Series ten finery - blue brocade waistcoat

Filming on series 10 continues a pace, and Peter has been seen on location wearing a variety of new costume pieces in varying combinations.

The one for me that catches the eye the most is a Victorian-style ensemble in range of quality silk and velvet fabrics.

The coat, in black velvet with a light blue lining, is a strange semi frock coat cut with revere lapels.

Underneath is a even older period-style royal blue brocade waistcoat with a distinctive stand-up collar.

I’m already working on my version of the coat, but in the meantime I’m going to have a quick go at the waistcoat.

The cut, with the stand-up collar is a little unusual and does not feature in any of my vintage pattern books, but I did find an image of a similar garment online for reference. Interestingly it’s also made from a very similar fabric.

I devised my own pattern, using a basic waistcoat for the body and working a set in collar until I got the right shape. It came out surprisingly small in the end.

The fabric for Peter’s waistcoat, I gather, came from a shop in Soho called Misan Fabrics, but there was only ever a limited supply which since it was bought for Doctor Who, has long since gone.

However, just down the road at another shop often frequented by the Doctor Who costume designers, I stumbled upon a fabric you’d be forgiven for mistaking for the screen-used stuff.

I had fully worked up the waistcoat on calico before cutting the brocade cloth, so it was a simple job to apply what I had learnt to the finished prototype.

The pockets are very straight forward - just a horizontal welt, so I was able to use pattern cutting I had done for other garments here without any adaption.

Some of my prototype is guesswork for now, so I have just used a simple navy blue satin for the back.

No point over complicating things we I don’t need to.




Since I had the fabric, the next thing to do was track down the buttons I’d need. They aren’t anything real special - just a small back plastic 4-hole button with a narrow rim.

The buttons for the accompanying coat had come from The Cloth House on Berwick Street in London’s Soho, so I figured that was worth a look.


It didn’t take more than a minute to find them, and looking at them they are the right ones - screen-used!

The best part about buying them was getting the little calico drawstring bag with the shop’s initials on it!

I’d love to hear what you think of the waistcoat it’s been quite a fun little project to do.

JOHN LEWIS NAVY Mason Cotton Waistcoat

This week saw the second variation of costume for series ten.

It included a new casual waistcoat.

Going back a couple of series, a key part of The Doctor’s costume like this would have been custom made. Think of the deep purple Prince Of Wales check worn by Matt Smith in Day Of The Doctor (and Capaldi for his regeneration); also the black formal waistcoat worn by Capaldi at the end of his first series.

But he’s not worn a custom-made waistcoat since Death In Heaven - all waistcoats since then have, unusually (in my opinion) been off-the-peg, mainly from TM Lewin.

This waistcoat is now no exception, having been sourced from John Lewis.

It goes without saying they are sold out online, but if you are willing to make the effort and go out to the high street you can still find them in-store.

JOHN LEWIS & Co. Navy Mason Cotton Waistcoat

Capaldi waistcoat - upgrade

A little while back I made myself a Capaldi waistcoat, using the correct melton fabric.

At the time I didn’t have access to the authentic red silk for the back, so I just used a plain red satin as a placeholder.

However, I now have the real thing and I’m quite excited to start using it, the first thing I’ve done is to remake the waistcoat, using the correct fabric on the back.

It’s a subtle change, and frankly will hardly get seen as it will be worn underneath the Crombie coat.

But as you can see from the two photos above, the plain red just doesn’t compare to using the authentic lining and it gives me some satisfaction to go that extra mile and get things as perfect as possible.

I’ve already got some clients looking forward to getting theirs using my special lining - and it’s almost Christmas!!

Capaldi waistcoat - making up

This week I have been working on my Peter Capaldi waistcoat.

So far I have drafted my pattern, adapted from a good fitting waistcoat pattern; made a quick calico to check the fit; made the necessary revisions resulting from this test; and have now started to trace off the pieces I need to make the finished garment.

The back is simple - a trace of the full pattern from the draft for the silk and the lining.
The fronts are similarly easy, with just a position guide for the placement of the pockets.
The pockets themselves are pretty standard fare, based on the work I did for the Regeneration Waistcoat.

But the lining to the fronts are a little more tricky.

I want a firmer edge on all sides except where it joins the back, so I am going to add a facing 3 inches wide.

First I mark a dotted line on the pattern to define the join between facings and lining.

I’m making the facing in two sections: one that goes all the way from the neck down to the points; and a second piece along the bottom edge to the side seam. The internal lining will be cut from the same black cotton fabric I use for the pocket bags, and fills the remaining space.

The pattern pieces are traced off, adding appropriate seam allowances on all sides.

Once they are cut you can see why the facing isn’t cut in one single piece L-shape. It would be very tricky to stitch around the acute corner, and as I'm sure you can see this way its a simple case of attaching the lower facing to the lining, then joining that with the front edge facing.

Notice how I have slightly swung the vertical seam off at the bottom. This is so that it doesn’t finish behind the point at the bottom of the waistcoat. If I had the seam allowance of this vertical seam AND the seam allowance around the point all colliding together, it would bulk very badly and I won't get a nice sharp tip.

My next task is to make the outer pockets. These are identical in construction to a jacket breast pocket, with a single welt sewn up at the sides.



I make mine from three simple pieces: the welt, which is a single piece of cloth folded in half, sloped to the right shape; a pocket facing, which is visible when you look into the pocket; and a pocket bag which hangs from the welt to the facing.
The pocket bag is very shallow, but it is the best way to do it. I need the pocket bag to finish with a fold rather than a seam so I can get the maximum depth I can.

The welt is pressed inside out and the vertical edges sewn. I clip to the bottom of my stitching, turn it rightsides, and press it firmly. The pocket bag is attached to the bottom of the facing now rather than later, as it is easier.

I prepare the body of the waistcoat by marking the position of the pocket on the front with chalk, and press a section of thin-soft interfacing to the rear, over-spilling by an inch all round to give a little bit of extra support where I will be sewing.


Flipped vertically, the welt is sewn to the lower line of the pocket, and the facing similarly flipped to the upper edge of the pocket.

The pocket opening is carefully cut between the two lines of stitch, with a Y-shape on each end finishing exactly at the ends of my stitch lines.
Turned inside out to the back, I then press the edges.

From the front I now have a nice welted pocket.

To finish it off I attach the other end of the pocket bag to the bottom of the welt and finish the vertical sides of the pocket, then stitch the welt on the front along their vertical edges.


With the pockets complete I can unite the fronts with their linings around the bottom edges, fronts and up to the shoulder as well as around what will form the front of the armhole.

After grading the seams around the edges I turn it through the unsewn side seam and carefully press, rolling the hem to the back so it doesn’t show.

Next I put the back together which is made of an outer layer of red silk lining and and inner layer of black cotton fabric, the same as I used in the fronts.
It is sewn up the centre back and after pressing the seams open, in stitch around the curve of the back of the armhole.

With the back still inside out the fronts are set inside and sewn across the shoulders, down the sides, and along the bottom, leaving only a small opening in the side seam on what will be the lining side.

It is through is small opening the whole waistcoat is turned rightsides.

After a pressing around all the sewn seams the waistcoat is essentially done, just leaving the buttonholes and buttons to finish it off.



While I was sewing the back, I also inserted two straps to brace the back. These are sewn to the body of the waistcoat on the rear, and a traditional waistcoat buckle is used to join them together.

I’m pretty pleased with the result!

The finished waistcoat is great fit and feels nice and snug. The wool fabric is very soft and comfortable to wear.

Capaldi waistcoat - pattern cutting

After seeing photos from the London filming for series eight, I was looking at making the wool waistcoat The Doctor now sports, but I didn’t specific plans as to when I’d do it.

A request from a client has progressed the project to completion quicker than anticipated!

It’s a fairly standard shape, with some key points that distinguish it from a off-the-peg garment.

The fabric used is a wool Melton in black - I have a hunch where that came from; it buttons relatively low, with a curved line to the shoulders; the buttons are quite large, for a waistcoat, and match those on his Crombie coat; it has two steeply angled pockets with a line of topstitch around there edges; the edge of the waistcoat also has topstitch.

Most of these are cosmetic points or purely style-line changes, so I am going to start from my Regeneration Waistcoat pattern which I know is a good fit.

This should make it a relatively simple exercise in style-line adaption to achieve a markedly different look.

First I traced off the structural lines to the pattern - those that define the fit. I’ve highlighted them on both patterns in red.

It needs to be a tad longer at the back, so the slope to the points at the front isn’t too acutely.

Looking at photos, the uppermost button is below the level of the scye (the lowest point of the underarm), so this gives me the a guide to where I need to be. From there it’s a gentle curve up to the shoulder.

Once I had established the lower button position, I could space out the five buttonholes using my handy guide tool!

Now the buttonholes are established I can work out the placement of the pockets. Their angle converge roughly with the fourth button down, so I can work out from this point to give me their angle.

The next job is to make a quick calico mock-up so I can check that the fit and the style-line changes have worked.

The fit on me was fine, but it is only once you put it up on a mannequin and take a photo or two you notice things that need a tweak or two.

The pockets are in the right place, but their angle could be improved.

They should run parallel to the bottom edge of the front, and since they don’t look right, it has highlight a change needed to the angle of the bottom edge, which needs to be a little flatter.

I think the curve from the top of the buttons to the shoulder could be a little flatter too.

With this fed back into the pattern, I can move forward with tracing off the pieces for cutting.

The fronts and backs are simple - just the full extent of the pattern with suitable seam allowances added on all sides. The back is lined with a matching shape, but the fronts need a little more work.

Check back very soon to see how things progress.

Regeneration waistcoat - fabric AND buttons

Over on my Eleventh Doctor Blog I’ve been running a series entitled Fabric Friday where I have showcased the tweeds used to make The Doctor’s costumes.

The latest focused on a distinctive waistcoat first worn in The Day Of The Doctor, which he wore again during the regeneration scene at the end of The Time Of The Doctor. This then becomes part of Peter Capaldi’s first on-screen costume.

In my time researching and making costumes I’ve learnt sometimes you search for ages and get nowhere, or sometimes you get lucky and things just fall into place.

This fell into the latter.

I had been looking through the fabrics at W Bills, and after a hint of a clue from a friend I came across the material used to make Matt Smith’s waistcoat, as worn in The Day Of The Doctor.

I'm not just saying a next-best good alternative - I’m talking THE fabric used.

As usual it seems, not the cheapest of fabrics to buy, but it’s definitely the right stuff.

The costume would have been made early in 2013, and luckily there was still some of the material left, so I bought up the last of the end of the roll to make sure it goes to the right people.

Woven in pure wool, it has a very subtle Prince Of Wales style check in a midnight blue and deep magenta.

Now I’ve got the fabric, I need to start developing a pattern to make myself a replica of the waistcoat.

It needs to be a classic waistcoat, with a high buttoned laid-in notched collar; and four welted pockets.

I’ve got a number of vintage books where I will source a pattern.

I’m quite busy at the moment, so I’ll have to find some time to do a bit of pattern drafting.
Not had a chance to do that for a while.

But as if finding THE right fabric wasn’t enough - I have also found THE buttons!!

They are small, black, with a distinctive dotted white line encircling the four holes in the middle. They are a real coup to track down. Much better than having to make my own.