Making a Dalek dress for the craftily impaired.

I've made a dalek dress, not from scratch you understand because that is beyond my skillset but I have made one and here is how I did it.

What you need:

1. A jersey dress - I got one similar to this though you can play around with styles that suit.
2. Ribbon  - to decorate the bust area I used 5 metres of silver and just over one of black satin ribbons
3. A sink plunger
4. Polystyrene spheres cut into halves
5. acrylic paint in black and silver
6. a wide plastic alice band
7. two sound to light kits from Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/sound-to-light-led-22545
8. a whisk
9. glue gun
10. all of the pins
11. elastic stretchy belt
12. leggings
13. knee high boots
14. A friend to help with fittings

I decided I wanted to be a black and silver dalek because the materials were slightly easier to source and I was running short on time. 

Unless you have a you shaped mannequin it is impossible to set the ribbons on your own.  My friend used me as the dummy and we pinned the ribbons in place to look like the venty mid section on the dalek in a grid pattern.  I decided to have three horizontal silver lines and three black uprights. On the front and back and pinned the ribbons in place so I would know where to sew.

So this took a while and because my bust is on the large size, we had to shape the ribbons over the top.

Due to the nature of the jersey being a stretchy material and the ribbon being non-stretchy, I've only sewn in strategic places so that there is still give in the jersey.  On the sleeves I've stitched three piece of silver ribbon but again only in certain spots to keep the flexibility.

Next the balls.

I am not to be trusted with sharp implements so I enlisted the help of my father to cut them into half.  I ordered 25 60mm diameter balls and ended with 50 half spheres.  I have hand painted them all silver.

I recommend acrylic paint for this because yes aerosols would have been quicker.  But I didn't want the polystyrene reacting with the paint and thought that the water based paint would be less likely to react.  The down side is that it has taken three coats of paint to get near the shade of silver and the coverage I wanted. Dull work but someone's got to do it.

To attach the half spheres to the dress I use a hot glue gun and stick them on in columns.

And the finished article: 

I got a little over excited when my Dad finished my headset...

I bought a wide plastic alice band and two sound to light kits.  My dad is an engineer so it was his job to do the electronics and mount the kits on it. I'm thrilled with the results.

Doctor Who Convention - Cardiff 24th March 2012

Well I'm back home after an incredible whirlwind weekend down in Cardiff at the first official Doctor Who convention.

This was the first convention arranged by the BBC for the show and from end to end one of the best and most slick conventions I've ever attended and this is why.  At the time you bought your tickets you had to choose your programme for the day Ood or Silurian.  Each programme was exactly the same all that was different was the timings of certain events.  This meant that queues were short, no one was ever too far away and it ran like a well oiled machine. Detractors were that you had to follow the plan.  The plan was all but I found it gave time to everything I wanted and a fab lunch at wagamamas. 

The big exciting panels were Meet the stars: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill with Steven Moffat and Caro Skinner answering questions and they did get through a lot.  The second panel was Creators and Directors which was Gary Russell, Marcus Wilson, Nick Hurran, Tom McCrae and Neil Gorton.  The final panel was Doctor Who Uncut which was hosted by Barnaby Edwards - Everyone's favourite DALEK with Steven Moffat and Caro Skinner again with some other people who I can't remember and the series 7 trailer. ZOMG squee



I got to meet Matt Smith briefly for an autograph and told him I had adored Christopher and his Kind which I hope came out of the Blue with all the screaming whogasms going on.  I also got to meet Arthur and he's utterly lovely.

Gossip wise, it's all out there, the Daleks are coming back, as are the weeping angels and the Ponds final adventures are happening in New York.  Steven Moffat says a Dr Who Sherlock xover wouldn't work because they wouldn't get anything done.  However, I think a sketch for comic relief or Children in Need would allow the two to meet.  

Steven Moffat was asked about whether he thought Doctor who was too complicated, he answered with no aren't we supposed to not be dumbing down TV - I started the applause for that ;)

We also saw make up/prosthetics/sfx demos which were amazing and well worth going to see.

I have a smile on my face several days later and I needed a little lie down afterwards. 

The convention was very family friendly and a lot of questions were asked by children so nothing big was asked.  I can't wait for November now.

You know you're a geek when...

You get a print like this for christmas.

The picture is by Jane Ormes and its epic :D

Also:

All my friends know I'm such a frakking who Geek