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.

Pilgrim's bag finished

Last night I started out with cutting the pieces for the bag out of some scrap linen I had lying around. I used one of my other bags as a rough estimate for a good size for it.

Due to being old scrap fabric, it's all horribly wrinkled. I couldn't be bothered with ironing it first.

All the pieces are now put together. Still wrinkly, but looking promising. Next up is decorating it!

All finished! I found some green yarn in the yarn basket (probably the most exciting colour in there... I have to do something about my yarn supply some day). I decided to go for fairly simple decorations, since the bag won't be all that fancy. To make sure the tassels would be the same size, I wound the yarn around my mac remote for each of them, rather than just using my fingers.

And a small closeup of the button closure. I made the braided loop by first attaching three long pieces of yarn to the lid, tying them in place, and then braiding the ends. Once they were long enough, I tied the two braids together to form a loop and cut off the excess.

In conclusion I'm happy with how the bag turned out, being made in a hurry and with nothing but scrap pieces. The shoulder strap is a bit on the wide side. I'll see how it feels after I've used the bag for a bit, and might make changes to it, but for now I'll call the bag finished.

Pilgrims bag

I'll be going to the medieval week in Wisby next week. Today I realised that I won't have a handy way for carrying my things the days I wear an outfit that doesn't easily work together with my belt and bags. So I've decided to correct this, by making myself a pilgrim bag.

From my research, it's basically a shoulder bag of a more or less modern shape. I've chosen a slightly less complicated one, but not overly so, I should be able to put it together from only three pieces.

To make it more interesting, I'm going to add a few tassels, inspired by a number of smaller pouches I've seen and always liked the look of, such as this:

I'll probably stick to putting them only on the bottom of the bag though, mostly for practicality. Instead, I'll have a matching embroidered border along the lid to go with the tassels.

Now to raid the fabric chest in search of scrap to make the bag out of!

New beginnings

I've been toying with the idea of making a blog to document my various creative projects in, so here we go. In here you will find mostly sewing projects related to my larping and cosplaying, but there might occassionally be other things as well.

I will strive towards being informational, both showing off what I'm doing and explaining how so that others might attempt it as well, should they be interested.

As I start the blog, I am in the very beginning of a brand new project. Last weekend I went to my very first convention, and I returned inspired. All the glorious geekiness has awoken my inner fangirl and I find myself wanting to produce fanart and gush over favourite characters again. All of the amazing cosplayers made me want to do it as well, create costumes of the characters and shows I love most.

As it happens, one of my absolute favourite shows is Dr Who. And I also happen to have eight meters of Tardis-blue fabric lying around. The solution is obvious!

Tardis cosplay.

Here is the plan so far. The shape of the dress itself will be fairly basic, with a ribbon to tie in the back in between the windows and the signs. The panels will be big pockets to hopefully eliminate the need to drag around a handbag as well. 

The shirt will also be made (or altered from an existing one, haven't decided yet) for the costume specifically, white blue detailing around the sleeve hems and collar. I'm hoping to find satin ribbon of a matching blue colour, otherwise I'll make the ribbon myself from the same fabric as the dress.

I'm also thinking of embroidering the police box text as well as the sign, rather than painting or printing it. It will be a lot more work, but it should do a lot for the overall impression of the dress in the end. So many of the dresses I've seen while googling for inspiration have lovely ideas, but come off as hastily thrown together. I don't want that. I'd rather spend a lot of extra time on making it perfect.

The lamp hat I'm thinking of making similar to those mini top hats that are so cute, only shaped like a tardis lamp. I'm toying with the idea of actually fitting a lamp inside it. It would be a cool detail, but on the other hand the lamp probably wouldn't be bright enough to show up if you're inside in a lit room, which I'll probably be for most of the time when wearing this. Is all that extra work worth it for something people are unlikely to notice? Maybe. I haven't decided yet.

I'm also thinking of making the petticoat for the dress out of a gold coloured material. Another funny detail that most people probably won't notice, and even if they do might not understand... So many decisions to make. But before I can even start, I need to head out and by a new roll of paper to cut pattern pieces from, turns out I lost the old one when I moved to this apartment.