I guess my main tip would be, choose something you’ll be comfortable wearing. Also don’t stress about getting details perfect. An 11 cosplay can be as simple as a fez, an Osgood as simple as a lab coat, and so on.
I guess that’s my other tip. You have to pick something that people will recognise easily, which for DW is pretty easy usually for main characters. And you can go as hardcore or easy as you want - as I say, the only rules that exist are ones that get self-imposed
A Doctor is a good choice, there are many options there. Charity shops and thrifting also is your friend, you can find some excellent things for cheap in those places and if you have the sewing ability to adjust stuff, that makes it easier again. Fortunately most Doctors tend to have at least one signature piece to their costumes that if you get right, you can be imperfect in the rest of it and still be recognisable
Spend some time really paying attention to the costume and all the details that make it work and then decide which details matter to you and which ones you’re willing to sacrifice for the sake of your budget and/or time. Chasing total screen accuracy can get really expensive really quickly and is often never fully possible, but getting a good sense of the finer details of a costume can help you get to whatever balance of accuracy and budget is right for you.
For Doctor costumes, it’s usually pretty easy to find reference sources where people have already done the research into where the pieces came from if they’re not custom, and if they are custom there’s usually still info out there on whatever details are known about material or pattern or whatever. The more unusual and signature pieces of a Doctor’s outfit will usually have budget replicas at places like cosdaddy as well as higher quality replicas from places like Magnoli Cothiers.
Reverse image search is also a great tool for trying to find decent matches for costume pieces.
13 was my first cosplay and I think it’s a really fun one to put together, though can get a bit expensive even on a budget version if you include the coat. Would be happy to answer any questions or give advice about it if you wanted though!
My cosplay of the meddling nun I wore to big finish day. Yeah I bought a nun costume off the internet but I did sew the edges of the hood over so it was white like her hood on the two monks one mistress cover.
And added this pocket watch that you can’t see on the pictures I took
Finished my Twin Dilemma cosplay! This is my second favorite Peri look and I’ve wanted to do this cosplay for a while but finding a shirt that’s a decent match for hers was super difficult. The one I got is still not really that close, but I’m happy with it. Had to do some alterations and they’re a bit messy because I’ve only just started sewing recently, but I think everything turned out well!
this isn’t actually the shirt I’m going to wear for this, it was just the first one I had lying around[1] and it seemed fitting. And can’t do NOTHING without the beast in the way haha
Thank you…! That’s why I’ve kind of designed the costume to be slightly Classic slightly Modern style Chancellery Guard looking, so if I really mess up with the foam and it looks dreadful, the clothes will stand alone as a complete look. At least, that’s the hope anyway !
So im considering going to the Chicago TARDIS in November cause there’s gonna be some cool people there (mostly Seán Carlsen & Miles Richardson) and its only a 3 hour drive
If i do go, I’d want to do a cosplay. So, Narvin or the Seventh Doctor? Or maybe Romana? What should i do
)
I sure hope the three Doctors one!
And what do you mean mess on the floor? All I just see is an adorable black cat there 
good luck with foam armour, I once made mandalorian armour out of that and it…wasn’t easy 
