Sewing MSD/MNF Wicked Wonderland Alice Dress Patter and Tutorial! IMG Heavy!

Hello,

I have been making more dresses fot my MNF girl Ico and the last tutorial went down well so i thought i would add another.

My other tutorials:
Lolita Straight Jacket Dress: http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?503304-MSD-Gothic-Lolita-Straight-Jacket-Dress-Tutorial!-Image-Heavy!
Straight Jacket: http://www.denofangels.com/forums/s...ket-Jacket-MSD-Tutorial-and-Pattern-IMG-heavy

**Warning Doll Nudity** Since i have been undressing my doll to measure her and try/model the dress as i have been going along there is nudity.

For this dress, i made it partly by machine and partly by hand. But if you had the patient it could be done by hand if you wished. I have done dresses fully by hand before now.

So any way, this is my final result:



The patterns i used are here:





**note** To allow for a larger busted doll, you would make the torso wider and add darts in like this - http://sewing.about.com/od/techniques/ss/sewingdarts.htm I have not tried it myself however this was suggested on the last tutorial i did.

STEP 1 - PATTERN CUTTING



To get the backs, fold the top pattern in half where the line is on my pattern. Then pin it to the cloth and cut two of these. This is for a zip however, so if you want your to have snap fasteners or velcro make sure the half is bigger then that to allow enough for fabric to overlap.

STEP 2 -



For the skirt part of the dress first measure the waist of your doll. And take note of how long you would like the skirt, by measuring from the waist to the desired length. For this dress i decided the skirt should be 14cm.

STEP 3 -



I rounded up the waist size to 20cm then times it by 2.5 to get a total of 50cm for the width of the skirt. The more gather the skirt has the puffer it should be. So this could be altered if you wanted it more or less puffy. The skirt is split into two equal pieces of 7cm. These can also be changed with ease depending on desired length and if you want them to be even.

To make sure the length stays the same, i measure 7cm along the width and pin it in place as i go a long. I made sure the pins were not too close so i could cut along with the scissors.

All the pattern pieces, yay ->



STEP 4 - FRENCH HEMMING



I have covered French hemming on my other tutorials, but i figured i would go over it again for people reading this one first. French hemming is a way of hemming by hand and looking really neat, this can be done with a sewing machine too, but i feel more comfortable by doing it by hand.

Sew the sides of the top together right sides facing out. Once sewn together cut the fabric as close as you can to stitching without the material fraying. turn so the wrong sides are facing out, then sew again. Be very careful Make sure to leave enough space for the edge to be inside this, other wise it will look messy when you turn it back over. When you turn it over you will see the right sides now have nice stitch and on the inside you have no raw edges.

This is what it will look like on the outside ->



Obviously repeat this for the other back piece. I also did the top of the torso using this method too.

 

STEP 5 - SKIRT LACING



The bottom of the skirt, i also made it 7cm length, however to get this to puff out again. I made it twice as wide as the upper layer, so it ended up 100cm/1m.

To add lace to the bottom of the dress i find it easier to do this when it is still just a rectangle of fabric. As i sewed a long i folded the cloth over, to make sure the edge on the outside was neat. If you are working with a sewing machine you may want to zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying.

Here is the back view of the mesh stuff i have for the bottom of the skirt:



This made the whole skirt seem puffer and is pretty much instead of making a separate petticoat.

STEP 6 - MORE SKIRT STUFF



Over the top, i thought a black lace would add to the 'gothy' part and make it look neater too. I used a fairly small stitch to do this. Then at the top of this rectangle i used the largest stitch (if you are doing this part by hand, make sure there is loose stitching and make the stitching larger) across the top. This is so i can gather this to the same length as the other rectangle, to get the puffy look.

STEP 7 - GATHERING



Pull on one side of the cotton to gather the skirt. I tend to pull the gather so it is the same length as the upper skirt. Then once it is equal size i then go and make sure the gather is fairly neat/even. To make sure this doesn't slip out and get bigger i then pin them in place. Starting with the center, then either side. The the other pins to keep the fabric close together.

If sewing on the sewing machine, i make sure there is enough room between the edge of the fabric and the pins for the foot to get through without bother. Once i have stitched them together i then go back over with a zigzag stitch to stop the material from fraying. If i don't have sewing machine i tend to do a stitch by hand to stop it from fraying.

When pinning make sure that the right sizes are facing each other.

STEP 8 -



Once sewn together, i then unpicked the thread i used to gather the fabric, because it is not longer needed. Using a sewing machine i then sewed to lace over the join between the two skirt peices. I did this for decoration, so it is very much optional. But can also be used to hide un-neat stitching if you have any.

I then repeted the gather process i spoke about eariler to gather the top of the skirt. I made the this width of the top part of the dress.

STEP 9 - TOP AGAIN & SLEEVES!



I got the square i cut out for the top of the apron part of this dress, and sewed over what is going to be the top. I didn't do the bottom and sides because they will be covered, it is not relevant.

For the sleeves of the top, i did a lose stitch round the top, this is so i can gather it. Pull it as tight as the whole in the arm. I then made the gather even and pinned it in place to stop it from moving and to keep it even. I then just tacked in place a first to make sure it is right. Then removed the cotton you used to gather it. Then when back over to make sure the stitching was more secure and i also did a hand hemming.

**Note** Sometimes it is useful to use a different colour for the stitch you are going to use for gather so you can see what you are doing.



This is what it looked like after i had done both sleeves - not pretty now. But it gets better.

STEP 10 -



Pin the square in the center of the dress. No need to stitch it though. Then measure with the black straps from the bottom of the front, to the bottom of the back. Going over the shoulders of the dress. The pin those into place. Make sure the length is a tiny bit longer then the top, so some of this can go inside the skirt for stitching.

**Note** If you don't have the same straps as me. Then you can use ribbon, or something similar. Or if you want something more elegant then i am going for. You could use lace instead.

I then stitched either side of the black straps. This also held the Apron front in place at either side. Then added lace to th collar and the sleeves. At this point the dress looked something like this ->

 

STEP 11 -



I then sewed lace round the apron, folding the cloth under as i went. If you have access to a sewing machine, using a zigzag stick before you tuck it under will make it look nether and prevent fraying.

I then measured the straps to the skirt, and cut them at desired length. Then cut the other equally the same length. These straps have two sides to them. So if you are using ribbon you might want to cut extra. I also measured the full length of the waist of the torso and cut it a tiny bit longer then the width of the waist. I stuck a pin in this one so i didn't get it confused with the other straps.

**Note** It is worth sealing the ends of all the straps, i just set the bottom alight with a lighter. This stops them from fraying. You only need to do this briefly for it too work.

STEP 12 -



Take the straps and pin them to the straps attached to the dress. This is to keep them in the same place when the dress is sewn together. On top of that i also pinned the apron in place. This is so when i sew this to the skirt, it will all be there, in the right place.

STEP 13 - getting there not much left now!



To make sure the skirt is even i then pinned it to the torso of the dress. I then stitched it in place. Then went back and hemmed by hand. The 2nd picture is an example of the stitching i used. It doesn't look as nice as machine sewn but it does stop the dress from fraying. To pin, i first pinned it central, then each side. Then added others to keep it more firming in place.



STEP 14 - The dress belt



I opened up the dress, pinned the belt firmly in place. The stitched each side of the belt to the dress.

STEP 15 - THE ZIP



Pin the zip in place. You want to leave a little bit of space between your fabric and the zip closure. This is to make sure the fabric doesn't get trapped in the zip. If using a sewing machine you might want to zigzag stitch down both sides of the dress first. When pinning the fabric to the zip, i fold the fabric over.

To pin the other side of the zip, i pinned the bottom of the dress together, so to help keep the zip even when pinning. I also curled round the zip at the top, to both neaten it and this also stops the zipper from coming off.



STEP 16- Finishing Touches



I then stitched up the back of the dress. First with a normal stitch, then hand hemmed to finish.



THE END

 

I hope this tutorial has been useful to you. If you have any questions about how i did anything please feel free to ask away. I will do my best to help.

Also what would be really cool if any one has a got at this dress, or uses the pattern i would LOVE to see what you do with it. So drop me a note or just post the results here for everyone to see.

 

No problem, i am happy it is really useful. I am still updating it so the tutorial part should be finished very soon.

Well this came up on my other tutorial. I have not tried this yet but someone came on and said to allow for bust i would make the torso wider, then add darts like this -> http://sewing.about.com/od/techniques/ss/sewingdarts.htm in. To allow for the bust. I am not very good for allow for the bust which is why this girl tends to get all the dresses because she is easier to sew for.

Also if you found a pattern that did allow for larger bust, you could get the torso from that and apply the rest of this to still get the same dress.

 

The tutorial is fully finished and updated now - sorry it took awhile there was a lot to it! Hope you enjoy it any way.

 

No problem!

 

Oh cool, I wish you look with that! I know some people can sew with measurements. I am not one one of them though! ^^;

 

Oh that is great I hope it helps, this was some of the tips taught me when I had no idea what I was doing. I really hope it helps and good luck!

 

Thanks so much, I do really love lace and things like that. ^^

 

I took lessons it really helped! It is worth having a try and keep reading about it! My advise would be to start of simple and then build up!

 

You're very welcome. I also have a straight jacket dress on DoA some where that was based of the one in the "Alice: Madness Returns" game too. So maybe that will be helpful too?

Although I love Alice Madness Returns, so I would love to see any end product. It would be awesome to see!

 

Awesome, that would be so cute!

 

Well if the tips and things help then that is cool. If you want to do your own spin on it then that is still pretty awesome!

 

Thank you!

 

Oh gosh, I love lace so much. When I go fabric shopping I spend more on lace then fabric sometimes!

I am happy you like it though.

 

No problem, and that is cool it was done by Princessabliss and Foolbot.

 

Oh cool, if you do I would love to see what you do with it!

 

No problem, I hope it is useful! I am happy you like it! ^^

 

Oh awesome, I am happy this was helpful for you. I am happy you like my dress too! If you remember I would love to see some of the things you make using this. That would be awesome!

 

I find allowing for girls with a bigger chest is really hard too. I am hoping I am going to get better now that I have some girls with a larger chest.

I am happy the skirt part is still useful for you though. Best of luck with that!

 

That would be really awesome of you because not only would that be helpful to me, but I am sure others might find it useful too!

 

In theory you can make the sleeves bigger to add more gather too. So they would be puffer however I have not found a good pattern to make that work yet, although I find sleeves harder then anything else to do. I am happy you like the dress though!

Thanks so much, it is worth having a go. Or maybe some of the things I have covered could be helpful tips in sewing something more simple. I started off making simple things and then moved on to more complex things.

 

Thank you, I am happy you like it and best of luck!

 

Thanks!

 

Oh that is awesome, I am happy you like it! Good luck!

 

Cool! I am happy this has been useful for so many people!

 

Awesome I hope it works out well for you!

 

Awesome!

 

Not a problem I hope you enjoy it!

 

Wow, thanks so much for the feedback and lovely comment. I am so happy that it was so useful. I really was happy when I found out about French stitching, it improved my sewing work so much. I am happy it has helped other too.

 

Oh that is great news, thanks for sharing the picture