That’s right, I’m keeping this one under wraps until Halloween…unless of course it turns out badly. Then, I’ll just deny that this page ever existed.
9/06/11 – Cut the first pattern’s pieces. I just realized that I have enough hoop steel! As of last week, my accessory supplier has been secured for an element of the costume.
9/07/11 – Morning: Ironed the first pattern’s pieces. There are 16 of them. It would seem that I don’t have to go shopping for this part of the ensemble. Yay!
10/10/11 – I can’t even begin to tell you what a pain the under garments for this have been. I was so frustrated that I didn’t even do a custom pattern. I got them done enough to fit close enough, then went shopping for the outer garment fabric.
11/07/11 – I don’t know how I keep convincing myself that I can do a day-by-day or even weekly report on my projects. I’m way too busy for that. Instead, here’s the normal quick and dirty.
As a born and bred sci-fi nut, Doctor Who gave me the subject, and I have wanted to do this costume for years. Really. Years.
I started with undergarments (Simplicity 3635). I think my only cheat was not attaching or tying the innards as directed. Everything else was by the book, and I managed to only pull from my stash for the set. In the end, though, I didn’t wear the shift. I cut the sleeves off of my high-necked smock (it had a bad stain, and didn’t fit that great) just above the elbow and wore that instead. On the upside, I used the sleeve pieces for my pseudo-off-period-jabot.
The gown and underskirt were from the corresponding pattern, Simplicity 3637. I mostly stuck to the pattern, minus the lower sleeve ruffles and the puffed trim, which was horrendous to me. My alternative was gathered trim in a more period style. I wanted to do curved designs and add flowers as well, but there were serious time constraints. It turned out better anyway…. To do the trim, I used the rotary cutting machine to make long strips of scalloped edged taffeta. Then, I used my new gathering foot to gather the long strips (long, long, long strips). I sewed the strips to the gown under a length of black, pink, and gold gimp braid that was gifted to me for this gown and matched perfectly. Unfortunately, scalloping the edges of the taffeta wasn’t enough to keep it pretty. The damned trim shed all day. By the end, I ended up with black and pink and red trim. It still looks neat, but I’m going to have to redo the trim before I try to wear it again.
Accessories
And a parting shot of how I drove to and from work that day…
FYI, I won the contest at work. There were a fair amount of Whovians in the audience, but second place put up an excellent fight.
Green Linen Shirt 
