I’ve just been at Armageddon Expo*, the annual pop culture convention. I go most years. It’s a bit of a mixed bag of which I’m only really interested in 30% but there were a couple of years after the earthquakes when I couldn’t go so I try to make the effort now
just because I can.
Also now that I have a kid I simply cannot resist the urge to dress him up as stuff and flaunt his scifi cuteness.
Anyway, a while back I decided, mostly as a result of seeing this electric blue dress at The Warehouse, that I should go as the Tardis and that the toddler could accompany me as the Eleventh Doctor (since he already had a bowtie this seemed like an easy costume to do). Tardis blue as a colour is actually quite popular at the moment so there are plenty of options for clothing that can be tardis-ified.
Anyway, initially I thought I’d find some online images of the Tardis phone box decorations and print them onto a transfer that could then be ironed onto fabric and sewn onto the dress. However I soon discovered that the transfer sheets come in packs that are kind of expensive, definitely more expensive than this Tardis tote bag on which was on sale at Mighty Ape.
So I bought the dress and the tote and… didn’t do anything about this for ages. I basically did 90% of the work on this costume in the last 24 hours because I am terrible like that. Fortunately I already owned a pair of bright blue tights, a blue belt, and a pair of silver sneakers so there wasn’t that much to do.
For junior’s outfit I found a pattern online to make a simple fez (a photo of it partway through can be seen in this post about cosplay). I adjusted it down to toddler size and added an elastic strap to keep it on his head since he and hats don’t always get along so well. I also bought him a pair of red braces. Teamed with a shirt, jeans, and sneakers we already had (and a sonic screwdriver we happened to have lying around) this completed the mini-Matt Smith look.
Originally I’d thought that rather than sewing the pieces onto the dress that I’d maybe get some of that iron-on hemming tape and stick them on that way (easy peasy!) but the tote bag was made of the same material as reusable supermarket bags, in other words plastic, so putting it anywhere near a heat source would be a very bad idea indeed. So I just had to go with the old “needle and thread” option which took much longer so so much for the lazy cheat’s way of doing things.
But heads up. Sewing flat square things onto a boob shaped area isn’t as easy as it looks. I had to play around with positioning a fair amount because who wants their boob-windows to look skewiff? Not me, I can tell you.
I also decided that I wanted to have something on my head that replicated the light on the top of the Tardis but wasn’t sure how I was going to accomplish that. In the end I managed to get a packet of 20 plastic coloured shot glasses from one of those bargain shops that isn’t the $2 shop but easily could be, and a blue LED battery powered “tealight” from The Warehouse, also for $2. The circumference of both were basically the same. Put one on top of the other and boom, you’ve got Tardis light.
Which would have been fine but my fiancé is both very supportive of my strange endeavours and a dab hand in the woodworking department. I gave him a blue shot glass and the LED tealight and a couple of ours later he’d produced a wooden casing for it painted Tardis blue and ready to attach to a white headband that I had hidden away but which I didn’t use very much. Don’t ask me how he did any of this. The man is an ingenious wood wizard.
Fortunately the switch for the light was underneath and still accessible so it was easy to switch it on and off, and actually, if the battery does run out it will be easy enough to just pop another tealight in there. Though to be honest, I’m not sure when I’ll be wearing it again. It doesn’t go with a lot of what’s in my wardrobe.
I also decided that a Tardis really needed a key so I just grabbed a spare one, tied a piece of twine to it and, voilá, themed jewellery! (There’s a really cool visual guide to Tardis keys at io9, if that’s the kind of thing you’re into)
So put that all together and you get…
No doubt he will be holding this against me once he’s older but for now, how cute is that little fez wearing time traveller?
*They really missed the boat, in my humble opinion, in not naming it “Nerdvana” but then I love terrible puns like I love Timtams. Passionately and without shame.