Doctor Who Dress - Gallifreyan Couture

In gearing up for Dragoncon this past September I wanted to have a fun dress I could walk around in on the nights I wasn't costuming. I've adored all of the Doctor Who / TARDIS dresses I've seen, so I decided to make one of my own. I came across this pattern and just knew this was the retro dress for me.
    Pattern: Butterick B4790.   

I decided pretty early on that I did not want to try and make a fully "TARDIS" themed dress with the window panels and Police Call Box adornment so I simplified it down to a nice TARDIS blue, with white contrast and black edging.


If you use this pattern, I high recommend you make a mock-up first. The back part that is supposed to meet in the front at the waist came nowhere near where it should (when the rest of it fit just fine.) I had to alter the pattern to make it fit.

The first mock-up revealed the oddness of the pattern pretty quickly. The skirt part was fine, though. This was also my first time dealing with darts. In the photo on the right (below) you can see where the back piece does not come around and fully meet in the middle.

Oh, and this was the sewing project that spurred me to make my dress form.

I hit the wrong settings for the camera when I went to take these photos and when the result made me look like a ghost, I had a little fun while still in the mock-up for this dress.

I added pieces of fabric in order to make the back piece meet in the middle (below) and to have the front piece keep itself wrapped around me in the back (left). 

Fashion fabric time!

I decided the line the inside of the lower portion of the skirt with a light blue/gold brocade. OK, I said I wasn't going to TARDIS it up too much, but I enjoyed the idea of having this happy, shiny fabric hiding on the inside and visible only with movement.

Sonya, my Serger, got to come out a play for a bit.

Also, to add support for the top fabric, I lined the top part of the back piece with denim.

Here I am sewing it all together and fitting it all into the sewing machine.

I lined the front piece with muslin. Then, when it was sewn together, I realized the back piece was hella-heavy and constantly pulling the front up by their connection at the shoulders. To combat this I put 6 washers (yay a reason to go to Lowes!) along the front lower hemline.

Next I used at least 4 packs of black, double-sided bias tape to edge the entire dress and I set grommets at the front and back tie off points for the dress.

To add my own Doctor Who adornments I used a Gallifreyan translator to create circle glyphs representing important ideas, places, character names and even some of my other favorite fandoms.  I painted it on with silver acrylic paint.

I fought with this dress, and hated it for a bit, but kept working at it and somehow, in the end, it's become one of my favorite creations. I love the swirly movement and the color and I can't come up with enough occasions to wear it.