Star Trek : Grey Instructor Uniform
All right! People have asked, and here it is: How I made my grey Starfleet instructor uniform, based on this one:
I made a female version, with a knee-length pencil skirt. It's slightly different than what's seen in the movie, but it's made from commercially available patterns with only minor modifications.
Notes under the cut!(Picture of me in the uniform coming soon - Saturday, I hope)
Patterns used:
Jacket: McCall's M6171, view B (lower right)
Skirt: Butterick B5566, view E (center right)
Fabric and notions:
I was really lucky, and bought several yards of grey wool from magickalmolly for a really great price. In addition, I needed lining fabric for the jacket (I chose just black), interfacing, the jacket needed a long separating zipper (more on that in modifications), and the skirt needed a 7" zipper and hook and eye.
Modifications:
Jacket:
I lengthened the jacket significantly, about four inches. This meant that I also needed to add gussets on the sides to accommodate my hips, which was a pretty tricky procedure. If I had a dress form it would have been easier. As it was, I basically just pinned it on me and made it work. I recommend either having a dress form or a good friend for this part, or altering the pattern pieces when you cut them out. Because it was all pretty hacked together, in the end I also did a dart up the center back (to about the bust line) to make the waist fit better.
The additional length of the jacket also required a longer zipper than the pattern called for. I got one that is silver-colored metal on black tape. Cool!
The sleeve caps ended up kind of poofy. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but there it is. It's not authentic, but I think it looks fine on me.
My jacket also suffered a very unfortunate setback during the final pressing. There was some schmutz on my iron that scorched a hole in the edge collar and in the right side front. For the collar, I just folded it down on the topstitching and did another pass to hold it down, which means that my collar is about 5/8" shorter than in the pattern, but I think it works better for me that way because it was sort of too tall before.
For the hole in the side front, instead of replacing the piece and having to undo and redo all the seams it was part of, I made a couple of pockets, as shown:
If you click to embiggen and squint, you can sort of see them.
Everybody needs pockets, right? I traced over the finished jacket to get the right shape, then added seam allowances. I topstitched on the machine first, and hand-stitched the edges so they would be hidden. Then I added a couple of snaps to hold the pockets shut, because otherwise they tended to bulge out and add bulk at the waist.
Skirt:
I didn't actually have to make any modifications to the skirt! I thought I might, since the largest size was a 34" waist, and mine is 36" on a good day. But it turns out that not only was it not too small, it was actually sort of too big. It fits down on my hips where I like, which is nice, but not what I thought would happen. This means that the hip part of the skirt is sort of baggy, but it's roomy and comfortable. Erik's parents were visiting while I was finishing the skirt, so his mom helped me hem it to mid-knee.
Badge:
I don't have a plain badge, so I just wear my Sciences one. Suck it, haters!
Boots:
My boots are Tsubo Baco, which I got from endless.com (affiliated with Amazon) for about $100. They run a half size small and are a little snug on my 16" calves, but are VERY comfortable (there's an elastic panel in the back) and very authentic-looking. All I did to the boots was to waterproof them so I can wear them in the rain without hurting the leather. Hopefully the leather will stretch a little as well, and they'll turn into the best-fitting boots EVER.
Finishing Touches
I bought a Kindle recently, and boy, does it make me feel like Star Trek! I want to stand somewhere and look official with it and say "Cadet Kirk isn't cleared for duty."
In conclusion:
The skirt was pretty easy, and the jacket was a bit more complex, especially with the shaping modifications I needed to make and to make up for my stupid mistake of stupidness. Overall, though I count it a success! And I can wear all the pieces individually and not look like a costume, should I so choose.