1745 Highlander Frock Coat

Here's the frock coat I made inspired by Colum MacKenzie's gathering coat.

I started with J.P. Ryan's 1750’s Coat with Military Variations for the Officer or Enlisted Man. I used the civilian coat cut a bit shorter than the length of the enlisted coat. The shorter length is made for riding horseback (unlikely in reality) and also to give enough room for my great kilt. I like the instructions provided with the pattern and the illustrations are good. It would be nice if there were videos to go with it, but I figured it out eventually.

As this is my first coat, I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I used a 50/50 wool blend Melton fabric and cotton lining. The buttons are inexpensive ones found online from China. Instead of horsehair interfacing, I used a medium weight synthetic. I also saved money by using polyester buttonhole thread instead of silk twist and waxed cord instead of gimp. There is also none of the lace found on Colin's coat. The next coat will be tartan with silk or linen for the lining.

Machine stitched where it can be hidden and by hand wherever visible. The buttonholes are cut with a chisel and hand stitched with gimp cord and heavy polyester thread.

The buttons are pushed through holes for the button shaft made with an awl and held in place with twill tape. The tape is threaded through the shafts and sewn at each end inside the coat, between the outer layer and the lining.

Space: 1999 at Motor City Comic Con

A good friend and I went to Motor City Comic Con last month dressed in uniforms from the second season of Space: 1999. Space: 1999 was a two year long science fiction television show that was on just before Star Wars was released.

This is the first time I've worked with knit fabric or attempted to make a tunic and pants. Quite the adventure.

I tried to use a uniform pattern by John Flynn published in SFTV on 6, July 1985. Unfortunately, it proved difficult to scale. It wasn't quite correct. The uniform sleeve design is unusual. The right sleeve and body is cut from a single piece of cloth. The left sleeve attaches half way up the shoulder toward the neck instead of at the top edge of the arm, somewhat like a raglan sleeve.

After the first botched tunic, I modified a pajama pattern. 

The sleeve zipper runs from the color across the shoulder and down the left sleeve. To be visible on TV, they used heavy brass upholstery zippers sewn to expose the zipper. The zippers are significantly heavier than the sleeve and pant leg material, causing them to buckle and sag. Although not screen accurate, additional stitching to hold the folded over fabric on the zipper helped.

Another zipper runs down the left side of the pant leg.

The id badge image was created with Gimp and printed on ink jet photo paper which was glued to an old plastic badge. Between the badge and the paper I placed a pin back with the post sticking through a hole in the badge. I found a LSRO patch image, after printing it on ink jet printable fabric, it is sewn on with a simple satin stitch. You can find the patches here at viperaviator's deviantart site.

The second season belt is made from beige vinyl. It's pretty easy to sew two layers. More than two, not so much. A strip of velcro makes the belt adjustable. 

Since the uniforms do not have pockets, I modified a canvas bag I made out of an old karate gi and belt adding a Moonbase Alpha patch. 

I didn't expect to find much Space: 1999 stuff at Comic Con. Or even to be recognized by more than a couple of other "older" patrons or vendors. I was pleasantly surprised to run into twenty people who not only recognized the uniforms, they thought we did a pretty good job on them. A twenty-something couple in BSG reboot uniforms actually ran up to us shouting "Space: 1999"!

I also scored a few memorabilia. Comic books #1 and #4, and a complete set of trading cards.

Nerd Craft: Star Trek Tribble - Initial Plans

Trouble with Tribbles

Update
You can buy your own from ThinkGeek for less than $20!

One of my favorite Star Trek TOS episodes is The Trouble with Tribbles. A Tribble is a small, soft, furry and gentle asexual animal that produces a soothing purring sound. That is, unless you are a Klingon. Mortal enemies of all Klingons, a tribble screams when they encounter a Klingon. The Klingon acts like a frightened child.

Anyway, I've always wanted a replica tribble. But not just some furry stuffed animal. I want one that screams, purrs and otherwise sounds like a tribble. Technology has finally caught up with my wishes and my pocketbook!





Unfortunately, we cannot genetically engineer pets, at least not tribbles. Glowing fish aren't my thing. I'll have to make a tribble puppet of some sort.

Here are the behaviors I want my tribble to express:

• Purrs when petted or held
• Screams at Klingons

And the ones that I'll have to leave until I get my genetic engineering chemistry set:

• Consumes mass quantities of food
• Procreates
• Moves around

What I'll need:

• Shaggy faux fur cloth for the pelt
• Polyfill for stuffing
• A couple of recordable sound chips for gift cards
• A tilt switch
• A pressure/contact switch

The faux fur and polyfill shouldn't be too hard to get at either a craft store or somewhere online. A simple baseball style pattern (two strips of fabric in the shape of teardrops attached with a neck) but elongated. 

Sound chips are available online. One will record and playback the purr, the other the scream.

Klingon agents and Tribbles don't get along

What's the tilt switch for? A Klingon detector isn't available so I'll fake it. If you pick up the tribble and keep it level it will just purr. If you hold it a steep angle, the tilt switch will disable the purr and activate the scream chip.

A simple tilt switch can be made with a small circuit board, a couple of stiff wire contacts, a metallic ball bearing, and a short tube. 

Most definitely not a Klingon

The pressure switch might be a bit trickier. I'll need something that doesn't require a lot of pressure, but just enough that the tribble doesn't randomly purr and run down the battery.