I've finally thrifted the rest of the main clothing items I need. I've been haunting my local secondhand shops in hopes of finding what I need in my size, and my persistence has paid off.

I now have the cardigan, blouse, scarf, skirt, and glasses. They all fit wonderfully and look pretty much like her outfit from the film. The only major difference is my cardigan is a forest green rather than blue, but considering those things get really expensive and I found mine in a church thrift shop for $2 it's good enough for me.

I got my button badge back from hoorayforbuttons.com and they do great work as always. The only bummer is my own mistake; I was working with this photo (public domain, baby!) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:100_0144.JPG and I completely forgot to photoshop in the panther-looking statues from the film. But it's a small enough detail which isn't really noticeable, especially to casual viewers. Here's my design: http://robvincent.net/photos/halloween09/clockbadge_225in.png

I thrifted the eyeglasses; a pair that looks 8os enough to be hers, and whatever lenses are in there are quite weak. I shall be able to see through them with no problem, which is good; I don't like to cheat by wearing frames with no lenses if I can avoid it.

The wig I have is a cheap "Mrs Santa Claus" wig, and it is pretty lousy. I hope to find something better over the weekend; I haven't much time left. I also need to get some high socks or thick stockings to hide my manly hairy legs. A plain pair of my own shoes will substitute for frumpy old-lady shoes, and I need to figure out some sort of plan of makeup attack since I'm one of those lucky guys who gets his five o'clock shadow around noon.

I also have to complete my "Save The Clock Tower" flyer, the "Hill Valley Preservation Society" card badge, and the jingly can of change with "Save the Clock Tower" label on it, all also done from scratch. I aim to have the graphics for those completed over the weekend; I'll post them as soon as they're ready.

I'm totally looking forward to playing this character in the Halloween parade! If you're in the NYC area and have no other plans, do check it out; anyone into costumes will find things to be amazed and amused by. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_Village_Halloween_Parade

Over on Livejournal's dw_cosplay group, someone called awarmcanofcoke posted a brilliant breakdown of the various greebles on Ace's jacket.

http://community.livejournal.com/dw_cosplay/369363.html

There are sources listed for lots of the bits and pieces, and he's even done printable photoshop reconstructions of some of the rare fabric patches. Just get some computer-printable cloth and you're set!

That post is sure to be a valuable resource for anyone looking to recreate this costume. Now if only he could have posted it last Winter when I started mine, heh...

In the interest of actually using this journal, here's the story so far of my take on Ace's jacket...

I happened to find the exact bomber jacket not only obscenely cheap, but in size XXXL. Sophie Aldred is a pretty petite lady, so her jacket was noticeably large on her. I'm a decidedly non-petite guy, so it was extremely lucky that I found a jacket which would give me the same sort of look. And it's the *same jacket!* The only difference I can find is my zippers are brass-colored while I think hers are black, but that's a detail I can overlook. It's also insanely comfortable to wear, the pockets are roomy, and I can even wear it comfortably with the sleeves pushed up as she did on the show. I'm thinking once this is complete I might actually wear this in everyday life, perhaps sans detachable flair.

There's a pretty good amount of reference material online detailing most of what's on Ace's jacket. For one major example, check out http://lifetheuniverseandcombom.blogspot.com/2009/04/doctor-who-of-day-aces-jacket.html .

I started collecting the NASA patches first, since they're public domain and easy to get hold of. My favorite source for these is http://voyagerstore.com , they're inexpensive and great quality, and they've got lots of other goodies if you're at all into NASA.

It was obvious to me from the beginning I would not be going for 100% accuracy with the buttons and patches. The original flair contains a lot of things I wouldn't be comfortable wearing even for a costume, mainly the military and motorcycle company stuff, so I'm substituting similar-looking flair from my collection representing things I do enjoy to maintain the general look of the jacket. I shall enjoy being the only Ace I've ever heard of to display insignia from such things as "Max Headroom," "Star Trek," "Sealab 2021," and hacker culture.

One detail of the original costume by which I'm actually offended and won't be duplicating: NASA mission patches customarily have extra rocker-style panels stitched onto them with the names of that mission's Mission Specialist (MS) crewmembers. The costume designer, for whatever reason, actually removed these tags from the patches on Ace's jacket. You can see the difference between the example patches and jacket patches on that reference photo linked above. Not only am I far too principled a NASA geek to remove anyone's names from mission patches, but there is no way in hell I'm about to cut anyone's name off anything related to the doomed Challenger mission. Extremely bad form, late 1980s BBC costume department!

As noted in the costume description and elsewhere, there are quite a few patches and badges which are extraordinarily difficult, if not actually impossible, to obtain anymore. As a graphic design exercise I've been recreating these from scratch based on photos, screenshots, and other reference material, and I shall be sharing my work freely online for anyone who wishes to make or order custom-printed flair for their own Ace jackets. (On that subject, a quick plug for http://hoorayforbuttons.com , the home business of an old friend of mine who will happily print off anything you like onto really well-made badges for really cheap. I've got badges from him which I've worn regularly for years, have been rained on, etc. and they're still in great shape.)

Note to the IP hounds: I'm not talking about infringing upon anyone's rights. I'm talking about replacing items long out of production, many of which were even difficult to get hold of 22 years ago during Ace's TV tenure. There's some stuff in there from the 1970s and 1960s, as well as a few things which were never made available to the public in the first place. For example you won't find a Bell Atlantic Safe Driver Award at your local punk shop, and since the company hasn't existed for 13 years you couldn't even properly earn one for being a telephone company employee who drives safely. And in the case of that horseshoe/magnifying glass/eyeball patch on the right shoulder; not even two decades' worth of sleuthing fandom have been able to figure out where that even came from, much less where to get one like it. Replicating it from scratch is the only option available.

I shall not be replicating the Blue Peter badges. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peter_badge ) That program and its fans are dealing with enough of a controversy regarding counterfeits. I also do not support buying new Blue Peter badges on moral grounds; greedy parents actually intercept and sell ones rightfully earned by their kids. If you can't obtain genuine Blue Peter badges from their rightful owner who has finished with them, I advocate crafting your own replicas or substituting something else, accuracy be damned. I do own one extremely worn Blue Peter badge; it was sold to me cheaply by someone who won it back in the 1990s and has since outgrown it. It's in pretty bad shape and in need of restoration. I have one or two neat ideas for how to go about this, stay tuned..

The big "Ace" applique for the back of the jacket is something I still have to decide what to do about. It's apparently flat shiny satin-looking material on the original, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't look better on me as a chenille piece, letterman style. I do have a line on someone who could fabricate that for me, I just need to magic up an appropriate graphic image of that.

Beyond the jacket, the rest of the costume will include standard black BDU pants (from my own wardrobe) substituted for Ace's decidedly girly legwear. I shall need to collect a rucksack, a baseball bat repainted to look like the Dalek-killer bat from "Remembrance of the Daleks" (some OSHA-type reflective tape or paint might infuse that with Omega's sparks) and some nitro-9 cans. I might throw in some sort of soldiery-looking hat or the Seventh Doctor's panama. I'll also need to dig up a suitably 1980s t-shirt.

Aaaand that's where I am on this. I'm now taking a break from working on Ace so I can concentrate on my Halloween costume, which I have not yet unveiled publicly.