Monday 28 March 2011

Even Dafter Who

Earlier this month saw the release by Forbidden Planet of a couple of comical t-shirts based on the costumes of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors.

Well, they seem to have been popular as next month they are issuing two more – one of the Seventh Doctor and one of the Sixth! (see left).

I’m not quite sure how they produced the shirts, but they seem to have been imaged from either original photographs or from access to the original costumes and are very screen accurate!

The other shirts are still available (see below) and they make for quite an amusing collection.


Tuesday 22 March 2011

Ultimate Six Frock Coat: the easy fabrics -
first comparison

So far I have done three rounds of lab dyed wools with my supplier for the felts and wools on the Frock Coat.


Now it is time to see how these compare to the real thing . . .
Fabrics 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 11

This week I sent a batch of swatch samples to my friends who own the original screen-worn Six Frock Coat for them to compare for me.

They took some pictures and gave me their comments.
Here’s what they had to say.

Purple Felt 
(Fabric 2) - Top left
Looks very good

Green Felt 
(Fabric 3) - Top right
Too light as expected

Peach Wool 
(Fabric 4) - Middle left
Too pinky. Needs to be more orangey

Red Felt 
(Fabric 5) - Middle right
Looks very good

Yellow Lapel 
(Fabric 7) - Bottom left
Looks good

Pink Felt (Fabric 11) -
Bottom right
Looks too bright

This is very promising and as I expected. The Purple Felt (Fabric 2), Red Felt (Fabric 5) are definitely signed off; the Yellow Lapel (Fabric 7) needs a little more work; and the Green Felt (Fabric 3) and Peach Wool (Fabric 4) need to be revisited.

I have an idea on the Pink Felt (Fabric 11), so check back soon.

Saturday 12 March 2011

Six Fock Coat – purple test:
making the tasteless tasteful

Things may seem a little quiet on the Frock Coats front, but I have been working away very hard lately, sorting out the pattern so that once have sourced the fabrics I am good to go.

I’ve worked up a basic calico test (see left), essentially just to check the pattern works, but now I want to up my game prior to making it for real.
I’m itching to get started making up the coat, but I’ve been caught out by enthusiasm before, and know that racing into cutting final cloth can be fatal, so to work it out of my system I’m gonna do something a little radical!

Finding a superb supplier for my felt and woollen fabrics has been an absolute godsend, and their materials are of superb quality at competitive prices.

My favourite fabric out of the whole coat is the purple felt, Fabric (2) in my Fabric Breakdown (see right).

It has a wonderful a richness of colour and weight about it.
So, to properly test myself on construction techniques; to iron out any issues I might find with my pattern; and just for the hell of it make a version of the coat you CAN step out of the front door in, I am going to make one totally in this fabric, using a matching velvet to accent the design.