The Tardis in one piece

I've finally gotten the main part of the Tardis dress put together and fitted properly. It ended up being a bit too long, considering that I want to add a fairly wide ruffle at the bottom. But it will need trimming in order to make it even anyway, so I'll just cut away a bit extra.

I do apologise for the dreadfully flat and boring presentation of the dress. I do wish I had one of those fancy mannequins to display it on. (Would make fitting so much easier as well!) In the future, I will attempt to have photos of me wearing it instead.

Next up is mapping out where and how to attach the embellishments that will make it look properly like a Tardis. I've been debating with myself on how to do the panels best. The first one was wether to make panels, or strips of fabrics for the space inbetween the panels. The most accurate way would be strips of fabric, seeing how the panels on the Tardis are sunk in, not standing out. On the other hand, this is not a square shape, but a fitted dress. Doing this would basically mean sewing a second dress, cutting out holes for the panels and sewing them together. That does seem a little over the top! Instead, I'll cut the squares for the panels, and attach them to the dress. The one exception will be a strip down the middle front, which will help hide the zipper.

The next thing to decide was the shape of the panels. Sqaures, obviously. But the dress gets wider at the bottom than the top. Should I make the squares like that as well? In the end I decided not to, it might look too strange. There will be panels along the front and back, and they will be straight. (One might also add panels on the sides, seeing how the dress is probably wide enough for them to fit... But that might also look weird. I'll attach the front and back panels first, and then decide)

After some measuring, I've decided that 24x15cm(9,44x5,9inches) panels should be a good size. This in turn means that the "free for public use" sign must be even a bit more smaller. I downloaded a large one and put it in photoshop, shrinking it down to a small enough size. This picture I will then print, and use as a guide for when I'm embroidering the sign that goes on the dress.

One last issue remains this time. The black "police box" sign. Originally I was envisioning another pattern, one that closes in the back. That one would have enabled me to have the sign just attached across the front of the dress. Now I have the zipper in the front instead, and that won't work. I will have to devise another way to put the black sign in the dress. I've seen people who make a choker necklace or a scarf out of it, rather than having it attached to the dress itself, maybe that will be a good option for me as well. I will have to think about it. Luckily, it won't be needed in quite a while yet, there's still many other things to do.