Today's A Tardis Tuesday

On my birthday, the postman delivered an interesting parcel. It came from my blogfriend Kezzie. No, not a birthday present, but a sewing challenge [which is a lovely gift in itself, as far as I am concerned] I declared that I would set aside a Sewing Day, and then began looking at the contents. If you read Kezzie's blog, you will know she a fan of Dr Who, and cosplay. She does 'Tardis Tuesday' - and often goes to work dressed in one of her Clara Oswald outfits.

Cosplay is incredibly popular, and fortunately many of COs outfits are from ordinary shops, not specially made by the BBC costume department. Four years ago, I helped Kezzie out with a Dr Who shirt, which needed ??? on the collar. My embroidery machine made short work of that project.
This time, more of a challenge - two plain tops needing collars made of a pleated fabric, one dress needing a collar, a skirt needing a scalloped hem and a jumper which had a floral trim which needed removing [not part of the cosplay]

Kezzie helpfully sent photos of what it should all look like. I went and dug out 2 books which have notes on attaching collars - one from the 1980s and the other from the 1930s.
These helped me work out how to make the collars. I measured and cut paper patterns. Kezzie had found a top in a CS whichwas made of the exact same pleated navy fabric [mercifully non fray, so hems not needed]
Top tip When attaching non-stretch collars to a T shirt neckline, it is important to leave a small gap to enable the wearer to get it over their head!
Top tip If you have to make a dress collar in a matching fabric, consider shortening sleeves or hem, to provide the fabric, or sew across the top of a pocket, and remove the inner 'bag'. Kezzie is tall, so I couldn't use the hem, and the pockets were not quite big enough - but the sleeves were elbow length.  I unpicked the hems and took 4" off. This was enough to make the top of the collars, I lined them with the floral fabric I'd just removed from the jumper.
I have really enjoyed this challenge for Clara/Kezzie - she'll be able to have lots of Tardis Tuesdays next term.