I didn't fall on my ass once: not really a con report

Over the weekend I attended a steampunk event in Dallas called A Clockwork Wonderland. It was held at a club and featured various vendors, airship crews, bands, and performers. There was a good crowd with lots of costume eyecandy. Unfortunately, the club was small, crowded, and dark, so I didn't get any really decent pictures.

I was excited to wear my newest steampunk ensemble on Saturday. It's still a work-in-progress, but I have to say I'm pretty happy with it.

From Clockwork Wonderland 2011

I talked about making the underskirt in my previous blog entry. The bustle overskirt I also made and plan to write an entry about that process soon. The top is from Target, the corset is from Fair Lady Designs on Ebay. Though the plain black canvas corset may look boring next to my purple brocade bodice with tails, it's a far superior quality corset with steel boning and is therefore much more comfortable. I plain to make some mods to it in the future, as well as replacing the plastic boning in my Von Lancelot corset with steel boning.

The fingerless gloves I knit myself, the shawl is one I've had for a while. I wanted a more evening formal look for my hair, so I skipped the bowler hat and bought a hairpiece from Amphigory which turned out really nice. (I'm wearing the Lavinia style hairpiece in dark brown/auburn.) I need something else on my head or face or hair to make me more steampunk, though. I'm not a big fan of mini-hats, so I'm still waiting for inspiration to strike.

And finally, my last accessory is my new seat-cane. I have a very bad back, which is really inconvenient for these kinds of events. I started off dreaming of a steampunk wheelchair, but that's monetarily out of my reach for the time being. Then I developed a plan that would involve a folding stool with wheels and a pulley like a suitcase. My husband looked at me like I was insane and suggested I just buy a seat-cane. I totally didn't know they existed and was trying to reinvent the wheel. I surfed around, disappointed with how ugly all the available seat canes were, until I found this wooden model from CanesCanada. I received it as a holiday present. I recovered the seat with a floral pleather fabric that I had leftover, spray painted some of the metal hardware bronze, and added silver rub n'buff to the black rubber feet to hopefully rid it of some of the senior citizen chic it had going on. The best part is that it worked beautifully and I was able to sit any time I could find a spare foot or so of space. And even doing it in layers of Victorian skirts, I didn't fall on my ass once. I'm really looking forward to having this with me for cons. I might be able to attend events that require standing in line!

I'm aware this post fails rather spectacularly at being a good event report, but this blog is meant to focus on my own creations. More coherent entries to come, I (nearly) promise.

How I Turned a Bed Sheet into a Victorian Petticoat

I finished my latest steampunk project yesterday. I made myself a silver petticoat to wear to my next event. I can't claim that this was wholly an original idea. I used the pattern and instructions posted here at The Anticraft as the basis for my skirt.

I made a one of these skirts a couple of months ago in black. I used fabric I bought at Wal-Mart for $5 for a 5 yard bolt. When I finished with the pattern instructions, I found that the skirt only came to my mid-calf, so I had to add a 9 inch panel at the top to make it long enough. I have gotten a lot of use out of the finished object.

From sewing

But this time I wasn't using fabric that came off a bolt. And that changed the process significantly. One of the great things about steampunk is how the culture embraces creative re-purposing. Yes, you can go out and buy beautiful steampunk clothing and objects, but you're likely to get more praise for something you made yourself. There's a process of training yourself to see potential materials everywhere. So when I bought two sets of sheets at Target on Black Friday, I already knew that the flat sheets would become new wardrobe pieces. (We only use fitted sheets in my house. Which is just damned convenient for me.)

I knew that I needed to modify the pattern for length, as I did before. And this time I didn't want an added tier at the waist. Because I was using a sheet, and not a bolt, I had the option of simply making the large skirt panel longer. (You're prevented from doing this on a normal bolt of cloth due to the 45" or 54" width.) That would have been the simplest way to do it. But I wasn't happy with that. I had to make it more complicated. I decided I would do three tiers of ruffles instead of two. I knew (since it mentions this in the original instructions) that to add a third layer would mean it had to be double the fullness of the layer before it. That's a lot of added fabric. But, hey, I had a whole sheet!

The smart thing to do at this point would have been to decide what length measurement I needed and then figure out how many tiers of what height I could cut from my sheet. But since I avoid any kind of math, I didn't do this. I just decided to make 11" tall tiers and started cutting. To further complicate matters, the instructions don't give a measurement for how long their tiers are. They just have you use all the fabric you have. You cut three tiers: one for the top ruffle and two sewn together for the bottom ruffle. Since my fabric was tall but not as long, I had no idea how many strips I was going to have to put together for each tier. I'll worry about that later, I thought.

At the end I had a choice. I could cut one more 11" tier or two 9" tiers, and I went for two nines. It's a good thing I did, because I don't think I would have had enough for three tiers otherwise. But let me make this simple for those who come after me. Cut one piece of fabric 18" tall by the width of your sheet. Then cut the rest into strips 10" tall. That way all your tiers will be nice and even, unlike mine. For the actual cutting I spread the sheet on the floor and used my acrylic ruler, a yardstick, and a disappearing ink marker to draw my lines. But if you don't have a disappearing ink marker, you could use a sharpie. No one is going to see the very edges of your fabric anyway. I'm horrible at cutting straight lines, so mine still ended up a little wonky. That's ok, it mostly doesn't make a huge difference and you can always clean them up later. It would doubtless help if you don't have a cat attacking the sheet while you're trying to mark straight lines on it.

The next step was actually the most time consuming. The original instructions don't tell you to do this, and I didn't the first time, but I recommend you stitch around the edges of all your pieces with a zigzag or overlock stitch to prevent fraying. My material started fraying badly almost immediately and I want my skirt to last. There's an optional lining in the instructions to help protect the raw edges from wear, but I prefer doing this rather than buying more fabric and adding an extra layer. Chances are good I'll eventually wear this skirt when it's 90-100 degrees, after all. Because of the shear yardage of edges, this took me several days to do. (I also am limited in how much sewing I can do at a time by my back pain.)

Then it's time to figure out what pieces go where. Follow the instructions for the top of the skirt and sew that part together. I played with my tiers a bit to see how full I needed them to be to look right. What I ended up with is this:

First ruffle tier: one sheet width long (one strip)
Second ruffle tier: two sheet widths long (two strips)
Third ruffle tier: four sheet widths long (three strips)

For the actual construction, you pretty much follow the instructions as written. I didn't hem my bottom tier first because I wasn't sure how long it would end up being or how much I would need to take up. That's why my last two tiers are shorter than my first one. One was the 9" tier and the bottom had a couple of inches removed so the length would be right. NB: I am 5'11" and this skirt brushes the tops of my shoes. You will have to adjust for your own height, either with the number of tiers or by shortening the length of the top skirt section.

The gathering of the ruffles is easy. You run a line of your machine's longest stitch across the top of each tier and pull one of the threads to pucker the material. A couple of tips: especially for the longest tiers, do this stitching in two or three separate lengths of thread. It's difficult and time consuming to push ruffles of several yards of material on one thread. Shorter lengths are easier to ruffle, and less catastrophic if you accidentally snap a thread. Also, don't just ruffle the hell out of the tier and then try to attach it to the fabric piece above it. You will have to unruffle it to make it fit correctly. Instead pin the tiers to each other at a couple of places and ruffle it until they are the same length. Otherwise you'll end up like me, having to pin and unpin your layers over and over in order to get everything right.

Sew the layers together, and you have a skirt! But wait. Does your skirt still kinda look like it was made out of rumpled bed sheets? Cause mine did. But I have a secret. Starch! Thanks to steampunk, I have discovered the wonderful world of starch and I'm afraid I might be getting a little addicted to it. I had no idea there was something that totally changed the feel, shine, and wrinkle resistance of fabric like this. Presumably generations older than mine knew about starch, but I feel cheated that no one ever told me about its wonders. But seriously, a real 19th century petticoat would get most of it's floofing power from being starched withing an inch of its life. And not only did the spray starch I used on mine make it drape better and got rid of the wrinkles, it took the ordinary cotton and made it look like a much more expensive material.

From sewing

I'm really excited to put this skirt together with the bustle over-skirt I made in November. I'm putting together a whole black and silver outfit for a party on Jan 22nd, so there will be pictures then.

If anyone ends up making one of their own, let me know. I'd love to see pictures.

Welcome to Steam Ingenious

Welcome to the first post of my new steampunk blog. Other versions of me have other blogs that I should be updating instead of creating a new one, but my steampunk addiction needs an outlet. This blog, I may actually be motivated to post in.  But no promises.

I feel obligated to take a moment to introduce both the blog and myself before diving into content. If you know what steampunk is, and you know all about me, feel free to skip ahead.

What is steampunk?
You may be a relative of mine, or someone I went to middle school with, surfing your way here from facebook and you may be wondering, "What the hell is steampunk anyway?" I imagine one could easily write thousands of words on the topic and not run out of new things to say. But I'll try to be brief and practical. The simplest and most inclusive definition of steampunk that I've see is that "Steampunk is Victorian Science Fiction." That can mean either Science Fiction as the Victorians imagined it, ala Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, or Science Fiction that in some way incorporates Victorian attitudes, style, or technology.

"Steam" obviously refers to the cutting age technology of the Victorian period: steam power. "Punk" has nothing to do with music, but attitude. Good steampunk, like good punk rock, is DIY, non-conformist, and anti-corporate. The best thing about steampunk is that no two steampunks are going to have the same vision of a steampunk outfit, aesthetic, or world, though there are common design elements. Gears, cogs, brass, copper, goggles, elaborate weaponry, the color brown. All these things are the typical elements of steampunk, though one could be perfectly steampunk without incorporating any of them.

Steampunk as a subculture has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years. There are steampunk bands, steampunk clothing lines, a growing number of steampunk events in every part of the world, and innumerable websites and online communities.

Who am I?
My name is Violet von Micklesburg. Actually, no, it's not. That's the name of my steampunk character. My real name is Kim. I'll answer to either. Violet's story will be told at another time. Mine? I've always been obsessed with the Victorian period. I became a fan of Sherlock Holmes at the age of 11 and have remained a Sherlockian all my life. I've also studied Victorian literature and most of the fiction I read is set in the 19th century.

I've been aware of steampunk for years, but only realized in 2009 that people actually dressed up in steampunk costumes and went places. A little over a year ago I started surfing around the internet, looking at gorgeous Victorian dresses that I couldn't afford and wishing I could. Before I could spend any money on a Victorian outfit, I told myself, I needed an excuse to wear it. Steampunk was that excuse. I somehow got my husband to agree to dress up steampunk with me, and we chose A-Kon, the huge annual anime convention in Dallas, as our first outing. That gave us from January to June of 2010 to put together our costumes. I don't think we did that bad for our time and budget constraints (although there's been better pictures):

From A-kon 2010

Somehow I imagined these outfits would be simple pieces of clothing that we would purchase the bits of once, wear once or twice a year, and that would be all. How naive I was then! Steampunk isn't a fashion statement. It's a disease. And we infected ourselves. We had no sooner returned from A-Kon than we started improving and revamping our outfits. Three weeks later, we were at San Japan, San Antonio's Anime con. And we haven't really stopped since. We wore our outfits to the Texas Renaissance Festival, and Dickens on the Strand in Galveston. In two weeks we're attending a steampunk evening in Dallas, and are planning on hitting at least five cons this year.

I've taught myself to sew and plan to make a full Victorian bustle dress. (I've already made the bustle.) I'm knitting lace gloves, shawls, parasols, aviator hats, and anything I can find. My husband spent a large part of today working on painting a toy shotgun for his costume. It's a full-time addiction and we wouldn't really have it any other way.

As for this blog, I intend to share both my completed and ongoing projects and more general thoughts about steampunk. Even after only a year doing this I think I've learned a lot about what not to do that might be useful to someone else.