Suits you, Sir

Recently I have had a number of enquires about the trousers I have been making based on the classic series costumes. I have therefore decided to make them available for commission.

If you are interested, please get in touch by emailing me at tennantcoat@me.com.

Five Trousers - season 19 design

Screen accurate copy of trousers as worn by Peter Davison in his first two seasons.

Fabric is bespoke printed by Spoonflower and has been designed to accurately match genuine garment. Although never seen in full on screen, pattern has been based as closely as possible to the trousers as seen in Planet Of Fire.

Trousers have high V-split back; zip and hook & eye fastenings; two side pockets; buttons ready for braces (braces not supplied!); lined from waistband to pockets.

£200

Five Trousers - season 21 design

Made to a pattern to match the trousers seen in Planet of Fire, these trousers are made with a fabric design not previously made available. This design of trouser was also seen recently in Time Crash, where Peter Davison wore the pair that had been let out for Colin Baker during the regeneration scene in Caves Of Androzani.

Trousers have high V-split back; zip and hook & eye fastenings; two side pockets; buttons ready for braces (braces not supplied!); lined from waistband to pockets.

£200

Six Trousers - season 22 design

Made from authentic woven pillow ticking and dyed to just the right colour as described in Making Phoenix Fabric.

NB: trousers shown are made directly from the California Pants pattern and are not strictly screen accurate. Trousers made will be to a revised screen accurate pattern.

Trousers have zip and hook & eye fastening; two side and two back pockets; buttons ready for braces (braces not supplied!); lined from waistband to pockets.

£180

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: All trousers are made-to-measure to dimensions supplied by buyer. If mutually agreed, a calico test to check fit is available at £20. Payment of 50% deposit on commission, balance due within one week of completion of garment, and once cleared, items will be shipped. Payment by PayPal preferred, or if in UK, cheque is acceptable. Shipping within UK is free by recorded delivery, outside UK items will be sent FedEx, payable by buyer. No liability can be taken for incorrectly taken measurements supplied by buyer, but all efforts will be made to ensure your complete satisfaction with your order.

Making my Six trousers - part two

So far I have sewn all the pockets and prepared the button fly. All that remains now is to assemble the legs; add the waist band; and hem the ankles.

First up is sewing the legs together, plus a crotch gusset (see right) which gives a little more movement where it’s needed.

The outside seams are sewn first, pressed and top-stitched for strength.

At this stage the trousers look enormous when laid out flat (see left).

The triangular crotch gussets can be seen sticking out on the outside edges.

The back crotch is then sewn. The pattern is quite clever, as it gives you an extra inch allowance on both sides (two in total across the back) which you do not cut back. This can be used to let the trousers at a later date if adjustment is needed for whatever reason.

The inside leg is then sewn and I can try them for fit properly for the first time. This time they are a good fit; the waist is just right and the legs are loose but not too baggy.

Ideally I should then run a line of over-lock stitch along the seam allowance of the legs. This keeps the frayed edge from disintegrating. Sadly my 103 year old Singer Sewing Machine cannot do that stitch, so I trim the edges with pinking shears, a technique I found to work well when I was doing the lining of the coat.

Next up is adding the waist band (below left), which is sewn to line up with the side seam (below right). The middle of the back of the band is split in a V shape where the buttons for braces are located. Note the angle of the band in the picture below.

Making My Six trousers - part one

As you may know, I am making a pair of Six trousers, essential to get some practice before embarking on my Tennant suit trousers, but also for a little fun.

The pattern I am using is from Laughing Moon Mercantile, and are a replica of a mid to late 19th Century design. 

They are high waisted, intended to be held up with braces (as Colin Baker’s costume, see below) and have a button fly as well as a braced strapped back with hip pockets.

Most of these features match the trousers Colin Baker wore, however there are a couple of things that would need to be altered to make them more screen accurate: the pockets have horizontal entry where they should be vertical; the fly should be zipped not button; the waist-band needs to be narrower; and the back should not be split.

For once this is not about making a 100% screen accurate garment.

The purposes of this exercise is to test my ability to follow a commercial design rather than designing my own, so I intend adhering to the letter of the pattern throughout.

I have also never worked with anything other than a plain fabric, so I am learning skills of more accurate cutting and lining up pinstripes, something I will need to master before the Tennant suit.

Six trousers - calico testing

When I did the Tennant Coat, I found it really useful and helpful to do a Calico Test before cutting my precious Alcantara fabric. It gave me the chance to assess fit; refine the pattern; and test out some design ideas to see how they would work.

I am currently quickly making a pair of Six trousers, just to get my skills up to speed for making trousers for my Tennant suit.

I am going through two calico tests before cutting my Yellow Ticking I have gone through hell to get right. 

The first is a quick mock-up with no pockets or fly front, but with the waist band, as this is integral to the cut of the trousers. This is solely to check that the pattern is sizing up right. I would hate to follow the pattern to the letter and get to the end only to find they are a circus clown fit on me or far too tight and  can’t even get them on.

As I explain before in Tailoring Trousers, I am copying a pattern from Laughing Moon Mercantile, and have prioritized preparing the pieces needed for the first calico test.

It is then a simple case of cutting the pattern in calico and stitching up the necessary seams and add the waist band (see right).

I found the fit around the waist to be pretty much spot on, but I felt the legs pantalooned out somewhat, so I will make some allowance for this before the second test.

Once I have fed back these findings from the first test to the pattern, I set about making a more finished test garment, following the pattern instructions closely and including every step along the way.

Making Phoenix fabric

I was going to call this entry: “Well that’s annoying!”, but luckily I pulled things back from defeat.

Things haven’t gone as planned this week.

I previously posted that I am making a pair of Six trousers before doing the ones for the suit, so I can get some practice in.

From the Six Breakdown on dw_cosplay I had found and ordered some of the Yellow Ticking (see left) from Interior Mall.
Their website says they ship worldwide, but do not quote shipping prices, asking you to enquire direct for a quote.
When I got a reply I found their shipping costs to the UK were very over priced at US$58 for sending just 4 yards of fabric (value US$70).
Luckily I have a friend in San Diego who had something to send me and he agreed to take delivery of the fabric and add it to the shipment before dispatching it to me.
This simplified things, and I can’t thank him enough for making that happen.

Before forwarding it on to me my friend thought the material was not quite right, saying his recollection of Colin Baker’s trousers was that they had a single stripe. I had always thought this as well, but had found that the trousers he wore for his first season were actually a triple stripe: two narrow ones either side of a thicker one. A nice clear image of this can be seen on DoctorWhoProps.com (see below). The Interior Mall fabric looked to be a good match.

He also thought the colour was a little off, but I’d have to see that to know what he meant.

The packaged arrived this week, and to my horror I saw exactly what he meant.
It was totally the wrong colour! Instead of being a vibrant yellow it was a light oatmeal instead, and looked to be a match to another colour on their site, the swatch for which can be seen here (right).

This was really annoying – thanks Ray (who cut and packed it according to the attached ticket). Pillow ticking, as this fabric is known, is relatively commonplace, and I had found several suppliers in the UK (Tinsmiths had a good range) though they did not have the right yellow with black stripes. So I had only gone to Interior Mall for the colour!

So all that effort was effectively for nothing.
Urrggghhhhh*@!