the bow straps to the harness, but the bow was velcroed on for easy removal. Given that the bow is made with wire hangers covered with the moleskin cloth, I would not have been able to sit and drive in it. The compass in the middle of the bow glows in the dark though I think technically, it's supposed to be another clock. I also learned that hot glue does not make a robust system for maintaining the bow shape. I had the bow knocked off my back a few times during the Halloween festivities and it's now droopy and the compass fell off. I'll have to come up with something else to hold that together better.

It was kinda fun adding the eyelets to the apron and strings with my new eyelet pliers. The trimming around the skirt and sleeves was a ribbon though so I didn't need to do those. Have I mentioned the straps yet? I opted for simpler vest buckles on the arms and harness so they could be smaller and actually fit 7 on one arm. The smallest belt buckle I found were the 3 on the front of the belt and that would have been ridiculous to wear 7 of. Oh, and for the fun of it, I got some green contacts to wear.

Carrying my white rabbit around along with my vorpal blade was kinda heavy. I ended up using my boots as a sort of sheath to hold the blade in. My other boot was where I sheathed my phone. Sadly, no one I work with was cool enough to recognize the outfit (aside from my immediate circle of friends) but they appreciated Joy's bunny outfit anyway. For that matter, no one at Lee's work recognized us either. Oh well.