I normally don’t sew too much outside of Halloween, when it becomes more an excuse to set aside time to make cool stuff than anything else. However, I saw this “Exploding TARDIS” fabric at Jo-Ann the other day and had to make something out of it.

Since my daughter Phoenix is a Whovian like myself, I figured I’d make her a little dress. I went with Butterick “See & Sew” pattern B5443 because it was a whopping $3 and it was a fairly simple thing. I also got some shiny blue lining to go in it.

The most time consuming part was, as usual, pinning and cutting all the pieces.

The back closes in a zipper, which is usually a painful experience but actually went smoothly this time. Here I’m pinning it in…

…and here it’s finished.

I did a bit of a modification and let the blue lining hang slightly below the body of the dress for a peek of that shiny blue. I also finished the waist with a ribbon that has gold sun, moon, and stars printed on it.

And here is the proud four-year-old Whovian in her new exploding TARDIS dress.

All told it took about a day and a half from start to finish. I really started around 10 or 11 on Saturday, ran it through until around 10 Saturday night, and finished up in a couple of hours on Sunday morning. Not too bad.

This was the first thing I’ve made since I got Jenn a Brother 1034D serger for Christmas, and let me tell you - the serger makes all the difference. The seams come out very professional looking and the garment has a much more “store bought” quality to it.

I bought enough of the fabric to make myself a shirt using Vogue pattern 8800. I’ve used that pattern before and it comes out well, if a bit snug, so this next go-round with it I’ll make one size larger for some breathing room.