Sixth Doctor - ankle armour!

You may have read that I currently offer replicas of the Sixth Doctor’s boots, modelled directly on a pair worn during some of the later episodes.

These have proved quite popular and although they are not cheap, they do add the finishing touches to the perfect Sixth Doctor cosplay.

I’ve also been making the spats to go with the boots, but only by request as I wasn’t 100% happy with the pattern.

I modelled mine directly from a set of screen-worn spats, but to be honest I think the budget had run out by the time the spats were made. They really weren’t cut that well or made to last, unlike much of the rest of the costume.

It’s always a tricky tightrope to walk between being utterly screen accurate and making something that looks and fits well, plus lasts repeated use.

The BBC costume department was always on hand to make running repairs or remake parts of the costume when they wore out, but that’s not something my clients have the luxury of.

So when I was recently asked by two clients for spats,  I decided it was time to revisit the pattern and make a couple of very minor tweaks to sort out the things that were niggling me about the originals.

The main thing I wanted to do was adjust the centre front seam, which on the originals has the tendency to drift off towards one side. It just doesn’t sit nicely down the front of the boot, no matter how you poke it about.

Also, all the edges are overlocked with orange thread, which is a quick, easy and frankly lazy way to hem them. Although it tidies up the raw cut edges, it’s not very attractive to look at.

Finally the spats have a short length of black elastic to secure them under the heal. This is attached to the front part of the spats, which means you have to poke the toe of the boot through the hole making them somewhat awkward to put on and this can rough up the overlocked edges causing snags, so they can become tatty very quickly.

You can also see that the originals have faux buttonholes and buttons on the sides, under which was a strip of white velcro to make the actual closure.

What I have done is to realign the front seam so it now sits vertically down the front of the boots when worn and add a bit more to the section that goes around the heal.

I have faithfully replicated the faux buttonholes and buttons, along with the strip of velcro, but I have substituted it with a matching orange velcro instead to make it less obtrusive - in fact you have to look closely to see it at all!

I have also relocated the elastic to span the back part of the spats rather than the toe, making it easier to fit.
This seems a very minor point, but only if you try fitting them with the elastic in the old position do you realise what an improvement this is.

The last thing I did was to create a proper hem around all edges which is neatly turned up and topstitched to match the rest of the spats.

I have overlocked my raw edges, but these are now out of sight and the whole thing looks a lot smoother.

Now that I am much more happy with the result, I have made up a number of pairs, which are available for sale.

If you want to get a pair of spats to complete your Sixth Doctor cosplay, they are priced at GB£35 each.

FREE global shipping is included in the price!

Email me at tennantcoat@me.com 
and I can send you full details.

My Sixth Doctor green boots

Hopefully you will have seen and enjoyed the complete Sixth Doctor costume I wore for Project Motor Mouth. But for me it was a tiny bit frustrating as it wasn’t actually 100% complete.

It didn’t notice too much, but I was lacking the green boots that finish off the garish look the Sixth Doctor wore.

Annoyingly, the boots had already been made to measure for me, but due to my bout of flu and then the heavy snow just prior to the event, I wasn’t able to collect them as planned.
But now I’m back to somewhere near full strength and the roads are a bit clearer, I’ve finally been able to get them from my boot makers.

Back in 2009 I saw an original of screen worn boots at a viewing for the 16th June 2009 Bonhams Auction, and it’s these that mine have been directly modelled after.

I regard them as the middle pair in a series of boots worn during the Colin Baker era.
The following is a potted history as I see it and is by no means definitive, so please message me if you have anything to add. Here is what I have been able to find and work out about the Sixth Doctor’s footwear.





Originally he wore a pair of shop-sourced green ankle boots. I’m not totally sure of the brand name, but the things to look for are the combination of eyelets and hooks to lace them up; and a moulded Doc Marten-style rubber sole.

The pair I viewed at Bonhams also had the eyelet and hook combination for the laces; no makers name was visible; the inside of the boots were unlined; and it had a plain leather sole.

These I believe were a copy made when the original boots started to show signs of wear and replacements were unavailable. Hence the lack of manufacturers name and the use of a plain sole.

A further pair I have seen has all eyelets with no hooks; a brown leather lining; and a plain leather white sole.

I think these were made when the previous copies also started to show signs of their age.
The use of all eyelets suggests they were made in haste and at minimal cost and the way they are made are uncannily like the work I have seen on Matt Smith’s boots. In fact I would not be surprised to find they were cut by the same company.

So which pair to copy?
Since it will be near impossible to make an authentic pair of the shop-sourced boots, I have gone for copying the first replacements.
They are after all a hand-made copy and my versions would be made in the same way and would be of equal quality.

But who should I get to make them?
Well that’s a real no-brainer - since I work regularly with the makers of Matt Smith’s boots, they are the obvious choice since they did a similar thing by copying the All Saints boots for series five.
Besides, it gives my boots some pedigree!

AND HERE ARE THE COPIES THE BOOT MAKERS DID FOR ME!

I gave the boot makers access to the third pair of boots as a guide, plus lots of reference pictures of the second pair to work from.

They painstakingly matched the green leather and followed every subtle line of white top stitch.
Suitable hooks were sourced to match as closely as possible those on the original boots.

Being hand-made with a lot of decorative stitching, they weren’t cheap - but I’m very happy with the result and they now make my costume as complete and authentic as possible!

If you’re interested in getting a pair of hand-made Sixth Doctor Boots, made by THE Doctor Who boot makers, drop me an email to tennantcoat@me.com
and I can send you the details

UPDATE

I am now also offering the orange spats to go with the boots.

You can read much more about these here:

Sixth Doctor - ankle armour!

If you want to get a pair of spats to complete your Sixth Doctor cosplay, they are priced at GB£35 each.

FREE global shipping is included in the price!

Email me at tennantcoat@me.com 
and I can send you full details.