DIY TARDIS Top Hat

Guess what guys? New York Comic Con is less than a month away. Like, whoa, where did the summer go? Like I've mentioned before, I've been in full cosplay mode, putting everything together.

Now, I'm not one of those crazy-awesome people who have the full-size, screen accurate cosplays with the moving parts and the blinking lights and the metal working and the sewing. I wish I was, but I don't nearly have the skillset to pull that kind of thing off. I tend to go more casual: a military-style bolero jacket and a pettiskirt with brass accents for a basic steampunk outfit; a blonde wig, squid hat, and a Knights of Good t-shirt for a Clara costume. A modded top hat and a blue dress for Time And Relative Dimension In Space cosplay. Basic, easy, and immediately recognizable.

My original intention was to make a small fascinator or one of my tiny top hats in TARDIS blue for this costume, but when I was putting all the pieces together in Polyvore to see how they worked together, I fell in love with a blue fedora. But it was from the UK, and even if they did ship to the US, I wasn't willing to pay international shipping fees. In it's place, I was able to find the perfect blue top hat on Amazon for only about $7.

And since this is easy-mode crafting, I figured I'd share how to make it yourself. Halloween is coming up, after all.

So we're going to start off with the top hat, adhesive foam letters in two sizes, and thick black ribbon, at least  an inch and a half wide. And the glue/adhesive of your choice. I like tacky glue, but double sided tape works well, too.

I had a lot of trouble finding plain white letters in two sizes and matching font. I originally wanted iron-on letters, but I couldn't find what I needed. I didn't want to paint them on myself since I don't have the steadiest hand, and I have the penmanship of a 5-year-old. So while I would have preferred a sans-serif font, I couldn't afford to be that picky.

The letters kept sticking to my fingers, so they're a bit... wibbley. But that's all right. Just eyeball the spacing. The ribbon was just wide enough for the "Public Call" part.

Then just glue it to your hat. And you could totally stop there if you really want to. You've got a perfectly good TARDIS hat. Obviously, I went further.

I added some glittery black ribbon because I found it with my crafting supplies, and it adds a little extra pizzazz. That's optional. But glitter is always recommended.

For the light on top, I used a plastic container that held a candy cane Christmas tree. I'd held onto it thinking it would be a good photo prop. I never used the Christmas tree, but the container was the right size, and I liked that it had a top I could use when I wanted to take the light out or turn it off. I just painted it with some glass paint. This was something else I found in my craft supplies (I went through a glass staining and etching phase), any paint would work, but the glass paint is less likely to chip. Then I just glued it to the top of the hat with more tacky glue.

The light itself is a self-contained LED that I found in the floral arrangement section of Michaels, in the aisle with the Styrofoam and marbles for the vases. It comes in different colors too.

And that's all it takes. I told you this was easy-mode. I might add a couple more embellishments, but for now I'll call this complete.

And because I know you want it: obligatory awkward selfie in the bathroom mirror.

I stick my tongue out at you, sir!

I kind of hate pictures of myself. Especially if I'm the one taking them. So my default mode is to be goofy. And yes, those are Stormtroopers dancing Gangnam Style on my t-shirt. In case the hat wasn't quite nerdy enough for you.

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