Five Coat - what’s in a colour?

Right – at long last I am back onto my Five Coat after a bit of a delay, and I have got a feeling of Déjà vu.
It’s colour all over again!

The hold up has been because, stupid as it seems, I have had difficulty sourcing a good beige gaberdine to use for the body of the coat.

This was something I had problems with on the Tennant Coat, and I wrote about it in What’s In A Colour?

The whole time I have been working on the Five Coat I have been searching fabric shops and online retailers to try and find the perfect match.

Now I would have thought this to be a fairly simple task – after all, beige is a byword for dull, safe, middle-of-the-road, easy – need I go on?

beige [beyzh]
– noun
1. very light brown, as of undyed wool; light gray with a brownish tinge.
– adjective
2. of the color beige.

But it has proved to be a bit harder than I thought.

The problem has been compounded by the need to find a fabric of the right weight and feel, coupled with the right colour. I have found a number of stretch gaberdines in good colours, which boarder on being a jersey material, and not the right thing at all; I also found some great pure gaberdines, which lacked the colour range I needed.

In the past I have learnt to my cost in the past that when you are looking for a specific fabric/colour combination, not to buy the first material you see, because once you get it home and start looking at it objectively you can find that your choice was a bit off.
It is much better to go out without the preconception to come back with fabric ready to cut, but to gather swatch samples and asses their individual merits before returning to make your purchase later.
You do, however, need to put a time limit on this process, otherwise you may return to find all of your choice sold without the chance of new stock being ordered.
I therefore, when following this path, tend to steer towards suppliers with large stocks or known, named brands that can be re-ordered from their manufacturer rather than a distributor.

Now, the problem with trying to match a relatively light and neutral colour like this, where it is neither one thing nor the other is simply that: a strong colour is easier to hit, such as the colours of a Six Coat; but a neutral can have a slight bias of hue to it, be it warm or cold, grey or green.

What is he going on about, I can hear you saying! Surely a beige is a beige?

Well, I have gathered over 25 samples – all of which you could call beige in isolation, but when they are put along side each other, are far from similar.
I also had a friend in the US searching his side of the pond for me, and we both made it our mission to track down the perfect colour. He did rather better than me, I must say.

Throughout this entry you will have notice the boards of samples we have found, and appreciate the variation of colour between them all.
On one of these boards also has the piping I will be using, and a shortlisted range of buttons.

Another factor (though for me it is sometimes irrelevant when you are aiming for the best) is the cost of the fabric. The variation in price can be notable, form over £30 a metre, down to £7 or £8 at the cheaper outlets.

At one point I went to some fabric suppliers on Saville Row, and was quoted over £60 a metre for some gaberdine-like fabric, that was not the right colour anyway.

I also tracked down the company that makes the fabrics used for British Military uniforms. Their prices are very keen and they stock some great materials including worsted twills and coating Meltons, which if not now I can see myself using in the future. Sadly, despite having a colour that was a contender, it was only in a Cavlery Twill, which is a very heavy fabric indeed.

In the end, after going form pillar to post (and finding some superb fabric merchants along the way), the fabric we have settled on has been sourced in Los Angeles, and is on its way over to me as we speak.

I can’t wait to get started!

S21 trousers - customer review

Last year I made a number of Five Trousers,
and one of my clients, Chris, kindly wrote a review of his Season 21 Trousers.
Here’s what he had to say.

The one thing that always surprised me when talking about the Fifth Doctor’s costume was that no-one seemed to be able to notice the difference between his first and last season costumes. To me it was blatent but to most it wasn’t. I had tried to commision other well known costume makers in the past to make the last season trousers but was either told that they were all the same material(!) or that there wasn’t enough interest in them to bother.

You can imagine how thrilled I was when I found Steve on-line who not only could see the difference in the materials but had produced an amazing replica material that looked spot on. Of course I had to have a pair!

Steve was amazing. He took time to keep me informed every step of the way. If there was going to be a small delay I would receive an email explaining why and I felt like I was never in the dark.
 The turn around time on the trousers was amazingly fast, especially for the quality of the finished pair! Feeling a bit like a kid at Christmas, I felt over excited when they arrived and once they were unwrapped, I couldn’t wait to put them on. I was slightly concerned whether they would fit (doing measurements over emails could go wrong I thought) but they were perfect.

Extremely well made and finished with a real professional eye for detail. As soon as I had them on, the DVDs and photos all came out and I can honestly say that they are as near to the originals in accuracy as I think it would be possible to get.

 It’s a pleasure to deal with Steve!

Geronimo!

This week marks the start of a new era: Matt Smith as The Doctor.

It also heralds the start of another unintended project of mine – on as you may come to read, I had no desire to begin.

At first glance, the new Doctor’s costume is somewhat arid of reproducible, unique items, so though I find it interesting (but not to my taste) I could see little I to indulge my sewing skills on.

But as time progresses, the off-the-peg costume he wears has become increasingly difficult to track down, and I have been approached by a number of cosplayers asking if I would be looking to replicate the shirt he wears.

My first thoughts were that it was out of my capabilities, having never made a shirt before.
But I hadn’t made trousers before making my Five and Six Trousers, so maybe I just need to learn.

As a coincidence, the set-learning part of my recent college course covered shirt-making, showing me it was actually a little easier than I thought.

So, I’m up for the challenge . . .

You can start to follow my progress on my new blog:

eleventhdoctorcostume.blogspot.com

Happy Christmas to all my readers!

You may have noticed that I recently added some hit counters to my sites, and I have been amazed as to how many readers I have out there!
When I started out I was writing it mainly for myself and one or two friends who knew I was about to make a new, and possibly ultimate, Tennant Coat.
From there my blogs have grown, and I never really knew how many cosplay enthusiasts were bothering to look.

Well, now I know it is more than just a few, I want to thank you all for taking the time to follow what I have been up to this year, and hope you will continue to see where I go in 2010.

I have pretty much written the last entry for 2009 (don’t worry, I’ll be back in January fired-up with ideas!) so all that remains now is to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

I wish to especially thank a few people for
their support this past year: 

Ramie for showing faith in my work

Lisa for aiding the breakthrough with the GAP trousers

Timelord25 for his faith in me to make him a new Five Coat

Seth for his invaluable input and eye for detail, giving me something to live up to

Finally Primrodo for being a sounding board for ideas and direction, and for the use of the image of his TARDIS,
which appears above

Bonhams costume sale - 16th December 2009

This coming week there is another auction at Bonhams in Knightsbridge of Film and Entertainment memorabilia.

Amongst the James Bond and Beatles items (and Laurence Oliver’s costume from Richard III) are a number of original Doctor Who costumes.

There is small batch of further items form the Angels costumes archives, containing a couple of Doctor Who lots.

The, after a number of film posters and other memorabilia, there are six more Doctor Who lots, though this time not directly from Angels.
Star items amongst them is a full Tetrap costume from Time and The Rani.
Also on sale is a set of rehearsal scripts form Robots Of Death, which went unsold at the Bonham’s Auction on 16th June 2009, so anther chance to grab them if you meant to bid last time around.

The viewing is Sunday 13th and Monday 14th June, so I went on Monday and took some more detailed pictures, particularly of the Tetrap costumes.

In the meantime, below is a full list of the items on offer, taken from the online catalogue so they can be seen all together and long after the listing on Bonhams will have been removed.

Bonhams sale 16905
(16th December 2009)
Entertainment Memorabilia including some items from the Angels Collection of Television & Film Costumes

I have separated the items by Doctor era, and you can see the rest of the items here:

Lots 1, 2, 164A to 165A, 166A
Fourth Doctor (1975-1981)

Lots 166
Sixth Doctor (1984-1986)

Lots 164
Seventh Doctor (1987-1989)

Here are just the lots relating to the Fifth Doctor era

Lot 165A
Dr. Who: a Time Lord robe, the V-neck surplice-style garment woven in pale brown and black diamond pattern, tape ties to sides, with label inscribed FUT 488.


Footnote:
Purchased from the Longleat auction in the early 1990s, this is believed to have been used in the Tom Baker story, The Deadly Assassin, transmitted October/November 1976 and Ark Of Infinity, with Peter Davison, shown January 1983.

Estimate: £500 - 600

Sold £420

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 . . .