Deanna Troi From Star Trek: TNG, but Make It DragonCon Marriott Carpet

Years ago before I learned how to sew, I custom ordered a Star Trek: TNG season 1 skant uniform from one of those cosplay dot com websites, and it was terrible. Wrong color, mainly, and even at the time I didn’t notice other huge inaccuracies. The company refused a refund, so I sat on it for years thinking one day I’d take it apart and make a pattern from it. Fast forward to present day: I’m too stubborn to toss it, too lazy to completely rework it, but resourceful enough to accept some flaws but alter it for DragonCon…and my DragonCon Marriott Carpet Deanna Troi gets the last laugh.

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Let’s start with what it should look like: short sleeve with no sleeve cuffs, low collar, just long enough to cover the bum, and with a colored panel in the back and front that begins just below the neckline. The skant is black with one of three color panels by job function. Deanna Troi was a scientist (albeit a soft science), so her panels are blue. Easy enough, right?

So wrong! If you can’t tell in the picture above or below, the black is not black at all, but midnight blue (I know right?!). This still breaks my nerdy heart, but at the time I was pissed as a cat in a bath. Later, I spotted the other flaws: the collar is high, the sleeves have cuffs, the blue panel in the front was way too low…and the damn thing was too tight in the chest. Not cool!

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The only way to make this stupid thing wearable without completely remaking it, was to accept the midnight blue and replace the panels with Marriott carpet fabric printed at Spoonflower. The colors in this awful but endearing pattern include midnight blue, so it just worked. This way I was able to add about 4″ to the top of the front panel and widen the chest a little.

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I also removed the sleeve cuffs and re-hemmed them. I removed the collar completely and made piping from the discarded blue panels to close up the neckline again. I let out the darts at the chest and waist, and stitched them with a little more wiggle (okay, jiggle) room. Pinning the new carpet panels, it was beginning to look like it should’ve in the first place, but better!

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I replaced the cheap plastic button insignia with more accurate rank pips, and attached my communication badge that I bought at a Star Trek convention in my teens. I rather love it now, even more so with its history.

Communicator and rank: Star Trek THE NEXT GENERATION Full Size Communicator PIN and 5 Ranking PIPS

I was supposed to wear it at DragonCon this year, but because of the pandemic, the convention was cancelled. Add a wig, gold braided headband, and boots, and I’m ready for next year!

Wig: Ebingoo Long Brown Curly Lace Front Wigs for Black Women Dark Brown Front Lace Wig Glueless Heat Resistant Synthetic Hair Replacement Wig for cosplay

Black headband base: LONEEDY 6 Hard Headbands, 1 Inch Wide Non-slip Ribbon Hairband for Women (6 Black+1 Blue)

Boots: Kenneth Cole New York Women’s Justin Fashion Boot, Black, 10 M US