Merlot/Lace: it's the inside that counts

Sort of...I mean the outside needs to look nice, but I'm really doing a bang up job on this lining. I so rarely have the time or the necessity for a nice lining. Not cutting any corners with this job. The only exposed seams are French, and the kind of exposed facing seams are going to be pinked. Everything else is completely enclosed. Here are pics of the lining and a shot of the back bc I realize I haven't posted a picture of it yet. It's hard to get the back to look good on the form bc the dress is so crooked and the form is so short. This is what you get. And it's the inside. Bet you couldn't tell but for the favored collar.

So yeah, basically did the sleeves today. Haven't finished slipping the second closed. Tomorrow I'll slip the bodice shut then either a break or straight on to the buttonholes!

FYI: I've worked up to the end of Season 5 of Doctor Who since Christmas. Into the Matt Smith seasons I realize my mood during the day is completely different because of his influence. It's a completely different show. If not for the Ponds I'd really be out of it. And Van Gogh. Such. A. GREAT. Episode!

Confession: I kind of skipped the Pandorica episodes...so this is the first time I'll watch them....I bet a lot more about season 6 will make sense.

slipping the sleeve lining in, no serging for me!

this is the inside. Check out those sharp seams!

insides

Doctor Who in the nuttiest of nutshells

Ok, here are the BASICS.


(2009 intro music is my favorite: kind of weird, but they PUMPED UP the cellos for this one season and then took them back down when Matt Smith came, so sad.)

Doctor Who is the longest running Sci Fi series ever. It started on the BBC in 1963 and ran through the 80s, had a break with a movie in there somewhere then was revived in 2005, starting the "new" seasons. We're currently in the 7th new season.

William Hartnell as the First Doctor

The Doctor is a Time Lord, a race that polices time throughout the universe. He travels in his TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) which is stuck camouflaged as a blue police box. A Time Lord's greatest tool of self preservation is "regenerating", essentially getting a new body and personality when he is injured enough that he can't heal his current body, yet has enough time to regenerate before he dies. This is how there have been 11 actors (that get progressively younger and more attractive...until Matt Smith) to play The Doctor (pretty ingenious).

The new seasons start with the Ninth Doctor (Season 1). In the first episode he picks up Rose, a 19 year old Londoner who shares his travels with him. He usually travels with human companions to temper the spacey-wacey timey-wimey-ness of it all. Rose is my favorite. Christopher Eccelston plays the Ninth Doctor, Billie Piper (the UK's Brittany Spears) plays Rose.

Christopher Eccelston: The Ninth Doctor

The Tenth Doctor (Seasons 2-4, one non-season of 4 specials) is played by David Tennant which is the reason I started watching. He's with Rose for a season, then there's Martha, then Donna (Catherine Tate, currently on The Office as Nellie), then he travels alone for a season.

David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor with Rose and the TARDIS

The Eleventh (5-7) and current Doctor is Matt Smith who travels with Amy Pond and Rory Williams.

Amy Pond and the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith, literally no eyebrows)

The show is a who's who of British actors and historical figures. We've met Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Richard Nixon, Madame de Pompadour, Van Gough and Shakespeare. We've traveled to Pompeii, New New New New...New York, The end of the universe, and lots of other places.

Villains from the past episodes that are good to know are:
The Daleks: The Doctor's greatest enemy: genetically engineered hate machines in salt and pepper shakers
The Cybermen: upgraded humans
The Master: A Time Lord from the Doctor's growing up days.
(Really since I didn't grow up with these guys, I don't get what the big deal is most of the time)

Cybermen

Something of note: The production value in the first couple of seasons is pretty cheeseballs, but the content is there. If you'll stick it out the production gets loads better and the writing just gets more and more phenomenal. That being said, it's the episodes with the commonest and least fantastic villains that really get you.

Episodes that are absolutely fantastic and if nothing else you should give these a try:
Season 1: The Empty Child & The Doctor Dances
Season 2: Tooth and Claw (Queen Victoria!), The Girl In the Fireplace, Army of Ghosts & Doomsday
Season 3: Human Nature, The Family of Blood, & Blink (You HAVE to watch Blink!!!!)
Season 4: Silence in the Library & Forest of the Dead
Season 5: Vincent and the Doctor & The Lodger
Season 6: The Impossible Planet, & Let's Kill Hitler

But seriously, if you're not sure about this series watch Blink, it actually has very little to do with the Doctor and doesn't give anything away about the rest of the season. It's just a marvel.

To be honest I haven't been the same Doctor Who fan since David Tennant left. I still can cry and cry when I watch some of his Rose episodes and some of his last. Steven Moffat is the current head writer of DW and the creator and writer of Sherlock. He wrote almost all of the episodes I've suggested. He will MESS YOU UP!

So there you go, it's all on Netflix. If you want a personal guide to which season I think is best for you let me know!

Halloween 2012: Half baked attempt at the 4th Doctor

So I drove to Nebraska the day before Halloween and had given up on my Doctor Who costume (for now) when I decided not to cut my hair until after Korea, but at the end of the day it was the only thing I could throw together. It's a bit off, but I'm telling myself it's his last costume with the red scarf, which come to look at isn't that far off. We all know that's his lamest costume though...(also, I made that scarf, it took me nigh on nine years, but I did it!)

source

Went around the neighborhood with my brother's family, pushing Elsie who was a zebra while playing the Doctor Who theme on my phone. I told myself she was Stormegeddon, even though the Doctors are off. If you get that 5 points for Gryffindor!

Doctor Who RPG- College Humor review

Here's a fun little animation by College Humor reviewing the 11th Doctor's series in anticipation for series 7 and the 50th anniversary on 11/23/13. Found it on Tellyspotting, which I've mentioned before and is frankly an invaluable British TV blog written by the VP of TV Programming at Dallas' PBS. He's behind the PBS station that was the first to air Monty Python in the US! He's got some great insight.

Anydoctorwho, check out his blog, but don't stop reading mine!

Animation has SPOILERS!

New Doctor Who Companion Announced!

Karen Gillian (who's only a month older than me and the same height!) is leaving Doctor Who sometime during the upcoming season which started filming in Wales last month. Head writer Steven Moffat has announced that Jenna-Louise Coleman will become the Doctor's new companion during next year's Christmas episode leading into the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who. Coleman will be recognized in the upcoming Julian Fellowes' Titanic. 

BBC article here.

This just makes me miss Donna. You'd think I'd identify and enjoy watching a companion that's my own age, but I miss the chemistry a Donna type had with the Doctor, although I do imagine Catherine Tate and David Tennant's age differences are similar to Matt Smith's and these women. Oh well. Really I just pine for the good ol' 10th days. I have nothing against Matt Smith's Doctor, nor the writing in general for his seasons, I just miss 10's personality. The Doctor has moved to a different place. Matt Smith's Doctor is a different and more detached Doctor where Tennant was so empathetic and caring. Moving from the last episodes of 10 into 11 it's understandable that 11 has become more distant and disconnected from his companions and reality. He just sort of runs about doesn't he?

Halloween 2012: The Fourth Doctor

I've had this costume in mind for years, just waiting for the perfect time, when I'm ready to cut my hair and have assembled the pieces, and the Halloween of the The Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker is at hand!

source

It's a fairly simple costume, and as it happens I started collecting its pieces before I even realized it. I got the coat before I even watched Doctor Who, let alone knew about the Fourth Doctor. I got my coat from a friend I spent a summer with. It's a beautiful burnt umber velveteen sort of late 18th century overcoat. It's wonderful.

The plaid pants I bought randomly years ago. I haven't actually worn them for probably over a year, but I still have them and they'll come out for Halloween!

A white shirt can easily be gotten, but I don't have a button up at the moment. I could wear one of the Oxford cloth variety that I do have, it wouldn't matter. We're going for the look of the thing, not a replica.

Cravat is easy enough, and he doesn't always wear one, so that's just fine.

I have three choices for shoes: wingtips, riding boots and Wellingtons (which he wears in the Key to Time episodes)

source site

The Hat, it's very important for this Doctor. It's a crumpled old Stetson and is really rather lovely. And wouldn't you know it?! I took a millinery class my senior year and made a Tom Baker hat at J.W. Hats in Salt Lake City for the price of the unblocked felt hat. The workers thought I was crazy because I insisted on making it just like the hat in the picture. He's crumpled his from use etc, but I just shaped my brim to be all wonky. Mine's rabbit and beaver and is just so delicious!












I mean, come on, it's pretty darn marvelous, and I made it all!!!!













And now what I don't have, the waistcoat, the hair, and the sarf, easily fixed.

source-cosplay website

Above we can see both a plaid wool waistcoat and an argyle knitted version. Of course I'm tempted to make a vest. I'll have plenty of time this summer during the day before I dress my shows and I have lots of fun wool that I could piece together into a fun variation of the original.

The hair's a piece of cake. I chopped my hair off about a year before I got into Doctor Who, and a year after that I got it into my head to put this costume together. Between that time I decided to grow my hair out to donate. Well, it's been 5 years since I chopped it off and I'll be ready to donate right before Halloween. Don't worry, I won't be getting the Tom Baker cut, that'd be ridiculous. I will be getting a bob, somewhere between chin and mid neck, and wouldn't you know my hair's basically just like Tom Baker's in texture and almost in color. It would look just like his if I had his haircut, but with a bob it'll take just a little coaxing to get it curly rather than wavy.

My old hairs when I was ninteen, close to what I'll have again, pretty darn close right? And this was straight out of the towel, no product. Imagine what I can do!

AAAAAnd the scarf, you HAVE to have the scarf.

I read that the costume designer intended the Fourth Doctor to have a scarf so they gave a bunch of yarn and a set of needles to a technician and told them to make a scarf. The knitter used all the yarn, which wasn't the designer's intention, but BOOM, history. 

 

Of course through the wonderful world of Pinterest I found a pattern for the original scarf, the source of which is an excellent resource for the measurements, yard colors, needle size, etc. It's pretty great.

I haven't decided if I want to make an exact replica, or just buy some yarn and go at it like the original. I'll have lots of time, like I said once I start dressing, and could even knit during the shows. I have a scarf I started nine years ago and still haven't finished...but I'm sure I'd do better on this one. And at the end of the day I can finish it when I need to as long as it's a rather long scarf.

Are you excited for Halloween?! Because I am!

Cumberbatch as Doctor Who Master?!

Uh, Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary is coming up in November '13...and rumors are Benedict Cumberbatch will play the Master! What the what?! I just found this blog, Tellyspotting, and within the first 3 minutes I've found a shot of Shirley MacLaine on the set of Downton and this rumor about Cumberbatch playing in both Moffat hits. I'm going to keep an eye on this blog a lot more!


From Tellyspotting (more at their site)
"Sherlock to meet Doctor Who in Nov ‘13?
Ok, it’s not quite Sherlock that would meet the Doctor, but the big rumor making its way around BBC Showcase in Liverpool late yesterday afternoon was the possibility of Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) being cast as The Master for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who."

Also, I've decided I should get Twitter, mostly bc I keep researching projects and the info I find has been taken from Twitter pages, also it'd be one more way for you to keep up with me! I'm trying to decide if I should use fashionephemera as my handle if it's available, or go for something more personal, like with my name, and simpler. Suggestions, ideas?