Steampunk in Action

Gah... love those big skater thighs!

I wore my steampunk outfit and got a lot of compliments on the skirt.  In fact, most people thought that I had bought the skirt asking what store carried the skirt and what an excellent find.  Could it be the dreaded flat fell seams were worth it? 

Interesting that the ultimate compliment is that what you made looks like RTW when the whole point of sewing is to be more creative and have better fitting clothes than RTW.  I find this to be a mental conundrum.


What's up next?  A little dress from the 1940s.

Something Pithy

Mmm....pithy!

That is a pith helmet to go with the steampunky skirt. 

This is a short and sweet re-fashion.  I found a cheap old, not very nice pith helmet at a thrift store.  Then I covered the whole thing in a coordinating green mesh and tacked it up under the brim.  Then I sewed on the tulle which will match the blouse I wear with it.

I still feel light on accessories but this will have to do! 

One Steampunk Skirt Done

 Even with redoing ever flat fell seam at least once  and with absolutely no instructions the skirt is finished. 

In process: dealing with evil
pleats!!

There were many hair pulling moments but I am not dissatisfied with the end result.  The pleats were another issue.  I cannot get my head around how to make pleats.  I mean I know how to do it in theory and I did it for the brown skirt.  However, it takes me a hours to get them to work correctly.  The first time I tried the pleats, I did them completely backwards.  Thank goodness I had only basted them in!

Back of skirt and
yoke.

I added the yoke and added some hooks on some self fabric strings I made.  Adding the grommets to the back of the yoke was almost a fail.  The grommets I have just were not working but then I found some scrapbook grommets which did work.  Whew.

Close up of buttons and
the hooks

I found the buttons in the same store as the hooks.  I love the buttons!! My sewing machine did not love putting in the button holes!  In fact, the machine came to a halt when there were 5 buttonholes left.  Only after a significant rest was the machine able to trundle on. 

I would like to add a few more utility strings.  I have 2 more hooks and a bunch of D rings that I could add to the skirt. 

While I like the resulting skirt, I cannot recommend this pattern if you do not have a lot of sewing experience.  Not only do you need to figure out what order and how to put the outfit together, you need to determine what facings you will need and construct them.  Pattern instructions are a security blanket for me.  I feel safe knowing that if I run into problems, I can just refer to the instruction.  Here, I was flying without the net and as I put this skirt together I kept wondering if I was doing things correctly.  The seam ripper was used more in this project than any other project for a long while.  

It Seamed Like a Good Idea

I would like to thank Leah for suggesting I check out her blog for some steampunky inspiration.  Totally cool and very inspiring!

In my world, I had to make the skirt larger because of the 25 inch waist issue, I also made the pattern a little longer because it was hitting at my ankles which did not allow for a hem.  While I was cutting the pattern out, the fabric was unraveling like crazy.  At first I thought I would serge the seams but then I got the brilliant idea to make flat fell seams which would enclose the raveling bits. 

Yeah…great idea except for the 3/8ths seam allowance.  Have you ever tried flat fell seams with such a small seam allowance??  If you were successful, I want to know your secret.  If not, you can sympathize with me.  Ugh, I could not make it to work so I picked out all the seam and re-sewed them with a 4/8^ths seam allowance.  Now the flat fells seams were easier mind you, but not easy.  What a bother though I do love the look!

Steaming it up

So next on the agenda is a steampunk outfit for an outing with friends.  I really do not get steampunk for women; it seems to me it is just Victorian wear in brown or khaki.  After much research, I found that steampunk wear goes as far forward as WW 1 so I am throwing out the Victorian and will go for something Edwardian.

Looking around the internet, I found a free Edwardian walking skirt pattern and thought about using that pattern.  But then I remembered that a couple of years ago I bought this pattern; the pattern is dated 1905 on the information provided in with the pattern (but on the website it is dated as 1914…who knows what to go by)  so a good time period for this outfit.  I have no idea what I was thinking when I ordered this pattern, much to young for me.  But the skirt portion I can use!  And since I have it in hand, that is what I am going to do.

I have a very heavy army green brushed twill, rather a denim weight, which I will use for the skirt.

I plan to do the view with the buttons down the front and the corset type yoke.  I think I can make those details kind of steampunky!!  The only problem is that this pattern has a 25 inch waist and I do not.  I will need to grade up the pattern a little bit to make it work on me.