Sunday Doll Post: Meet Alice and Her Dress Pattern

While the Rules were a good idea, I just couldn’t follow them. The Rules still make me conscious of my collecting habits, but there is no stopping my obsessive mind. I will however continue to confess when I acquire a new doll… eventually, there is no guarantee that I will do so in a timely manner.

So this is Alice Kingsley, a licensed Tonner doll based on the Alice character from the recent Tim Burton movie. Tonner had a warehouse sale recently, so she was half price, otherwise I don’t think I would have gotten her. Just admired from afar. Alice has a unique head sculpt and a Tiny Betsy body, she is 8 inches tall. The detail in this doll is really incredible, tiny little boots with working shoe strings, intricate embroidery on the dress which is perfectly finished I might add, tiny little fingerless gloves, finely painted face. Usually I go into more detail about the history and such of my new dolls, but Alice doesn’t really have much history to talk about. There are other licensed Alice dolls that Tonner makes (and nearly everyone else too) but this one is pretty unique with her giant head. Have I mentioned I love cartoony looking dolls?

When I get a new doll I always feel the need to sew it a new outfit, which can be hard since I don’t like buying dolls that are too similar. The easiest way to do this is to recreate the clothes they came with. So, I got to work right away copying Alice’s dress, which is basically just a fitted bodice with a gathered skirt. The original dress is pretty clever because there is no shoulder seam, the bodice is all one piece. The trickiest part of the pattern is just that the seam allowances are tiny! but it has to be that way. (Hope Tonner doesn’t mind this is the second time I’ve basically copied them… with modifications)

And of course I’m going to share the pattern with you all on the Patternpalooza page. The dress pattern will fit any 8 inch Tiny Betsy doll, but it might fit dolls of similar size, I just don’t have any to compare. Mini AG dolls are too big in the shoulders and Liv dolls have more definition in their bodies. But this is a great jumping off point!

~Molly

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