Dr Who (5th) Cosplay: the Skirt

I've been continuing to work on my Doctor Who costume and have finished the skirt.  I took a few minutes the other day to update my sketches to a digital format using the croquis I've modified from free ones available online.

I was really surprised at how boring it looked until I added the stripes to the skirt.  I am fully aware that there is a possibility that my costume won't look exactly like this, but it's a good visual reminder of my goal.

The first thing I made for the skirt was a plain cotton muslin lining.  I wanted something that would act as both lining and a little bit of a petticoat.  I don't really want 'poof' I just want the skirt to not lay limp.

 

A couple of simple rectangles (actually several rectangles combined together for each large rectangle) sewn into a tube shape and a little gathering and I had my skirt lining.  The back is left open for the zipper.

I did pretty much the same thing for the outer layer.  Only I used the same weight and color muslin for it that I have been using for the jacket.  Also, I staggered where the yoke for the skirt and the yoke for the lining hit so I don't have a bunch of lumpiness right at that horizontal line.

 Before I added my two skirt tubes together, I needed to make some stripes.  But I wanted them to fall neatly with the pleats on the skirt, so I divided up and pleated the skirt first.  Then I opened it back out flat, and using the color scheme I found online for Davison's pants (above) I painted stripes so that they would fall evenly with the pleating.

It's certainly not the best paint job ever, but it does give a nice pop of color, I think.

Having let that dry and re-pressing all of my pleats back into place, I attached the remaining bits of the skirt together, including a narrow-ish waistband and prepared to insert the invisible zipper.

I received the invisible zipper foot kit as a gift a few years ago but as I really really hate putting in zippers (and invisible zippers even moreso) I had avoided any need to use it.  The package comes with a variety of plastic pieces; you simply pick the parts that fit your machine and slide them together.

The first thing to do with an invisible zipper is to press it open with a slightly-warm, mostly not hot iron.  Then I closed the zipper and pin basted it into place.  I could have basted it but I doubt I'll wear the skirt anywhere but GenCon so I figured if it was slightly off I was ok with that.

 

Then I stitched it into place.  Afterwhich I unpicked all of the stitches from where I put the band in wrong and re-stitched it correctly. lol oh well. It turned out ok in the end.

Somewhere in there I added in elastic to the back half of the waistband. I've done this in close-fitting skirts before and is perfect for wearing with a corset because it means I can tighten or loosen the corset and still have a fairly snug fit on the skirt.

Finished back

You can see by the pic here of the back that I had toyed with the idea of some striping on the yoke of the skirt.  However, after doing a small section, I decided I didn't like it very much but that the jacket would cover it.

Finished Front

It wasn't supposed to be gathered to the band.  Originally I had planned to just take some long darts (more like entire wedges) out of the yoke and ease that much more reasonably-sized piece onto the waistband, but as I got closer to the end I realized I was tired and just wanted it done.  

It's fine, I guess. I'm not thrilled with how it turned out but I think it will work.  I'm a little nervous about how short it is.  It looks exactly how I want it to in the front but I'm a tad concerned about the back.  I don't usually wear short skirts, and I really don't want to look like one of those convention cosplayers who is just there to show skin.

 

I'm looking at you, thousands of slave-Leia cosplayers

To make sure I feel a little better about it I'm planning to wear fairly tall socks.  I've just ordered them last night & will post here as soon as I get them. :)

Happy Wednesday!