Recently my sister got married, which was lovely and she’s very happy. But of course, being me, I needed a new outfit for the celebrations! Of course I wanted to try and make it, and it NEEDED a geeky twist. But as my sister is much less of a geek than me it would need to be subtle geekery, which isn’t really my forte.
Not much to aim for, right?
I decided to go for a simple dress with a geeky fabric, so the hunt was on! After trawling through Spoonflower for ages I discovered this amazing Seal of Rassilon fabric. Whovian theme it was! Plus the pattern is a lovely blue colour with a hint of black. I was prohibited from wearing a black dress by my sister, but this is dark enough to not offend my goth sensibilities.
For my Doctor Who dress pattern, I finally settled on this Mimi G Style dress from Simplicity. I love her designs and this one is soft and flowy with a neckline that I thought would flatter me well.
With the dress plan settled there was one last thing to decide on; how to keep myself warm at an autumn wedding. The obvious answer is; wear a cape! But then again, I’ll jump at any chance I get to wear a cape!
After more trawling through patterns I hit upon a simple idea in the deep reaches of Pintrest in the middle of the night. Cut a circle with a slit to the middle on the side you’d like to be the front, fold it over to a semi circle, then sew around the edges leaving a gap for your hands at the pointy ends of the semicircle cape cut out.
Written like that it sounds odd, but here’s what I did;
- Mark the centre of a mostly square piece of stretchy velvet.
- Stick a pin through a measuring tape and then through the marked centre point and then through a stable board.
- Use measuring tape to mark out an even circle of pins.
- Cut out marked circle.
- Take pins out of the circle shape but leave the one in the middle.
- Work out which way the velvet looks prettiest to determine which direction to make the front (I decided on the nap of the velvet going down my back)
- Cut a slit from the centre front to the pin in the middle. Then take out the pin as this is no longer needed.
- Fold over a little bit of fabric at each side where the wrists will be and sew this for a cuff.
- Fold over a little bit of fabric around the slit and sew this up to make a hem.
- Fold the circle into a semi circle with the velvety sides together and pin along the roundy edge, leaving room for the hands at the corner and slightly overlapping the edges of the slit.
- Sew up hem.
- Turn velvety side out.
- Put shiny new shawl-cape-thingie on and do some twirls!
This is probably not the best way to achieve this, but it worked. And I absolutely flounced around my lounge room spinning and flapping my arms immediately after finishing this!
The dress was slightly more complex and I absolutely needed a pattern for it. This one is relatively simple with only 5 different pattern shapes, but still, I’m no pattern drafter.
The first thing I did was fit the pattern a little better around my body with the help of my fabulous friends. Even though this is a simple pattern the bodice went through about 3 mock ups and then I did a full mock up to make sure the changes weren’t messing up the rest of the dress. I’ve destroyed enough beautiful fabric to know the value of mock ups!
The final mock up also allowed me to play with pockets and realise I’d probably need to add a little extra tape in to stop them dragging on the stretchy fabrics. I always add in pockets wherever I can, particularly in unfitted skirts like this one. There’s heaps of space for massive pockets!
Then it was really a matter of cutting the pieces out of my nice Doctor Who fabric and following the instructions in the pattern. Possibly should have messed about with the neckline slightly, but despite being planned well in advance the wedding snuck up on my sewing plans!
To add to the Doctor-Who-ness, I managed to snag the beautiful Alex Monroe galaxy ear cuff and matching necklace. They make the 13th Doctor’s ear cuff for the show and designed it in collaboration with Jodie Whittaker. This cuff is a replica of the one worn by the 13th Doctor and I felt really special wearing it! I’m more than a little in love with these pieces.
I think the whole outfit came together quite well!
