Wednesday 13 July 2016

The Great Radio Times Sew Off

A couple of weeks ago saw the final of The Great British Sewing Bee - for those that don’t follow it, it’s basically Bake Off, but with sewing machines.




It’s always a talking point amongst sewers across the country and this discussion reached the feedback pages of the Radio Times over the last few weeks.

Last week a letter from Christine Bates contiued the ongoing debate, and added to the mix her Mother’s 1931 vintage Singer sewing machine - which is nice, but frankly a bit too modern even for me!

As a footnote the editor asked if anyone else had a working sewing machine that was older than Christine’s.

Well, if you know anything about how I work, you’d know the answer to that is YES!

So I wrote in, and low and behold they have published my letter, plus two others, along with the photo I sent them!

As it happened, I was working on a Colin Baker coat when I needed to take the picture, so I sneaked it in there!

Here is my letter, which has been published near in full, even down to my cheeky sign-off address!

Tuesday 12 July 2016

Original 6th Doctor items on eBay -
July 2016

No sooner has the echo of the gavel faded in the Bonhams sale room, then items sold there start appearing on eBay.

Revelation of the Daleks -
Blue Mortuary Tunic
This auction is for an original, screen used Doctor Who costume from the 1985 serial 'Revelation of the Daleks', starring Colin Baker as the Doctor.

The story is set on the planet Necros, the location of the funeral home named Tranquil Repose. This costume was worn by one of the various cast members playing a mortuary attendant, and can be clearly seen in various scenes throughout the story.

The costume itself consists of a light blue tunic with buttons down the left hand side and a pair of light blue trousers. The costume parts are in good, screen used condition and come from a smoke and pet-free home.

The price for this auction is set at just £250.00 (buy it now or best offer), representing an excellent opportunity to purchase an affordable, original, screen used costume from a well respected classic Doctor Who serial, from over 30 years ago.


Revelation of the Daleks -
Green Mortuary tunic
This auction is for an original, screen used Doctor Who costume from the 1985 serial 'Revelation of the Daleks', starring Colin Baker as the Doctor.

The story is set on the planet Necros, the location of the funeral home named Tranquil Repose. This costume was likely worn by one of the various cast members playing a Tranquil Repose guard, who can be clearly seen in various scenes throughout the story, particularly in the catacombs with Davros.

The costume itself consists of a green tunic with buttons down the left hand side with a couple of pockets at the front. There is a label at the top from 'Garroulds of London' who provided the tunics for this story; there is also "DW" inscribed on the label (see third photo). The tunic is in good, screen used condition and comes from a smoke and pet-free home.

The item has been checked by Bonhams auctioneers having been sold as part of lot 82 in the 1991 Bonhams Doctor Who auction, as well as part of lot 80 in the more recent Entertainment memorabilia auction in 2016.

The price for this auction is set at just £195.00 (buy it now or best offer), representing an excellent opportunity to purchase an affordable, original, screen used costume from a well respected classic Doctor Who serial, from over 30 years ago.