Getting ready for Gally

[Morrigoon]

I'm working on a few things to wear for Gallifrey One next month, and I figured I'd put them all in the same thread (because who knows how much I'll actually make...)

Project #1 is a 4th Doctor scarf, but my own spin on it - making it from strips of embroidered silks instead of knitting it. So it'll be a totally girled-up 4th Doctor costume. I'm thinking of using my semi-shiny brown rain jacket in place of the frock coat, and I already have grey pants and white shirt, so once the scarf is done, I just need a waistcoat (vest) and cravat. Oh, and an "Indy" hat (brown fedora, but since I live near Disneyland, the easiest one to acquire will be the Indy one)

Anyway, I'm about 1/3 of the way through the scarf, so here it is:


(note it's folded to give an idea of final width, actual width is 22"+, depending on the color. I made a point of lining up properly on one side so all the unevenness is on the other, which will make truing it up easier later)

I'm using the "Inches" directions on Doctor Who Scarf, for those who are looking for a guide. (It also has knitting guides, but obviously I'm working with fabrics here so I needed dimensions, not stitches and rows).

Project #2 is not a replica, per se. More like "Gallibounding" (if you're familiar with Disneybounding... creating "normal" outfits that are specific tributes to a character/scene). I call it the "Van Gogh Dress," for obvious reasons. It's a reference to the "Vincent and The Doctor" episode. I miraculously found a Starry Night fabric, and though it has no exploding TARDIS, I think the point comes across rather clearly. Using Simplicity 2886 for this one. I've used it before, but this time I *ahem* had to size it up a little. I've only cut the bodice lining so far for a pin fit, so cross your fingers that I did a good job! Below is the pattern, the cut lining and the Starry Night fabric:


I still need outfits for my 2-y/o, who will be attending with me. I'm thinking a Kiss-o-Gram Amy Pond dress (made from perhaps a black youth size t-shirt and some checkered fabric if I can find it), and some sort of Dalek pillow dress? If I could (miraculously) find a denim jacket in a 3T for a cheap price, I'd totally do a River Song for her, but I'm not holding my breath. I imagine an accurate jean jacket without extra fluffy stuff is going to be pretty rare in her size. Haven't even started on any of these, but watch this space if I get around to working on it!

 

[Morrigoon]

Okay, so a thought just occurred to me re: toddler costumes. I just bought her a cute purple coat she hasn't gotten to wear due to the weather being too warm (yeah sorry rest of the country, we're complaining because it's like summer here, but seriously 85 in January is just ridiculous), so I think with the purple coat as a standin for 11's new frock coat, I pretty much HAVE to do an 11th Doc outfit for her, right? I'm thinking of sewing fake grey vest pieces over a light blue t-shirt (for her comfort) and stitching on a dark purple bow tie at the collar.

 

[Morrigoon]

So somewhere around the third(!) iteration of the front shoulder piece, I realized I was totally justified in doing a paper mockup instead of a cloth one. #2 is on the left, #3 on the right. I think I still need to increase that outer curve and open up the inner curve a bit, as the back piece needs to lay flat, or even bend back a bit to allow my head to move.



Now the question is... final material? I considered buckram, but I don't have time to get downtown to the only place I know that carries it any more (technically I haven't tried our new Hobby Lobby because I won't step foot in the place, but let's assume they'd fail me too). I'm considering sticking with newsprint and laminating a few layers of it together with mod podge. But will that get me the smooth-ish paintable surface I'm looking for? Suggestions?

This is what I'm going for:


In other news, toddler outfits are coming along. Located the perfect little red cardigan, and had to actually design a version of the Young Amelia Pond nightgown print on spoonflower because I couldn't find anything like it. It *should* arrive in time to throw together a nightgown, even with the 3 large tucks around the bottom. Also landed a little denim jacket (she already has jeans and a white shirt) for her River Song costume, though I have to find some kind of fake leather/suede to fashion a western-style holster.

 

[Risu]

Some day I want to just sink $150 into a leather hide and make a timelord collar out of a single cut of leather. Maybe after the 7 Who costumes I've already bought all the fabrics for.

 

[Morrigoon]

Still looking for input on construction materials. The temptation here (given how soon the con is) is to just go the papier-mache/mod podge route. But I'm open to hearing about anything I could treat the surface with to get me a smooth, paintable surface that doesn't add too much weight to wear.

 

[tgk]

You could think about using EVA foam for your build.

 

[Morrigoon]

Well, I didn't think they carried it, but I managed to find the rolled-up form of craft foam. It's 36"x60" and it's pretty darn thin, so if I'm going to use it, I need to stiffen it up somehow. My thoughts include:

1. I bought a paddle of thick-ish (still awfully pliable, thus sold by the paddle and not by the spool) floral wire, which I could use in place of millinery wire (Ugh, Michael's, why don't you guys carry buckram and millinery wire, seriously?) But of course, how to conceal it on the surface of the foam?

2. Papier-mache the headdress anyway, then apply the foam to its surface. This may require me to buy a second roll of foam in order to cover both sides (actually that might be the solution whether I do 1 or 2). Or leave one side papier-mache.

- - - Updated - - -

tgk: by EVA foam, did you mean like upholstery foam? As in the green stuff at JoAnn Fabrics?

 

[Morrigoon]

Things aren't going so hot on the headdress, so I've left off that for the time being. I may end up wiring the craft foam and painting over it, and just hope it doesn't look too bad. Was trying to do a paper mache, but mmmm.... it's having all the problems you'd anticipate with paper mache.

However, tonight I threw all that off to work on something "easy." My 2 y/o's "KissOGram Amy Pond" costume. I decided to dispense with the separate vest (because dressing a toddler is hard enough, thanks), and do the outfit as a single dress. I picked up a youth small t-shirt, which comes about to her knees, and then cut it down to shape. I gave the skirt a slight flare rather than a taper so it'll go smoother over her diaper.

For the "belt" I found some stretchy pleather fabric at Walmart that I decided to go with because I planned to sew the belt directly onto the dress and I wanted it to have as much give as the t-shirt knit. In reality, I ended up sewing the pleather into a tube, turned it (PITA!) and only stitched it to the dress at the hips. Fingers crossed that this works and my placement was right because I can only sew when she's asleep so I had no model to try it on. Also, I only went with the belt on the front side, saving having to match it up at the side seams, and because she'll be sitting in a stroller much of the time.

Found some checkerboard fabric for the shoulder stripes (and eventually the cravat, which I'll probably just attach to the collar of the dress, or at worst, pin to whatever shirt I put her in). For the shoulder stripes, I cut strips 3 rows wide, plus half a row on either side for stitching. This is where I got a little stupid fussy... I stitched right down the outer line of the three row wide section, trimmed it close (so SO close), then followed that up with a tight zigzag stitch to cover the extra.

I simply turned the armholes to the inside and stitched, no facings there.

Reference:

 

[Morrigoon]

In other news, I've added 2nd Doctor to my costume lineup. I already have a black coat, and I'll be borrow some obnoxious plaid pants (borrowing, heh, they were mine before said friend laid claim to them, lol), and tonight I picked up a recorder and some dotted silk for the bow tie.

I realized I have a pretty close approximation of "Impossible Astronaut" Amy Pond ready to go (red plaid shirt, denim capris, boots), which is awesome since I will wear it when my daughter's in her River Song costume. My shirt's a little inaccurate as it's short sleeved and one of those empire-waisted babydolls instead of a full button down, but the overall look will be delightfully close for spending zero money on that costume. (Nobody's going to look at fat Amy Pond when Tiny River Song is in the vicinity anyway, right?)

 

[Morrigoon]

Oh my god, it looks amazing. I know it's really stupid simple, but I'm loving the look. Actually I like it so much that I've decided to commit to doing the stuff on the back of the dress as well (which I was originally going to skip because she'd be in a stroller most of the time.) And even though it looks good at the current cut, it's actually big enough I think I'll get multi-con uses out of it.

Here's the KissOGram Amy Pond on, and the inspiration image I'll be using to finish the back of the dress.


I hope Party City has a kid-sized bowler hat... that's next!

 

[Morrigoon]

I've hit a roadblock and could use some suggestions... I fully expected Party City to have black bowler hats. If not in kid sizes, at least in adult. Well... they don't. Trilby hats they have in abundance (fake fedoras with small brims), but bowlers? Not a one. Where else can I find a -cheap- bowler hat? Preferably that super cheap synthetic felt, but at this point I'd settle for plastic if it's already black or can be repainted as such.

 

[Morrigoon]

Just a few minutes after purchasing a cheesy plastic holster (no belt!) and toy gun at the dollar store, I ended up finding the perfect material to make her River Song "Impossible Astronaut" gun belt (and holster, because... cosplay).


Oh dear, the photo came out sideways, but you get the idea. It's fabric that resembles a highly detailed tooled leather, but the lady was able to tear it at the cutting table, so my regular machine should be able to handle it. $8/yd, but I only needed 1/4 yard of it.

 

[Morrigoon]

Progress report:

The scarf is about 5/8 done... (Did I mention there are *53* strips of fabric in that thing?) I can't wait to upload a picture of the finished scarf!

I also did some more work on the Van Gogh dress. Still have to do the skirt part, but the bodice is nearly complete now:



In other news... my mother crocheted a mini 4th Doctor scarf for my daughter! So now I guess I need to find her a fedora and make a brown coat... (Actually, there's a cheapy fedora at the party store - the one with no bowler hats - that's relatively small in size. I'm really not nuts about the quality, but it's only $7)



I'm going to try to get myself an "Indy" fedora tomorrow in Anaheim. Wish me luck, the store I'm looking in may or may not have them!

 

[Morrigoon]

Progress! Hallelujah. (Seriously, with a 2-year old it's a miracle I get ANYTHING done)

I have all but finished the Van Gogh Starry Night (aka exploding TARDIS) dress (skipping the zipper for now and basted it shut, have to finish half the hem from when my bobbin ran out).


Since my black bobbin thread was wound over my dark brown, I promised myself the next time the black ran out, I'd switch over and do the western-style River Song gun holster ("Impossible Astronaut"). Now mind you, I'll be going as Amy Pond, and my 2-year old will actually be River Song, just to give you an idea of scale here. First, I had purchased a cheapy plastic gun and holster from the 99-cent store, and used that as my pattern, though I adjusted the top to be slightly higher. Because of the way it rolls over itself, I knew I had to do this as a double layer, so I decided to make the whole top of it a channel through which I would string the "belt". Below you can see the pattern drawn on the wrong side of the faux tooled leather fabric. I simply traced the outer edge with a sharpie, then rolled the holster over to finish the other side.


I didn't want a lot of shifting as I stitched, and pinning was likely to lead to a lot of distortion (and potentially holes, though after pinning the belt for sizing I found the holes disappeared reasonably well), so I took some tacky glue and very lightly glued both sides together (avoiding the top area), then I stitched around the edge of the same area.


This stuff doesn't fray, so those really are raw edges. Much like real leather, it looks fine that way.
I wanted to continue the look of the stitching up into the belt channel, so I separated the two pieces at the top, and stitched up each side just through the top layer. I could have done it all in one go, but that would have meant a second line of stitching across the top.


Being careful to place the needle right back into the previous stitching line, I was able to keep a consistent stitch all the way around. The final step was to fold the right side over the left and stitch it down. Here is the final holster:


I briefly strung it on (the wrong end of) the belt strip just to make sure it fit and see how it would look


And here is the final costume with and without the toy gun in the holster. The jury is still out on how I will have her wear it... the costumer in me wants to paint the toy silver and stick it in the holster, but the mommy in me is thinking she can wear the holster empty. Opinions? I'm leaning toward empty holster unless talked out of it with a really good argument. But ooh, it does look cool!


The jacket I ended up finding is a bit on the light side compared to the real thing. (Realizing now that I'm pulling up the inspiration photo that the holster could have been done a bit different, but eh, too much length would practically drag on the floor. I have to consider the wearer.) I plan to dig through all her jean-like pants to see if I can find a pair with a lighter wash, so the jacket's lightness will be less obvious/contrasting.



Sooooo.... Now I just have to create a Young Amelia nightgown from scratch, which actually shouldn't be too hard, I'll just use one of her t-shirts' dimensions for the yoke, and the rest should follow from there. The only complicated bit being adding in the 3 rows of tucks above the hem, and even that... pfft.


Oh, and I added the checkered strip hat band to the black kissogram hat. As was recommended elsewhere, I used steam to try to undo some of the original shaping to convert it from a trilby to a bowler. It worked somewhat, and considering how little time she's likely to wear the hat, I'm calling it good. Still need to add the word "POLICE" to front and back of her dress, which I'll do in fabric paint.

I'm probably putting the Gallifreyan Council headdress on hold. The foam I got is the super-thin stuff and I doubt it will work unless made in double layers, and I'm simply running out of time. But I've done the pattern, so it has only to wait for me to do the build. WonderCon is coming in April, maybe I'll do it then.

 

[Morrigoon]

We're back!

I entered my daughter's Kiss-O-Gram costume in the masquerade, and she handled herself very well! Here's how it turned out (along with the Van Gogh dress):

Along with all the other Amy Ponds (and someone else in the back )


Because of entering the costume for judging, I decided not to use a purchased long sleeve t-shirt underneath, so Friday night I whipped up a little middy blouse in the space of about 2 hours. So here's that:


And, finally, in the afternoon of the last day, I managed to complete my interpretation of the 4th Doctor's scarf:


No pictures of the River Song outfit because it was too hot for the jean jacket. In the "incomplete" category... Young Amelia nightgown. Perhaps for WonderCon.