#doctorwhocosplaypattern

[muffinsandpages]

Waitress Clara cosplay from Doctor Who (pattern tutorial)

 Sooooo, I’ve had this project in my mind for ages, but I never actually made it beacuse I lacked

The skills to make a pattern

The right fabric

I still haven’t found the perfect fabric, but while I waited I learnt how to draft patterns, se here we are! Hopefully before the Plague hits again and closes every store, I’ll be able to get my hands on the right fabric and make an actual tutorial on how to sew the thing. (Note: I wrote this months ago, in the meantime stores have closed and maaybe reopened, not sure? Still, I haven’t yet found the fabric)

To make the pattern on your exact measurements you’ll need pre-drafted patterns for 

a basic skirt with darts

a basic bodice with darts (a shirt one should work)

a basic sleeve

There are many tutorials online on how to design those, or you can get one in your measurements from a normal sewing magazine.

THE SKIRT

Start by cutting your basic skirt pices and then cutting from the end of the dart to the hem of the skirt (along the dotted blue line that I marked on the picture)

Then, close the dart with some tape; this will allow the cut to open and thus to create larger skirt pattern without darts. Patch the cut with some paper to create a “stable” pattern, and repeat the process on the other skirt panel.

Once you’ve done this, trace the pattern on a new piece of paper, in order to have a clean, solid pattern. There, you can also draw the apron shape (blue on the picture) and the the hem (dotted purple). The skirt that Jenna Coleman wears is rather short, shorter than I’d be comfortable wearing, especially at a con, so I'm going to keep the pattern pretty long and decide where to hem it once I’ve tried it on.

You can put your skirt pieces away (and maybe try not forget where you put them, like I did, lol)

THE BODICE

Trace the shape of your bodice on pattern paper. Mine has two darts on the front and one on the back, but you should be able to use any tipe of bodice!

Here’s the work i did on the front bodice: I lowered the neckine (blue line) looking at a picture of the costume as a reference; then, I traced a (red) line for a new dart. I cut the bodice and along the red line, then I closed the shoulder dart (as you can see in the second picture) to open the new dart (this doesn’t really make sense when you talk about it, you have to actually try it with the paper) 

Then I fixed the shoulder, which had a small “step” due to the closed dart

Finally, I cut the two parts of the bodice, basically leaving out the darts. They will probably have some sharp edges; try to round them a bit to avoid the “ponty boob” effect when sewing (I made this mistake at least once!), and if you’re still not sure about it you can make a quick mockup with some scrap fabric.

The back bodice will need only some minor changes. I marked the width of the  shoulder of the front part on the back part to make sure they had the same width; then I fixed the neckline, lowering it a little bit, and rounded the arm shape to adjust it to the new shoulder width

Then I taped together the front and the back and traced the collar shape, making sure to leave half a centimeter between the collar and the neckline

SLEEVE

The sleeves only need a bit of volume on the top: trace the red lines on the sleeve pattern and cut along them. Then open the pieces to give the sleeve a little bit of volume and trace the pattern on a new piece of paper.

THE END

Aaaaand, you’re done! Now, I’m terrible at managing my time and uni has taken up the last five months, so I haven’t worked in this project since the summer. I’m not even sure I know where I put the pattern pieces :’)

However now I have a some free time, so I’ll see if I can put my hands on some blue cotton and sew the costume. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we are going to have a comicon any time soon, but I can’t wait to work on it. Until then, good luck with your projects!!

Love, Anna