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.