Amy Pond Police Outfit

Me as Amy Pond (left) and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond (right) 

Inspiration: Doctor Who, of course!  Amy Pond is my favorite Doctor Who companion (Donna being a close second). Dr. Who has also inspired me to create tutorials for The Exploding TARDIS and TARDIS Legwarmers here on Craftimism.
Two of my friends and I decided to dress up as characters from Doctor Who for St. Louis's Comic Con this past weekend.  I may have been one of the least nerdy people there. I didn't get many of the references or recognize a lot of the people who were dressed up (or even some of the celebrities), but it was so much fun to go in costume.  I feel like that is the only way to go to a comic con!  I felt like a celebrity the entire day, as we had a ton of people stop to take pictures of us.  It was so much fun!

I transformed myself into Amy Pond by assembling the outfit.  I had a white button up shirt and black belt, sewed the skirt, vest, and scarf, and found all the accessories at the dollar store.  I am a novice sewer and was happy with the results.  Keep reading for details on how to make the outfit and where to find the accessories and to see more awesome pictures of our comic con adventure.  

Amy Pond Police Outfit essentials:

• White button up collared shirt
• Vest (I made mine from a black T-shirt
• Skirt - made from knit material, can reuse a T-shirt or buy knit fabric
• Scarf - Sewn from fabric (I found the fabric square at JoAnn) and a black strip of T-shirt material
• Black Belt - Mine wasn't quite right, but I went with it :)
• Accessories - handcuffs and cell phone case for the belt (found at Dollar Tree for $1 each), police radio (I could not find one, so I omitted it)
• Hair spray color/hair dye (unless you are naturally red headed)

Half Red

Hair - I was thinking about doing a temporary hair color (I think you can get ones that wash out in a few months), but I could not find what I was looking for at Wal-mart or Walgreens.  Instead, I used my dollar tree clearance spray on hair color that had been in my Halloween box for years.  I have naturally sandy blonde hair and I was worried the color would be bright red, but it turned out more natural than I expected, and best of all, it washed out in ~5 shampoos.  The directions said not to use on hair that had been highlighted in the previous year.  I highlighted my hair for my Halloween outfit in October, and it did not wash out as easily from those sections of my hair, but it did eventually wash out (thank goodness!).  I put the color in 1 section at a time and combed it through with a wide toothed comb.  I also sprayed it on my hand and rubbed it through my hair as well.  I rubbed a small amount on my eyebrows.  Then I had to wipe of the excess staining on my forehead with soap and water.  My sink looked like a crime scene by the time I was done. :)

Skirt - To make the skirt, I used a polyester/cotton knit material.  You could easily recycle a black T-shirt.  Follow the diagram below to make a custom miniskirt.

Vest - Follow the instructions below to make a vest from a T-Shirt.  If you are a more advanced sewer and want to create a more accurate police vest, check out this blog post.  

Scarf - I cut a rectangle of the checkered fabric, folded it in half, scrunched it up a little bit and sewed a seam about 1 inch below the fold.  I cut a strip of leftover T-shirt material and threaded it through the seam so I could tie on the scarf.

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory - At the beginning of the day 

At the Doctor Who booth.  We felt at home there. :)

Family Photo!  We found River!

A different Doctor with the Ponds

We found more of the Doctor Who gang!  Captain Jack, Rose, Donna, the 10th Doctor, Amy, and the 11th Doctor - Don't Blink!

Police Amy and action figure Amy :) At the end of the day.

Flower Headband

This headband completes the set of winter wear accessories I made my friend Casie.  Casie is from Minnesota and currently lives near Chicago.  Since she encounters cold and windy weather a lot, I decided to make her super warm mittens, a cowl, and this headband.  I visited her a few weeks ago and gave her the cowl.  Since visiting, I made her mittens with flaps (also pictured below) and this headband with a crocheted flower.

If you want to buy this headband, check out Craftimsim on Etsy and feel free to contact me for a custom order.

I designed this headband based on the cream headband she had.  These seem to be all the rage this year, and I was dying to try to knit the headband and crochet a flower for the headband.  To make the headband as warm as possible, I used super bulky yarn (Lion Brand Hometown USA in Portland Wine) and used less than one skein for this pattern.  I forgot how much a stockinette stitch rolls under but for a headband so the headband has a definite tendency to roll inward on itself.  It is not a huge problem, as you can press it flat when putting it on.  The pictures are all the original pattern I made in stockinette stitch, but I have adjusted the pattern so that it won't roll under for your project. :)  The updated pattern can be found here.


A note on the following photos:
One morning it was snowing and I wanted to take pictures of myself in the headband and mittens.  I rigged up a makeshift tripod consisting of 2 stools and a kickball trophy and balanced my camera on one tier of the trophy, and set the timer on my camera.  If you scroll really fast, it kind of looks like a flip book!  Enjoy!

Prairie Dog Knit Hat

Loren modeling the prairie dog hat I knit for her

This is the second item in my series of thesis themed hats.  I made it for my friend Loren who graduated with her PhD in the Fall. Her thesis investigated evolution in prairie dog colonies and specifically how pathogens such as the plague influence the evolution of black-tailed prairie dogs in Colorado. Pretty cool stuff, Loren!  If you want to learn more about Loren's thesis work, you can check out her website here. You can also help her fund her prairie dog studies here.

Click here to see the first item in my thesis themed hats, Nic's Clover Hat.

Click here for the pattern for this hat and here for information about the pattern. I made it with Vanna's Choice yarn (golden color) and a teal color in a similar weight that I had in my yarn collection.  Other materials needed are a size 5-16" circular needle, and size 5 double pointed needles. Carrying the yarn behind the hat during the color work makes a thick, warm hat.  Not to mention, it has super cute prairie dogs playing on the hat.  :)  Hopefully Loren will like it for years to come.

Nic in his Clover Hat and Loren in her Prairie Dog Hat

Mittens with Flaps - tutorial

       © Heidi Arjes, 2012. This pattern is for personal use only. Commercial use without

         written permission of the author is prohibited. 

Mittens are great.  They allow fingers to snuggle together and stay warm during those winter days.  But then to use your fingers, the entire mitten has to come off to let the fingers be mobile and all that conserved heat is lost.

Solution = mittens with flaps!









If you can make mittens, you have all the tools to make mittens with flaps.  Just follow along with this simple tutorial.

I used a super bulky yarn for these mittens to make them as warm as possible, specifically Lion Brand Hometown USA in Portland Wine (I guess plum wasn't fancy enough :)).  I used size 8 double pointed needles and a yarn needle.  My gauge for this yarn is 9 stitches is 3 inches in stockinette stitch.  Height is not important for the gauge as you use your hand to measure when to make the flap and when to decrease for the fingers.  I think these mittens should take about 1 skein of yarn, as I started this with the leftovers of one skein and finished them with yarn to spare on the second skein.

Step 1: Cast on 20 stitches and divide to two needles, 10 stitches per needle.

Step 2: K2P2 ribbing for ~3 inches

Step 3: Make thumb gusset

At this point I put all the stitches that result from making stitches onto a third needle.  These stitches will become the thumb gusset. From now on, I will color all the stitches that should be on the thumb gusset needle blue. To make the thumb gusset, you will also need to use the make 1 stitch (M1).  Click here for a video tutorial of this stitch.

• Round 1: K10, M1, K10
• Round 2: K10, K1, K10
• Round 3: K10; M1, K1, M1; K10
• Round 4: K10; K3; K10
• Round 5: K10; M1, K3, M1; K10
• Round 6: K10; K5; K10
• Round 7: K10; M1, K5, M1; K10
• Round 8: K10; K7; K10
• Round 9: K10; M1, K7, M1; K10
• Round 10: K10; K9; K10
• Round 11: K10; M1, K9, M1; K10

Now transfer the 11 thumb gusset stitches to a stitch holder or use a yarn needle to sew a scrap piece of yarn through each of the 11 stitches to hold them in place.  You should now have 10 stitches per needle.

Step 4: Knit until the bottom of the flap

Knit 5 rounds
Knit 5 rounds in the following pattern: K1P1 on the palm side (10 stitches), K10 on back side of mitten
Cast off 10 stitches in K1P1 pattern, Knit 10 on back side of mitten.
Cast on 10 stitches, connect to back side of mitten and knit 10 stitches on the back of the mitten.
Knit 10 stitches over the stitches you cast on.

Try on the mitten and if you are at the level of your pinky, it is time to decrease.  If not, continue knitting until that point.

Step 5: Decrease

• Round 1: *K2tog, K8* x2
• Round 2: Knit around
• Round 3: *K2tog, K7* x2
• Round 4: Knit around
• Round 5: *K2tog, K6* x2
• Round 6: *K2tog, K5* x2
• Round 7: *K2tog, K4* x2
• Round 8: *K2tog, K3* x2
• Round 9: *K2tog, K2* x2

Cut a very long tail (at least 2.5 yards) and using the yarn needle, weave the tail through the remaining stitches twice and pull tight.  Then sew the tail through the top of the mitten and tie it to leave a small loop as shown in the picture.  Sew the tail down the side of the mitten until you get to the flap.  

Step 6: finish flap

Insert one double pointed needle into each stitch on the top of the flap.  Using the tail yarn, K1P1 across.  Sew the end of the tail through the side of the mitten from the inside to the outside slightly below the level of the row you just knit across. This will secure the flap you are knitting over the mitten so that the gap created by the flaps will be covered. Repeat K1P1 and securing the flap to the sides as shown in the pictures for 6 rows.  Cast off and then sew the remaining tail down to the thumb gusset.

Step 7: Finish thumb

Insert two double pointed needles into the thumb stitches so that one needle has 6 stitches and the other has 5.
K1 round
K4, K2tog, K5 (10 stitches per needle now)
Knit around until thumb is the appropriate size when tried on (as shown)
K2tog, K3, K2tog, K3
K2tog, K2, K2tog, K2
Knit around

Using yarn needle, pull yarn through the remaining 6 stitches twice and pull tight.  If there are any small holes by the thumb gusset, sew them closed now and then weave the end of yarn into the interior of the mitten and secure by tying. 

Step 8: Add a button to back of mitten to secure the flap

Now repeat for the other mitten, making sure to put the flap on the appropriate side for your other hand.  Yay!  Mittens with flaps.  :)