Fifth Doctor
5th Doctor Edwardian Cricketing Costume
I decided to make this costume really as a whim, after I spotted a roll of perfect materiel, at Aberkan Fabrics, at an amazing price of £3 for probably nearing 10 metres of the stuff. This was an offer I couldn’t pass up so then went off to track down a suitable pattern for a frockcoat. I picked the Simplicity 2895 Men’s Frockcoat pattern and I have to say this has been one of my best ever purchases and I’ve used it as the basis for so many coats. Anyone even contemplating any Doctor Who coats should invest in this. Go on, go buy one.
As usual a visit to Steve Rick’s blog is almost essential and will give you many ideas on doing this costume. Just be prepared to be jealous as hell.
The first point about this costume is that I have never seen any evidence that Edwardian cricketers ever wore anything like it but when did Doctor Who ever worry about getting history correct? The costume consists of a cream coloured frockcoat trimmed in red, a shirt trimmed in red, a cricket jumper trimmed in red and black, a pair of garishly coloured striped trousers, white boots and a panama hat.
To make the coat just follow the Simplicity patterns as it’s a basic frockcoat and doesn’t deviate from it. Unlike the 4th Doctor’s coat this is quite a fitted garment and needs to have good, straight lines so follow it carefully. Once the coat is done then it’s trimmed in red using a soft 1 ¾” trim which isn’t a job I enjoyed and be prepared to unpick it several times to get the lines right. Don’t forget to trim the rear flap panel.
The trousers can be made from any suitable frontier or Victorian pattern if you can find materiel in the correct pattern which to be honest is impossible. There are a few sites that advertise custom printed material and this would be one way of securing some but wouldn’t be cheap. I trawled Ebay for ages until I spotted a pair of women’s beach trousers in pretty much the perfect colours. I ordered the largest size they had and within a few days I had a pair of very lightweight unlined beach trews. Even with the largest size I had to add a waistband to get them to the required length and also redid them to have a fly. They are very thin so I tend to wear long underwear under them unless it’s a hot summer’s day.
The jumper that the 5th Doctor wears is long sleeved but I went with a sleeveless one from a charity shop as the coat is very hot to wear. I added red and black neck trim as they did on the TV costume and the shirt was a simple store bought one that I added red trim to around the collar and the buttons.
A pair of white boots and a panama hat finish the costume and I must say I enjoyed getting it together. I have worn it at a few conventions and it always gets good comments.
This costume also has extra meaning for me as I got married in it to the lovely Mrs M as she came down the isle to the Star Wars Imperiel march. Her Maid of Honour was our 6 foot bearded friend Turley. It was one of those days.
Addendum:
The 5th outfit got another airing at the Wales Comic Con event in 2012 where I did a 'Regenerating' Doctor theme, starting as No.4, then regenerating into No.5 and finally No.6. This went really well and though the regenerations took place in a toilet cubicle they were fairly trouble free.
The 5th and 4th outfits appeared in a couple of the local papers whcih was good fun and everyone seemed to like the 5th Doctor best. I managed to meet Frazer Hines finally which was amazing and also Jerome Flynn, of Game of Thrones Bronn fame, who I got to laugh when I asked him to dedicate a photo with a line from the show.
"There's no cure for being a c**t"
