I’m happy to announce that my Alice in Wonderland White Rabbit-inspired cross-stitch pattern, “I’m Late,” is now listed in my shop on Etsy.

I drew my inspiration for this pattern from a couple of scenes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. First, I took the quote from the scene where Alice sees the White Rabbit for the first time:

There was nothing so very remarkable in that, nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” But when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket and looked at it and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it…

Then, after Alice has followed him into Wonderland, the White Rabbit mistakes her for his maid, Mary Ann, and expects her to fetch his fan and gloves:

It was the White Rabbit, trotting slowly back again, and looking anxiously about as it went, as if it had lost something; and she heard it muttering to itself ‘The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets! Where can I have dropped them, I wonder?’ Alice guessed in a moment that it was looking for the fan and the pair of white kid gloves, and she very good-naturedly began hunting about for them, but they were nowhere to be seen…

“As sure as ferrets are ferrets” is a pretty awesome quote, too. That might have to become my new catchphrase.

The pattern is 71 stitches high x 79 stitches wide, which works out to a finished size of about 5 1/8″ H x 5 5/8″ W when stitched on 28 count evenweave.

Some of the backstitching on the pattern is complex. I would not recommend stitching this on Aida fabric because I use all of the holes in order to get the details of the numbers on the face of the pocket watch. It can be done on Aida, but poking the needle through the middle of the square on Aida fabric can be awkward.

The PDF pattern includes a black & white symbol chart for easy printing, plus a full-color chart for those who prefer to work off a digital copy.

Find “I’m Late” plus my other patterns in the Rabbit Girl Crafts Etsy shop!

P. S. As a special thank you, use the coupon LATE15 to get 15% off the pattern all this week. The coupon expires July 30, 2016.