Lynette was making Clara’s barmaid dress from The Snowmen for Chicago TARDIS 2013, and I wanted to make The Doctor’s costume from that episode to go with her. This project was a bit unusual for me in that it was all sewing and no props to build. Lynette is usually kind enough to make any soft costume parts I need, so this was something of a new challenge. He wears a plum/maroon/wine/purple frock coat with persian lambswool lapels and collar, a somewhat darker velvet waistcoat with a watch fob, a striped shirt with cufflinks, a brown and blue striped tie, tan/brown checkered wool trousers, leather brogue ankle boots, and a top hat. I really enjoy the scavenger hunt aspect of a costume like this, so immediately following DragonCon 2013 I got to work sourcing all the fabric, trim, and any off-the-rack pieces I’d need to find.
Watch Fob
There are a few high-res shots of this costume, but even so the detail of the watch fob is difficult to nail down. It appears to be silver with a braided gold frame or outer border. To my eyes there looks to be a seated figure. My searches did not yield anything that satisfied me, so I ended up getting an Italian 1 Euro coin, and a coin bezel, which I hung from a length of gold chain from Hobby Lobby. Since he never pulls out a pocket watch, I skipped that detail and just pinned the chain into the waistcoat pockets.
Shirt
I went off-the-rack here, and bought this french-cuff striped shirt in the brown colorway.
Trousers
I got these from ebay, so there’s no good link, but I bought a pair of vintage Polo Ralph Lauren wool trousers. They have a brown houndstooth pattern that at the time I thought was screen-accurate, but it turns out his were actually checked/plaid. They are identical from a distance.
Boots
Another ebay score, I got a great deal on a pair of Steve Madden Evander boots in my size. I now wear these as part of my normal wardrobe.
Waistcoat
This turned out to be one of the hardest materials to find. I ordered samples of every plum/merlot/purple/etc. velvet-like material I could find from online fabric stores, and nothing was looking right. One day while browsing a thrift store, I found a girls’ dress or women’s blouse that I thought was the perfect color. It was a little thicker than I wanted, but the color was what I wanted so I bought it. Unfortunately, even though I wasn’t making the back of the waistcoat out of it, I still could only salvage enough material for one side of the waistcoat. Rather than do something sane like settle for the second-best choice, I scoured ebay for another one, and ACTUALLY FOUND IT. It was $10, and I got less than a yard of usable material from it, but I finally had something that worked. (The picture below is a similar blouse in a different color I found on Etsy.) I also needed a load of black trim, since the same trim is used on the waistcoat and the frock coat. There’s great reference material available, so I knew none of the standard gimp/trim I could find at my local fabric stores were correct. I ended up finding some at sewing-online.com (not there anymore).
Frock Coat
Certainly the most visible portion of this costume, it took the longest and forced me to learn new skills and techniques. Looking at my notes and forum posts, I have no record of the fabric I used for the main body of the coat. It’s some kind of knit, though, not wool. Looking back now, it would benefit from some interfacing to give it a more weight/stiffness. I used a Simplicity pattern with little to no modifications, basically just extending the sleeves due to my lankiness. I chose a dark orange/red lining, since you couldn’t really tell what color it was from screencaps or publicity shots. I snagged a damaged persian lambswool coat from Etsy, and used it for the lapels/collar.
Accessories
I got some round tortoiseshell glasses, similar to these. I found a tie at a thrift store, and bought a sonic screwdriver from Amazon. Finally, I constructed a top hat. I found some tutorials that people have made for making fabric-covered hats, usually for a mad-hatter costume. I had an old 10th Doctor(ish) overcoat that never really fit right and I hadn’t worn in years. I used that for the fabric, and constructed the hat using buckram and floral wire from Jo-Ann’s. The end result was pretty messy, but luckily for this costume it’s supposed to be a little beat-up so it worked.
Finished
I finished in time for Chicago TARDIS 2013, and alongside Lynette as Clara, entered the costume contest for the first time. There were a ton of great costumes, but we managed to take home Best in Show!
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