Cosplay in Progress: The Eighth Doctor

Yes, I am alive! Since my last post, I ended up finding new homes for two members of Team Modern AG, and used the proceeds to help fund the linchpin piece of my Doctor Who cosplay.

Which means it’s time to introduce you all to someone.

This man? He is My Doctor.


Not Matt Smith, who is adorable and so good at playing a cranky, socially clueless old man that he makes me forget that he is one month younger than I am. Not David Tennant, who annoyed me so much throughout his tenure with his arrogance and melodrama that I ended up shouting “OH MY LORD, JUST STOP WHINING AND REGENERATE ALREADY” at the TV during his last episode. Not Christopher Eccleston, who was my first Doctor and who still holds a special place in my heart, with his PTSD and anger and smile that lit up the screen (and far better chemistry with Billie Piper than Tennant ever had, sorry, it’s true). This man.

That’s right. The Eighth Doctor, PAUL MCGANN.

Gaze ye upon the gentlemanly perfection that is the Eighth Doctor. The curls, the blue eyes, the classic profile, the shy smile…and the VOICE. Several totally legitimate scientific studies have identified Paul McGann’s voice as a leading cause of climate change, and judging by the effect it has on my blood pressure, I’m inclined to agree. ;)

“But Jen,” you say, “the 1996 TV-movie was bad.”

Well, yes, yes it was. It was terrible. The writing team made some really bad decisions, the companion characters were dull as dry toast, and the less we say about Eric Roberts, the better. But Paul McGann was a fantastic Doctor in a godawful production, and thankfully Big Finish Productions scooped him up and gave him another chance. 

The Eighth Doctor Audio Adventures (buy them at bigfinish.com!), like all Doctor Who, are a mix of good/bad/meh stories, but they proved that, given good writing and an engaging support cast, the Eighth Doctor could stand equal to his predecessors and successors.

It doesn’t hurt that he’s really really handsome. :D

So I had been bandying about the idea of doing a fem-Doctor cosplay of Eight – his TV-movie costume is amazing and steampunky, and looks like it’d translate well into a feminine version. Then Steven Moffat, bless the man, decided to bring back McGann for a mini-episode leading up to the 50thAnniversary.

I may have squealed in a fashion entirely undignified and ill-suited to a grown woman.

And then I decided to take a slight turn in my plans, and instead do a femme version of McGann’s Time War costume.

It’s very much like his original costume – it looks like the designers looked at the pieces of the original, and tweaked each one slightly to make a more battle-worthy outfit. And this is great, because it means I’m not wandering around the city, in August, in a heavy velvet frock coat.

Though my version is, well, cleaner.

To make my version, obviously I needed to do some further tweaking to make it suitable for a lady:

Suede pants become a suede skirt. I used this steampunk Simplicity pattern, with a few minor tweaks. I was waffling on the skirt lift hardware – I didn’t want to have permanent lifts built into the skirt, because I am commitment-phobic about that sort of thing. I made the skirt without the built-in lifts:

It’s a little bit more “background extra on Little House on the Prairie” than “awesome steampunk” without the lifts.

Achievement unlocked: invisible zipper installation. Done with a normal zipper foot, because my 1960’s Kenmore did not come with a zipper foot, and finding compatible high-shank feet is a pain. Granted, I sewed the entire thing by cranking the hand wheel, instead of using the pedal. While it was tedious work, it ensured that I had control over the fabric the entire time, and never risked breaking my needle on zipper teeth.

I do have removable lifts, using a set of mitten/suspender clips, found for 99 cents at Tuesday Morning. My grand plan is to replace the plain cream strap with some awesome jacquard ribbon that complements the outfit.

The shirt was easy – I grabbed an old white dress shirt from my closet. I’d originally bought it because I loved the cut and tailoring – it seemed very crisp and fitting with the primmer side of Victorian aesthetics. It’d gotten stained over the years, but I couldn’t bear to throw it out – and a good thing, too, because  this stain-removal tutorial worked wonders.

Instead of a waistcoat, I decided to buy a new corset, an overbust style in floral green. This was what the AG doll sale was funding – it cost more than the rest of the costume put together - but I’ve been wanting an overbust for some time, and the fabric is absolutely beautiful. (Both this corset, and the sapphire blue underbust I already owned, came from TimelessTrends.) (Be ye warned, that is a link to a corset shop, and may be NSFW, because lingerie.)

The coat is in progress – I’m using a sturdy forest green twill from Hancock Fabrics, with some olive green lining, and this pattern fromVogue.

A progress shot:

My wig is a Glinda in Spanish Brown from Arda – the same style of wig Pieface used in her Merida costume. The curls are a bit heavy at the sides of my face (and they make my head look huge), so I tied the sides back in a half-ponytail with a gold ribbon. The pocket watch is a nod to many promotional stills released for the TV-Movie, and is borrowed from my husband.

I’m in the process of finishing the coat, and then it will be down to acquiring the correct style of sonic screwdriver, and figuring out how to translate Eight’s neckcloth into a ladylike accessory!

(For more Eight love, I shall leave you with a link: The Eight and Nine Double Feature, or Thirty Reasons Why Paul McGann and Christopher Eccleston are Hotter Than David Tennant, which has the dubious distinction of being my most popular LiveJournal post ever. TURBO NERD, right here.)