Well hello there, friends!
Here’s a wee bit of geekery to start off the week.
This is my Doctor Who dress! I love the idea of everyday fangirl dresses and made my own. 🙂 This one is the Colette Hazel pattern.I am honestly not too sure what I think about this pattern…. I have had similar issues with Simplicity 2176 (made pre-blogging days) and although I’ve seen it look fabulous on other people, this type of bodice just does not seem to work for me. I generally don’t have a problem with Colette patterns nor with grading and yet I ended up with a bodice that is not up to par. Maybe I need to re-take my measurements? Or maybe it’s this type of bodice? I like the skirt and the how little fabric this pattern uses, but I’m un-impressed by the rest of it.
The bust just does not work for me… maybe my boobs magically grew overnight? But bodices just don’t normally fit me this way. This is a beginner pattern and should have been quicker to make than it was. It mostly has to do with the fact that I didn’t like how tight it was and did a “quick” alteration to the back by adding fabric to the closure. I had to unpick the zip, sew in the fabric and then put the zip back in. Yes, shoulda done a muslin…. I normally would have taken out the seams, but as I lined this dress (of course I forgot to show you the insides! Argh!) and was making it *just* in time to wear to a our local comic con, I did not feel like doing all of that work, thus the reason why I did my quick alteration. And… it still ended up being to tight for me in the books and the mid-section!
I also am not that happy about the straps or the top of the bodice either…. so pretty much the whole top half I am not that happy with as I don’t like the tight-ness nor the wrinkles that I can see in that above photo.
In this instagram photo that I posted that morning, you can see that it looks a bit better. Maybe I was bloated later on? I still don’t like the straps though.
This fabric is the clincher. It is an OOP officially licensed Doctor Who fabric from the UK. I searched and searched and searched online for a long time and could not find it. I was only able to find sold listings where it went for quite a bit of $$$ and fat quarters. From the logo, it appears to be from around the Ninth and Tenth Doctor. I was able to finagle this out of an etsy seller in the UK who was making custom dresses with it. She told me that she was having a hard time finding any herself and would not sell me the fabric when I first asked her. I then asked if I could buy one of her dresses and then have only the fabric sent to me for the price of the dress and she agreed to that. You may ask why I didn’t just have her make me a dress…..well…. hers were poorly made (although most of it may have been poor ironing or lack thereof) and I figured I could do better and even the complaints I have with this one still make my version better than what she was selling. All I can say is that people must REALLY want fan girl dresses and not know what good sewing is! I sure am glad I can sew whatever suits my fancy!
I was working with a very limited amount of Doctor Who fabric for this dress, thus the reason why I have a pale blue cotton broadcloth on the contrasting side panels. I normally would have used all Doctor Who fabric for this dress if I had had enough, but I do like the contrast. What I’m probably going to do now that I’ve already worn this dress to the con event, is to take it apart and pair the skirt with another bodice. I will either *try* to get some more Doctor Who fabric or do some artistic things with whatever bodice pattern I use to pair the skirt up with. I had planned to make another Hazel, but I really don’t think I will be happy with another version either…. anyone want my pattern? 🙂 On to search for the elusive “perfect summer dress” pattern!
Hey, hey! That’s me with the Eleventh Doctor! I saw the spitting image of the Fourth Doctor walking around but failed to catch up with him and get a pic. This was the best Matt Smith Doctor that I saw that day. I did get a lot of compliments for my dress from other Whovians.
These photos were taken at StocktonCon. I’ve always wanted to go to Comic Con, but San Diego is soooo far from me. Obviously not as far if you live on the other side of the US or in another country. This one, however, is only a couple of hours away and we had a blast. I can’t wait to go to more cons!! I’ve been thinking about doing a bit of cosplay and dressing as a Weeping Angel. Not sure how awful it will be to navigate crowds with big wings on my back though!
That’s Mr. H with WWE wrestling legend, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. He was a cool guy although he was getting on me about not being a wrestling fan.
And then I took this photo in front of this creepy statue outside. I’m sure it has some sort of symbolic significance, but as there was a bum with a shopping cart sitting on the other side of it muttering to himself, I didn’t walk around to see if there was a plaque explaining it.
So I’ll leave you with this instead.
- Dress: Colette Hazel in OOP officially licensed Doctor Who quilting weight fabric and cotton broadcloth contrast, made by me
- Shoes: Stuart Weitzman
- Sunglasses: Birch