The Five Doctors

No, the title of the posting is not a reference to the classic 20th Anniversary special from 1983, but to collectively the Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Tenth Doctors!

Confused?

Well, I have been having a lot of fun recently, slowly expanding the costume pieces I do.
To start with, they all appeared together in the original Tennant Coat or Tennant Suit blogs, but I have since started building separate blogs to cover the costumes of each Doctor, so they are easier to find and digest.

So far I have added the blog you are reading to cover the Five Trousers and Five Coat I have been working on.
I also added a blog for the Sixth Doctor, to pull out the information about making my Six Trousers.

This past week I have added the Seventh Doctor blog as I have been working on a replica of the Hanky that goes around his hat (see left).

Now I am adding the Third Doctor to the portfolio! This is because I am starting working on making the Inverness Cape he is often seen wearing.
I am doing it as part of the college course I am currently on.

So start checking out my other blogs as I slowly add to them.

Analyzing the Five Doctor costume

Having now done Five Trousers, and being far into doing the Five Coat, it feels like I have done over half a full Davison costume, though there are a number of items to go to make it truly complete.

This got me thinking to write a list of the main costume items worn – though I cannot come close to Bob Mitsch’s excellent Five Breakdown, which is pretty damned definitive.

The list, though relatively short, is slightly complicated by the refresh the costume received for the 21st season. At first glance there is little difference, but when you look closer, not much didn’t change.
The two photographs below are a good comparison between the Season 19 (left) and Season 21 (right) versions.

When the original costume was made back in 1982, several shirts and pairs of trousers would have been made, allowing for spares being cleaned or repaired as well as for stunt doubles. These were used throughout Davison’s first two seasons.
When it came to season 21 in 1984, the wardrobe department completely refreshed The Doctor’s costume, trying (but failing) to match the original version.

Back to the Academy

I am so pleased I have finally cracked all the problems I was having with the calico test of the Five Coat.

Having said that, it has been a long journey and for a while I was going round in circles making slower progress than I would have liked – and using more calico and pattern paper than was reasonable.

I need to do something about this, and it needs a little thinking outside of the (police) box, so to speak.

My solution? Well, I have given it some thought and I think although I can pick up new skills quickly by study professionally made garments, because I am self-taught, there are probably short-cuts and simple tricks I could use if I had some structured training.

I have looked around and found that a local college network runs courses in dressmaking and tailoring to a variety of skill levels. It is not long before courses start and enrolment is very soon, so I a few weeks back I made some enquires and got myself along to West Herts College in Hemel Hempsted to sign up.

Because I have worked in my own little bubble with no contact with others, I truly do not know my skill level.
I am certainly above the ‘beginners’ level, but am I ‘intermediate’ or “advanced’? Which would I get the most from? I don’t want to be on a course that teaches me how to thread a needle; likewise I don’t want to be lost trying to learn couture fashion with corsetry as a speciality!

As it turned out, both the beginners and intermediate courses were full, and had been for some time as they are constantly over subscribed to, leaving me just the advanced as an option. After telling the tutor about the commissions I had been taking on recently, she was perfectly happy to accept me for the course and thought the others would have been too basic for me anyway, which is sorta good to hear.

Five Coat - Finished calico test

I am not ashamed to say I am a little pooped after finishing the calico test for the Five Coat, but it’s been worthwhile I think.

Click to enlarge picture

After sharing a ‘photo-shoot’ image earlier, here are some more detailed pictures of the finished test.

Five Coat - Lining, then its DONE!

I have now successfully finished work on the body of the coat, and have nailed the pattern for its visible parts (see right).

I now need to sort out the parts hidden from view – the lining.

Compared to doing a Tennant Coat, which required its lining to be installed during pretty much the first few stitches, this will be much easier. The pattern for the lining is with little exception a straight repeat of the outer part of the coat, so I won’t go into too much detail about it at this stage.

The only panels that are different are the inside fronts, which omit the area covered by the lapels and also have the internal pockets set in them. It is this part of the lining I will focus on here.

I have again cribbed the shape of the inside front linings from my charity-bought jacket, cutting it off horizontally at the waist level to match how the Five Coat is constructed (see left, top).

The charity jacket had an internal pocket on each side, so I mark and replicate the angle and position for my Five Coat, based on what I have extracted from the dissected jacket.

Five Coat - Working on the collar

Now that I have sorted out how I will do the inside pockets, my attention turns to the collar and lapels.

The charity-bought jacket I dissected helped me get a much better shape and fit to the fronts.

My plan now is to crib the shape and cut of the lapels, though the collar does not have the correct shape, so I will need to adjust for that (see above, noting the angle of the collar coming away from the notch).

The lapels and collar I am using as a template are, like the fronts of the jacket I did earlier, from a more tailored school and a little different to the method I am used to. I think it is high time learnt some new techniques, so I aim to follow what I find.

The main difference is the underside of the collar, which is made from a thick felt rather than the same fabric as the body of the jacket.

I am working on the basis that this is applied last, so I look first at the structure of the upper collar. This is made in two parts, which at joined at a seam just below where the collar will roll. To create the shape of the collar, the two parts are curved in diverging directions (see right). You could be forgiven to think I have put the lower part upside down, but this IS the way they go together.

I replicated the collar, adjusting the shaping needed as I go, and sew it to the lapel fronts as I would usually do.

Five Coat - The Time Lord’s Pockets

Things are going well with the Five Coat!

So now that I am at last on a roll, its time to tackle the inside pockets.

Doing welts in a heavy woven material such as wool, or even better the Malabar or Alcantara my Tennant Coats were made from, has been quite easy for me as they are quite sturdy and self-supporting. As a result I had the chance to perfect my technique over the numerous coats I had made (see right).

You can read about all that in the Tennant Coat blog, under Inside pockets - smoke and mirrors

Five Coat - Starting the final calico test

Having sorted out a number of problems I was having with the pattern for the Five Coat, I can now begin what will be the last calico test before making it for real.

I quickly breeze my way though assembling the back of the coat (see right), having done it several times now and nailed the pattern a couple of goes back. The fronts I am using are now to the revised design having cribbed it from the charity shop jacket last week.

I have salvaged the piped pocket flaps I did for the last version, and set them in place (see left).

The pocket bag is made in two flat halves, one of which is sewn behind the flap. The front half of the pocket bag is then sewn to the top of the skirt, and the two parts are then sewn together when the skirt is joined to the body of the coat, taking a detour around the pocket bag to create the opening.

Five Coat - Calico progress

I have been working on the Five Coat on and off for a few weeks now, having taken a number of breaks to clear some garment commissions.

I recently had my first go at some of the piping on the coat, doing one of the pocket flaps as a test.

I simply pinned the piping around the flap and hand stitched it in place, finding it a lot easier that I had dreaded! (see above)

I also had a go at piping the sleeve, though in a different way this time. First I made my sleeve as usual, but only sewed the shorter front seam together. I then worked out the level of the piping and lightly marked a pencil line on the calico. I then machine stitched the bottom edge of the piping to the sleeve, which worked very well (see below left).

So the piping would match the lapel and pocket flap edges, I then folded it in half (see above middle) and stitched the other side down too (see above right).

When the back seam was sewn, the piping lined up and the join was on the back of the sleeve out of sight (see right).

All this was certainly easier than I had feared, but now I had broken the ice with piping, I had to face up to another little problem I had been putting off.

Each time I have returned to the coat I have progressed it a little further, but I have equally been finding issues and problems with the pattern I was developing.

Regeneration

“It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for . . .”

It’s by no means the end - but it is the beginning of a new chapter.

Just as Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison, so I now begin a new spin-off from my existing Tenannt Coat and Tennant Suit blogs.

What started out as just a way of practicing making trousers before cutting my precious JoAnn fabric has become a bit more than that.

The Five Trousers I made have now been commissioned by a number of very satisfied customers, and I now offer a choice of screen accurate fabrics to cover all of Peter Davison’s tenure as The Doctor, including the rarely done season 21 trousers

(see right).

I have been encouraged by their sucess, and have been ased to produce some further items if Five Costumes, with some secretly in the pipeline.

With what I know is coming up, I think it warrants its own dedicated blog.

In here I will cover all things Five and you will find I have already migrated the entries relating to Five Costuming from my original blogs so they are now all in one place.

This will then keep the Tennant Coat and Tennant Suit blogs concentrating on what they were intended for - all things Tennant!

As my repertoire expands I will bring other blogs online to cover those costumes.

Watch this space . . .

Five Coat - calico pattern testing

First thing I need to do is check that what I have transcribed from the Buckaroo pattern is sizing up correctly. It is also good to have a dry run to understand how the coat will go together and iron out any problems I may encounter.

Time to do another trusty calico test!

I must admit that when I first started making Tennant Coats, I was so desperate to have the finished result there and then, I would storm in and design on the fly as I was cutting final fabric and correct for any inaccuracies as I went along. I always knew calico tests were what I should be doing to start with, but it was only when I was getting ready to cut the £75 a metre Alcantara, that I stopped myself and went down the calico route first.

I found it very useful and it encouraged me to transcribe a proper pattern which I then have if I want to make another. I would now never do a coat any other way.

So, for the Five Coat I quickly cut the pieces that form the body of the coat, as well as one of the outside pockets as I want to get to grips with this unusual method I am not familiar with.

Version One

It was easy to follow how to put it together and within an hour I had a wearable shape I could test. There were immediately a number of issues I could see with the pattern that would need to be fixed: the fiddle-back was pushing the buttons too far apart (see below, top left); the underarm area was not as fitted as I would like (see below, top right); the seam on the shoulders was angled backwards more than I would like (see below, bottom left); the skirt was not as full as it should be; and the pocket flaps were too small (see below, bottom right).

Suits you, Sir

Recently I have had a number of enquires about the trousers I have been making based on the classic series costumes. I have therefore decided to make them available for commission.

If you are interested, please get in touch by emailing me at tennantcoat@me.com.

Five Trousers - season 19 design

Screen accurate copy of trousers as worn by Peter Davison in his first two seasons.

Fabric is bespoke printed by Spoonflower and has been designed to accurately match genuine garment. Although never seen in full on screen, pattern has been based as closely as possible to the trousers as seen in Planet Of Fire.

Trousers have high V-split back; zip and hook & eye fastenings; two side pockets; buttons ready for braces (braces not supplied!); lined from waistband to pockets.

£350

Five Trousers - season 21 design

Made to a pattern to match the trousers seen in Planet of Fire, these trousers are made with a fabric design not previously made available. This design of trouser was also seen recently in Time Crash, where Peter Davison wore the pair that had been let out for Colin Baker during the regeneration scene in Caves Of Androzani.

Trousers have high V-split back; zip and hook & eye fastenings; two side pockets; buttons ready for braces (braces not supplied!); lined from waistband to pockets.

£350

Six Trousers - season 22 design

Made from authentic woven pillow ticking and dyed to just the right colour as described in Making Phoenix Fabric.

NB: trousers shown are made directly from the California Pants pattern and are not strictly screen accurate. Trousers made will be to a revised screen accurate pattern.

Trousers have zip and hook & eye fastening; two side and two back pockets; buttons ready for braces (braces not supplied!); lined from waistband to pockets.

£300

A Ten Coat divided by Two

I have been a bit fired up recently while making all the Six Trousers and Five Trousers I have been doing recently.

They all started out as practice runs before making the Ten Suit Trousers, but I have ended up with half a wardrobe of some of the earlier Doctors.

So I have decided to have a go at making a Five Coat to go with my trousers. After all the work I have done on the Ten Coat, making a Five Coat should be a lot easier as there is much less to it. The only part I am daunted about before hand is the red piping as that will undoubtably have to be sewn by hand, but I am sure once I get to it and start knuckling down, it won’t be as bad as I thought.

Looking back, I have always wanted a Five Coat, right from when Peter Davison was playing the part in 1982. I suppose it was the first item of cosplay I ever wanted, though at the time I’m sure it wasn’t called cosplay.

I was quite taken with the simple style of the coat and I tried to find something similar without success.

Designer label

When I did my Five Trousers recently, I ordered the fabric from Spoonflower, who can print any design you can come up with onto material.

When my order arrived it was neatly wrapped in tissue paper with a compliment slip that was the Spoonflower logo, but it was printed onto fabric! Which I thought was kinda cool touch (see right).

It seemed such a waste to just throw it away, I thought the the best way to use it was to use it as a clothing label in my trousers, as a little reminder of where the fabric had come from.

I didn’t want to hide it away at the back of the trousers (I was also worried it may get worn), so I put it in the front to one side of the fly, sewn into the curtain (see left).

And having done that I got to thinking that maybe I should have a label too!

I did an internet hunt and found a company called Able Labels who can do fabric clothing labels in short runs (most wanted 1,000 plus) at not too bad a price. I designed it in photoshop and kept it to a single black and white design to bring it in on a budget. I sent them a test jpeg which they wove for me and the result was pretty good!

I ordered their minimum run and put the first label in the back of the Five Trousers and it just looked so right! (see right).

If I get anymore commissions for Five Trousers I can put the labels in and make it look a bit more professional.

Finally here is a better close-up of the finished label.

Making My Five Trousers

Now I have got my Five Trouser pattern sorted out, with its high conjoined waistband, I can set about making the real thing.

I ordered two yards of the Spoonflower printed fabric, and I quickly discovered that it was only just enough to make the trousers.

Cutting

I want to get the fall of the stripes just right, so I found some decent reference pictures and had them on hand while I was cutting the cloth (see below).

This particular picture (see left) was helpful in working out the scale, as I could count the stripes between pocket edges and work it so they would fit to the width of the trousers I was planning to make.

For the fronts I noticed how the wider stripe cluster runs up the front fly, so I position the pattern so it falls in the appropriate place.