Tardis finished!

Wow, I should've made this post ages ago. Anyway, the Tardis costume is mostly finished now.

That's me together with the lovely Cherry from Cherazor's Closet as the 10th Doctor. Do check out her page, she creates some truly awesome stuff. :)

After that shot was taken I finally managed to get a hold of a led lamp to put inside the hat. (Thank you, Ikea and your cheap table decoration lamps!)

Apologies for the atrocious picture quality, it's the only shot I have so far that shows the light well.

The outfit is definately done now, but as always there are still other things that can be done to improve it.

My plans so far are:

• A nice fluffy petticoat to give the skirt some more volume. (I'm seriously considering buying a readymade one, and then add some of the gold tulle I got, it's too soft for me to make an entire petticoat ouf of, unless I buy lots and lots more of it)
• Ribbons in the back so that I can tie it and give it some further definition and shape at the waist. That, or taking it in so that the entire thing becomes a little tighter.
• Blue embroidery on the collar of the shirt. It's hard to see, but the collar of the shirt has a lovely white-on-white embroidered pattern. I figure that it'll look even nicer if it's filled in with blue!

Tardis details: Necklace, windows and a failed hat

 First, I'll get that fail part out of the way. :)

My original idea was to construct a wire frame for the lamp/hat, then cover it with fabric and trim and hopefully in the end put a light inside it. I've learned two things while attempting this: My thin wire is way too thin, the thick one is way too thick. Constructing a cylinder that isn't all wonky out of these two is near impossible.

Time to rethink! Spotting an old soap jar from Lush gave me an idea. I'll use that as a base and glue the fabric and trim onto it.

This will have several advantages. Firstly, it will be sturdy and keep its shape even if I accidentally sit on it or something. The wire one would have needed handling with extreme care not to bend out of shape. Secondly, with large flat surfaces it will be much easier to attach the trim to it neatly. Thirdly, if I handle this well, I'll be able to attach the lid to the headband in a way that allows you to unscrew the jar itself. This will prove very useful once I get to the point of attaching a light inside it, allowing me to turn it on and off as well as change batteries without having to deconstruct the entire thing. All in all, I think this is a big improvement.

I've also done some work on the dress itself.

Those two aren't finnish flags, but the future windows of the tardis. Due to their proportions, I opted for 2x2 windows instead of the correct 3x2. I'm fairly confident it will look good anyway. Next up is attaching them, but I'm not quite sure what the least complicated way to pin them on will be, seeing how the top front part of the dress isn't a flat piece and making them line up nicely is really important since it'll be extremely obvious if they're crooked. Since I don't own a mannequin, I think I'll have to try to pin them on while wearing it. I hope I don't get too many bloodstains on it as I stab myself repeatedly! XD

Lastly, there's the necklace!

The embroidery isn't anywhere near as neat as the embroidery on the sign is, but it's done in sewing thread and working on the small ribbon was rather fiddly. If it bothers me enough, I might take it out and redo it at some point in the future. Right now, I'm happy with it. The key is too small to be a proper tardis key, it's the spare for a padlock I found lying around. The shape is good enough though, and it's a good size for the necklace, so I'm happy. :)

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.

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.