Tardis DIY Hoodie

For awhile now I've been wanting a Tardis hoodie. But any that are on the market are not what I want. Some have lettering on the sleeves which is cool but not practical for me as I usually end up rolling the sleeves a bit (I'm petite) or the design on the front isn't exactly how I want it to look and some really are just too dark to even almost notice it's the Tardis and some are a pullover hoodie not a zipup hoodie. So I decided to make my own.

I sped things up to make this hoodie in time for a cosplay contest the following weekend.

It took me awhile to find the tardis blue hoodies I wanted. Usually it was the wrong color or cost way more than I wanted to spend on a plain blue hoodie. (Seriously? 50 bucks for a plain hoodie?? do you think we are rich??)

Thanks to Old Navy though, I finally found what I was looking for. One hoodie that was traditional fleecey sweatshirt material for the colder months and then found one more "me" that was like a t-shirt material, thinner and better suited for the occasional chilly summer nights/air-conditioned restaurants and such.

For this project I only did the lighter hoodie since it is a summer costume event I'm attending. I'll work on the heavier hoodie later on.

Most of the time working on this, I left the hoodie zipped up. It just kept things in line with one another and made sewing easier.

First, I took the black cotton fabric and measured and cut that out to be at the top of the hoodie and span across to the sleeve seams.

Then using a flat-iron, yes you heard me, a flat-iron, like you use for straightening hair, I creased my seam lines into the fabric. This was actually much easier then getting out the full iron so I could actually see of the seams being pressed were correct or not and correct it on the spot rather than notice after ironing.

Once I did this, I pinned the entire strip to the hoodie. I left the middle across the zipper for now so I could always adjust the second side once the first side was sewed in place. Things shift no matter how much you pin and the fabric stretches as you sew sometimes. So this made life easier later to leave the whole fabric strip on top as one whole piece.

pinned he fabric then cut the middle so it lined up as much as possible

After sewing the first half box onto the hoodie by hand, I then carefully cut the fabric where the zipper was. I then used the extra fabric now created, to tuck under each side to have another seam without the raw edge. Then continued sewing that last side.

top strip is sewn in place now

Sewed the second half of the black fabric. I did notice the second panel was off a little. I think the fabric stretched when I was sewing it. Which is to be expected. But it gives it the charmed look now. hehe

Then with the white fabric, using the flat-iron again, I ironed my seams into it. After doing on, i carefully folded over the second window panel so the size of the fabric matched the first one.

Once done, I then pinned only one window to sew, this way I wouldn't keep sticking myself with the straight pins of the window not being sewn. And again, doing it one at a time will help me adjust the second window panel better.

first window panel pinned in place

Sewed the first panel on and then did the same with the second making sure it all lined up with the first panel. This was all eyeballing it but one could measure or take a straight edge to make sure it all lined up right.

first window panel sewed on. second window panel pinned.

Once I got all that done, the main pieces were now in place.

all pieces sewn into place now.

Now I had to iron-on the letters for Police Box. Again, I just eyeballed the spacing and bottom edge of letters, which the C in "police" it off. And the B in "Box" is askew. But oh well. I'm ok with it.

Letters ironed on.

I bought Crayola fabric markers to write in the "public call" part. Though I thought about leaving it off. Since the iron-on letters looked so clean, writing in the other part might look weird. And I was kinda right. But it's done.

I had to go over the writing soooo many times because of the black fabric and how it just drank up the ink. This was in the instructions so I was prepared but I really needed to do it more times than I thought possible. You then need to heat set it when you are done. No where on the Crayola box does it tell you that it might change colors once you do this. Sigh. I had a nice bright white lettering that turned gray once I heat set it. So I went over it again with the white fabric marker but I haven't heat set it again, as I'm afraid it won't take again.

Process of going over the letters over and over and over again.

This was how bright it was before I heat-set the Crayola letters.

This was after I heat-set it. The letters dulled out to a gray.

Then to finish, I put very thin Tardis blue ribbon on the windows to create the panes of glass. Make sure to use a fabric glue that is washable with the garment later.

Adding the ribbons to make the windows.

Windows done.

And this is the finished product! I am very proud of myself despite a few minor hiccups like lining things up (the windows are actually lined up perfectly with one another!)

Ta-da!