The Doctor is taking shape

In fact, he's nearly finished!

All he needs to be considered finished now is his shoes, though I'm considering adding his glasses as well.

The doll isn't the only progress I've made either. I've also started on the Tardis project.

I'm basing the pattern for the dress on a medieval one for making fitted dresses such as cotehardies. To be honest, the primary reason I'm using this is that I own it, rather than any kind of superiority in style and shape for this particular dress. But I think it will work out well. The plan is fitted but not overly tight, a knee length skirt that flares out a bit more than the original pattern, which will later on be improved on by a nice petticoat.

Right now, however, it fits more into the "shapeless sack" category. It turned out a bit larger than intended, and I'll need som aid in pinning it so I can change the seams to make it fit better. I also need to figure out wether I can get my hands on a nice blue zipper, or if I should just go for a black one and hope to hide it. Nevertheless, progress has been made! Next up after fitting it properly will be to measure out the size for the windows and panels and start figuring out how I will construct those.

The Doctor doll

I decided that a funny detail to have with the tardis outfit would be a Doctor doll or two to store in my pockets. Since I'm not quite up to starting on the dress yet, I went and bought some skin coloured felt to get started on the doll. Since the 10th Doctor is my favourite, and I happened to have scraps of brown fabric lying around, I decided that a tenth in his brown suit will be the first doll. Not sure yet if I'll attempt the trenchcoat too, we'll see.

Since I wanted to sit sewing in front of the tv, I opted to do all seams by hand. I prefer that anyway when working with something so small.

As soon as I started sewing I realised some minor problems. I hadn't been careful enough when cutting the pieces, and he ended up a bit lopsided. Second problem was the realisation that this felt was rather thin and low quality compared to what I remember working with as a child (last time I made a doll like this), and it ripped and stretched in several places. I managed to stitch the rips back together, but he ended up looking even more warped. It also didn't help that I left the head for last opening for stuffing, rather than a sensible place like his stomach, so the head ended up even more stretched and warped. In short, he looked like a mess.

I decided to sew the shirt and pants onto his body. Both because it will be much easier than making a removable garment, and because it should help prevent the felt from ripping further. The shirt is made of pieces from an old bedsheet. All seems beside the one running along the sleeves is sewn into the doll, leaving the ends of the sleeves loose and giving the illusion of a removable shirt.

Next comes the pants, attached to him in the same way as the shirt, with the bottom hem of the pants the one exception. These are a bit tight though, and may as well have been completely sewn on.

The jacket is the one removable garment he will wear. So far, I've made the main body and sleeves. Next up will be detailing such as pocket flaps and lapels.

I have yet to decide what to make the hair out of. One option is to make a sort of wig out of brown fabric, another to make it out of brown yarn. I'm not sure what will look best, nor if either of them would allow styling it into something resembling his hairstyle. The face will definately be embroidered on, but I don't know if it will be with or whitout glasses.

The shoes are also likely to be a tricky part, I shall have to dig through my fabric chest and see if I find any inspiration there.