SDCC Masquerade Project #12 - The 10th Doctor Who Suit: Bonus Femme

I wonder if anyone noticed my numbering system for these super seekrit (not-so-seekrit) masquerade costuming blog posts (whew that was a mouthful).

If you did, then just know that I planned it that way, intentionally. And if you didn't, keep reading, and I'll explain it at the end.

For this very last post, I wanted to show you the last and final bonus piece I made for my 10th Doctor Suit. I wanted something a bit more femme, but still in keeping with the suit concept. There have been many Femme 10th Doctors (just do a search on 10th doctor femme) or check out this Tumblr.

I had enough fabric to do a waistcoat, and I had been saving all of my usable sized scraps for little things, like welts and the ilk.  I made the fronts & welts out of the fashion fabric and used lining fabric for the back and lining pieces.

Then it was a matter of adding buttons and viola! A waistcoat to add to a full three-piece suit Doctor Who ensemble! (I wore this outfit the day after the SDCC Masquerade along with a cross-play Rose Tyler, just to make things interesting.

Now, if you've read this far, and have not yet guessed the numbering system, well, there are 12 known doctors (not counting the War Doctor, which is not officially given a number). And currently, (at the time of this writing), not much is known about the 12th Doctor because the season hasn't started, so this post is really a short bonus posts.

So, in summation, there are TWELVE numbered posts (not counting the 1/2 posts scattered here and there). Plus, our SDCC skit was named "Twelve" (which is a happy coincidence_. Twelve posts for each of the 12 Doctors. And yes, I did actually plan it out that way

SDCC Masquerade Project #11 - The 10th Doctor Who Suit: Completed!

So, Comic Con has come and gone, and I'm sorely behind on photos & the rest of the making of this project. So, let's recap, shall we?

About 1.5 weeks before SDCC, I was 95% done with the suit. All I needed to do was hem the pants, and put buttons onto the jacket front & jacket sleeves.

However, I had a problem. I couldn't find proper suit buttons for the outfit for days. I looked at the local fabric stores and no one had suit buttons. There were a lot of brown "crafting" buttons (for children's button crafts) and a lot of fancy buttons, but no simple suit buttons.

I didn't have time to drive around and look for buttons, so I had to order them online and hoped they would get to me in time. They didn't. Since we were driving down to SDCC, I thought I could pick up some buttons in the LA Garment District and use those temporarily, until I got the proper suit buttons.

I did sew the buttons holes on the jacket (but didn't open them up) so that all that was left was to sew on buttons. 

Here's a photo of me in the nearly completed suit (sans buttons), and the David Tennant in his 10th Doctor Suit.

There are some differences, because I wasn't trying for a 100% perfect replica of the Tennat Suit, because there are major differences between our body types. I needed it to fit me well and look good enough on-stage and in-person to be recognizable as his suit.

• Tennant has a long torso and long legs, whereas I do not (short waisted & short legs), so I had to make the jacket proportional to my dimensions, as well as all of the button placements
• I also added side vents to the suit in addition to the back panel, because, well, I have hips and I need to be comfortable sitting & standing in the suit.
• The fabric I used was fabric I had purchased for Joann's Fabrics over 5 years ago. It's not a complete match, but it's pretty damn close. It's 55% linen, 45 % rayon blend.  (The Tennant Suit was 100% cotton, which explains why he looked so rumpled all the time. Although, mind you, linen isn't that much better.)  Check out this link for a difference in the fabrics
• I opted to do actual working sleeve buttons; Tennant's suit used faux sleeve cuffs -- in that the sleeve cuffs couldn't be opened up; the buttons were just sewn as "decoration". This makes sense from a theatrical standpoint, but I thought to diverge here.
• I used a woman's cut pants pattern (see link here) because, well, I'm a girl, and I need them to fit properly.  Plus, because I was running out of fabric to properly do the waist band as on the suit, I made do with slightly skewed striping.

I spent an hour in the SDCC hotel sewing on buttons for the Masquerade, which I normally hate doing. Typically, I much prefer finishing a costume for an event BEFORE the event and not have to do any work during the event. But, sewing on buttons was a simple task (although I forgot to bring backing buttons with me.

By now, you've already guessed the outfit, so I'll be renaming all of the previous topics according to: SDCC Masquerade Project - The 10th Doctor Who Suit.
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I'll have photos up from San Diego Comic Con as soon as I can!

Here are some of my resources for the making of my 10th Doctor Who (Tennant) suit.

• Resource Link: Steve Rick's awesome site on making his Tennant Suit -- he's done interviews and has a lot of reference photos that were extremely helpful--- http://tennantsuit.blogspot.com/
• Information on the fabric: http://tennantsuit.blogspot.com/2009/04/comparing-fabrics.html
• Magnoli has the fabric for sale, but it's pricey: http://www.magnoliclothiers.com/tennant-cotton-fabric-p-382.html
• Debenhams in the UK has the tie (at the time of this writing)