I cannot remember the last time I was this excited to make a costume. It might have been back when I made one of Eowyn because she is my role model, but I am having a blast with this and I’ve not even gotten any of the materials. To me, that is what really maters. Having a cool costume to wear for Halloween and Movie Releases is just an added bonus.
Doctor Discoveries
I’ve been doing some reading of Doctor Strange (and decided that the old Doctor Strange comics aren’t exactly good), and some research (read: googling), and discovered some pretty cool things. First thing is, while I can find no reference to a female Doctor Strange (because there have been female versions of a lot of them, in fact, in Ultimate Spiderman theres a universe where all of them are girls), but I did find the below image of Doc’s girlfriend (well, one of them) taking on the mantel of Sorcerer Supreme.
Its nice that they were able to create a female character that isn’t 98% cleavage and bare legs.
And then there’s this woman (Doc’s daughter from a different dimension or something, idk, you can read about her here), who is also pretty darn cool.
Basically what I’m saying is: whomever is making the female versions of the Sorcerer Supreme can keep on keeping on because neither of them are overly sexualized.
I also stumbled across some concept art from the All New All Different Doctor Strange (that’s the one I love best) which shows some awesome new detailing on the costume (particularly the cloak) (and that’s where I got my featured image from, by the way). He also appears to wear sneakers, which makes my idea to wear my tennis shoe styled heels that much better.
Eye of Agamotto
Clearly I have to have some version of the eye, particularly since it might be one of the infinity stones (at least, in the MCU), but I haven’t decided if I’m going for the movie version or the comic version yet. Honestly the movie one looks better (and I love that its based on the window in the Sanctum Sanctorum), but I think the one from the comics might end up easier to make……
Belt
There are two different looks I could go for for Doctor Strange’s belt, one being plain gold (straight out of the comics) and the other being leather and brown canvas (from the movie) and I’m probably borrowing from the movie one for this because I have some really cool faux leather fabrics laying around and it would be a shame not to use them.
Hair
I’m not sure how much of my planning for the wig I mentioned in the last post, but I don’t think I talked about it at all. I am going to add in the silver highlights that Doctor Strange has (is there a reason that happened? I haven’t been able to find it in all my reading) and accent them as much as possible (I’ll probably braid them or something, to make them look super cool), and then theres the debate of how to style it. Part of me wants to leave it all the way down – because, why the heck not? – but I’m not sure that’s really a great idea (after all, it has to look fight ready). So I’ve come up with two possibilities:
- Half-Up, Half-Down
- This would have me pulling back just the top portion of hair.
- Braid
- This would just be braiding the entire wig down my back
- If I did that I would probably borrow from the style of Zelda’s braid in Hyrule Warriors (here’s a great example of what it looks like) and tie something to the end.
- Probably based on the bat looking thing from the front of his comic costume (which you can see really well on this shirt)
No matter how I style it, I’ve decided I’m going to grab some of those cheap, witchy beads and charms that you always see out around Halloween and weave/braid/tie them in, just to add a bit of fun. Mostly how I do it is going to end up depending on how the wig looks once I get it, because some wigs are easier to style than others.
Possible Wigs
- Outop Black Long Straight Anime Supia-Yisol Cosplay Wigs 80cm
- This one has bangs which I’m not super fond of
- Charming Women’s Long Curly Full Hair Wig
- This is shorter than the other two, but curly, and I’m not sure if I want perfectly straight hair.
- 40″ 100cm Carve Long Straight Cosplay Wig Anime Costume Party Wig
- This is almost identical to the first wig, but it doesn’t have bangs.
Pattern Decided
In my last post on the subject, I was still debating over what pattern I was going to use to create the bulk of Doctor Strange’s costume (the tunic-y thing he wears under his cloak), and I didn’t even consider using Sentinel (M2080), because I hadn’t seen it somehow, but once I did I knew that it was absolutely perfect for what I was going for and that I had to use it.
I’m not going to be using the hood, because I don’t really like it, and I have a different idea for the arm wraps – either the ones by Creative Rash or Captain Morgan Teague’s – but despite that change, this pattern is much closer to what I envisioned than anything else I’ve looked at!!
The undershirt I will be doing in some variant of blue, and I might be removing the fancy clasps in favor of something easier (like snaps or velco, seriously guys I’m that lazy (or I might just make it a pull over)) because I don’t think I want the claps from this, the lacing from the vest, and the belt all piled on top of one another. That just will not look good, me thinks.
The over part I will not be doing much altering to, because I like how it looks already. The holes for the lacing will be interesting, because I’ve never done anything like that before, but enough people do it regularly that it can’t be too hard, right?
Colors & Textures
In order to mimic Doc’s costume from the comics (which is a dark blue tunic with a light blue bat/creature on the front), I’m going to make the under shirt a slightly lighter shade than the vest, although, I won’t be using the baby blue from the comics. The darkest part will be the body of the vest (which is the entire over thing except the front stripe which is shown in super light blue below).
The bottom layer I’m going to make out of something soft and drape-y (read: something comfortable that I won’t mind having against my skin), and the outer layer I’ll make out of something stiffer.
Cost & Such
Its an online pattern only, meaning I couldn’t go and pick it up like I wanted to, but with cost, shipping, tax and everything it added up to $19.95 which isn’t terribly bad. And because it will take a while to arrive in the mail that lets me spread out the expenses of buying the fabric (because I won’t do that until I have the pattern physically in my hands) and purchasing the pattern.
I’ll probably wear it with black cotton leggings (which I have) and boots (which I have), maybe even the heeled boots I bought for Wanda Maximoff, so that lowers some of my costs. All that’s left is the cloak, and I have a cloak pattern I will most likely be using, although Simplicity just released a pattern for a cloak that’s clearly meant to be Doctor Strange (8238 for those of you who are curious), I don’t see the point of buying it when I have a perfectly alterable pattern already. I’ll also need a wig (and I’m not planning on a super nice one), and that should be the end of it.
I also want to base it (or at least, the cloak) around the more recent Doctor Strange design (circa Doctor Strange 2015 which is a great run), because its much more toned down than the traditional Strange and because it lacks his super stupid collar (which I have neither the patience to make nor the desire to wear).
Crafting On Pins and Needles 