Steaming Ahead

Holy crap, Steampunk World's Fair is in fifteen days!

Planning is well underway and I'm being far more reasonable with my costume plans this year...but I'm still in a bit of a panic.

I am attempting to use a lot of things I already own with very little modification, so hopes are high that I won't be sewing into the wee hours the night before the event.

We'll see.

I'm planning four outfits, though given our history, we almost always end up adding an outfit once the schedule comes out (usually 1-2 weeks before the event).  That would make five outfits over three days.

Right.

So, the current game plan:

1. Green Victorian dress for at least part of one day.  I've added the pleated trim that I didn't get to complete before Christmas, but it still needs more trim.  I think that this dress is going to be something that I wear a lot and just keep adding to, partially because I'm never satisfied and partially because of my intense commitment to procrastination.  I'd also like to finish the hat I started, but we'll see if that actually gets done (because fifteen days, OMG).

Pleating...

I hate pleating.

2. ANUBIS archaeologist.  This one is brand new and I think it's super cute, plus I managed to do it almost entirely from things I already own!  I'm in the process of making a hip pocket/pouch thing for this, but everything else is from the stash.  I found a white "old lady" skirt at the Goodwill, paired it with a white linen shirt (also from Goodwill) and a vest I made years ago, add in some belts and I think works.  I also have a fun hat for this one!

Basic, but still kinda cute, I think.

3. Steamy sari, also new! I've been wanting to do a Indian/steampunk fusion outfit for a while and just haven't liked what I've seen other people do or what I've come up with, but I think I may finally have it.  The plan is to use some lace fabric draped like a sari and paired with a Victorian bodice.  I'm hoping for cute results once I finish the bodice.  (fingers crossed!)

Something like this, but not exactly

4.  My outfit from Midnight Orchid.  I purchased this at SPWF 2015, wore it to SPWF and the Ren Faire last year, may have worn it to Steampunk Unlimited and just wear it around town because it's cute.  It's a cute, easy Sunday outfit.  I'll most likely pair this with my red cotton underbust, shirt to be decided.

Lord only knows what else we may add to this or how we'll fit it in.  We've been kicking around the idea of doing some circus themed outfits, so if there's even the slightest reason for that to happen this year I'm pretty sure we'll double down on it and make it happen this year.

The Best Laid Plans

The Plan

We became members of the new Museum of the American Revolution in Philly a few months ago and intended to go out for their opening weekend, April 22.  However, we ended up having a scheduling conflict that weekend and every weekend until at least the middle of May.  We found out that they were having a special members-only preview weekend April 15th and 16th and decided to make it out on Saturday.  I should have known then that this project would be more difficult than imagined.

The Partner in Crime just started a new job where she's working ten hour days whereas I've had a lot of free time, so I offered to work on her outfit for her and I wanted to make an overdress to wear with my red petticoat.  This all seemed like a good idea at the time.

I didn't expect any of this to be terribly difficult or time consuming...after all, I only needed to make a few pieces!

For her:

The Petticoat: Petticoats are easy!  And since she's similarly sized to me, almost an exact copy of mine, I'll just needed to hem it for her.  No big deal.  (Famous last words...)

The Jacket:  She decided to add a little peplum and the swallow tail back to the Simplicity Outlander jacket pattern. The jacket fit her well overall, but we needed to make the sleeves a bit bigger and do a mockup with the modifications to make sure they actually worked. But that's easy!  (You see where this is going, right?)

The Stomacher: She also decided she wanted to make a stomacher, which I didn't make for mine since I modified mine to have a front closure.  The Simplicity pattern comes with a stomacher and we planned to used that pattern.  No modifications!  Easy!

For me:

A new overdress.   Yep, "just" that.

For both of us:

Some undergarments; bum pads and pockets, and hats.

The Reality

These costumes almost weren't. 

She happened to have Friday off and no part of either of our outfits was actually completed at the start of the day.  Then things needed to be purchased, trips to the craft store needed to be made, we were plagued with weird and annoying issues, including that a large portion of Philly is shut down for the NFL draft, and we still had no idea how we were actually going to get into the city (at one point a horse drawn carriage was considered.  Not kidding).  Although we got a lot of work done, by the end of the day it was obvious that we weren't going to make it out Saturday.  We decided to work at it again on Saturday and ultimately did make it to the museum on Sunday, but on the way home, after a third very long day, we both admitted that we almost packed it in and called the whole thing off.  I'm glad we didn't.

Her Outfit

This whole thing was done in about 2 days,

The petticoat is just a basic petticoat.  I French seamed the side seams and pleated the top to the waistband.  I did learn when I made mine that the front ties need to be long enough to wrap around the back and then back to the front or I can't keep them tight enough.  When she bought the fabric we both swore it was blue.  It's labeled as navy and definitely looked navy in the store, but it's purple everywhere else.  It was almost as easy as I thought it would be.

For the jacket we started with the Simplicity 8161 pattern, but added a swallow tail back and a little peplum at the front, loosely based off the garments in the Janet Arnold book and Costumes Close Up.  We also needed to make the sleeve just a bit bigger.  It's still not fitting exactly right, but it's an easy fix.

She made fabric covered buttons and we used the "button trick" to set the buttons.  These buttons are the cutest things and now I'm mad that I didn't do covered buttons for mine.

The stomacher is straight from the Simplicity pattern, no modifications.

My Dress


Before starting on her stuff, I had mostly completed my dress.  I'm using that Waverly Felicite "curtain along" fabric in cream.  I had bought the very last 3 yards of this stuff when I caught it on sale last year.  I stalked the remnants section and managed to find two pieces, each about a yard.  I had just enough to get all the jacket bits on the remnants and make the skirt out of the 3 yard piece.  I only realized after it was all together that the colors are very slightly off between the top and bottom.  they must have been from different dye lots.

That pattern matching is entirely by luck

I used Simplicity 8161 for the bodice, modifying it to close at the front with buttons.  I also added a long skirt intending to fluff it up retroussée (this is all actually held up with safety pins, one of which may have poked me in the bum.  Yep.)  I need to make a small adjustment and pleat the skirt back just a bit at the front since I've got it meeting at the middle.

It was more than a little windy.
My hat attempted to make an escape several times.

All that was left at the weekend was to buy buttons and add the button holes.  My machine does them and I am not a glutton for punishment, so I intended to use the machine.  However, I am forgetful.  I have used the buttonhole function on my machine once.  At Christmas.  For my green dress.  I could not figure out how to get it to work then and I totally forgot how I made it work when I tried again this time.

It took an hour of Googling and fiddling with the machine to remember how to do it.  Ten minutes later my button holes were done.  YAY!


Undergarments

Then we moved on to the undergarments.  I used Costume Close Up to draft out a pocket, which was really no big deal.  Hers is made from her jacket fabric and mine is made from some toile I bought years ago and never used.  Since mine is lighter weight I lined it in some faux linen that's also been languishing in my stash for years.  I mounted them on some ribbon and we were good.

For the bum pads, I used the Simplicity 8162 undergarments pattern.  I just bought another copy of the pattern, but of course I couldn't find it when I was looking for it.  I had to dig through a basket for the older copy.

I like big bumpads and I cannot lie!

Thankfully, I found it and we could move on.  It went together easily, but I accidentally bought quilt batting rather than fiberfill.  Whoops!  And I cut mine on the selvedge rather than the fold....We made it work. Hers is made of a plain muslin and mine is more of the toile.

I actually really like my undergarments.  The shape on the petticoat is (obviously) totally different (better) than when I wore it without the bum pad (Bastille Day) and I think the fabric is super cute.

Plus, those pockets are the best freaking things in the world!  They're huge, so I could fit my car keys, wallet, cell phone and sunglasses with room to spare.  The weight is totally supported by the stays and I didn't have to worry about pick pockets!  I think I might make another to carry a water bottle... Pockets for everyone!

Seriously, that pocket is huge.

The Finishing Touches

Ages ago I'd found an adorable hat at the Goodwill.  I assume that it's an Easter bonnet from the 1960s, but it looked like a bergere to me, so I bought it.  It got buried under a pile of other hats which conveniently toppled over while I was looking for something else in the sewing mess room.  It was probably true white at some point, but age has toned it down to a creamier color.  I thought it was still too light for the dress, but mentally tucked it away, just in case.

At about 10 PM on Saturday I realized I still hadn't completed my hat.  I attempted to add some trim to it, but I was totally burnt out from the two day sewing marathon and I just couldn't wrap my brain around it.  I decided to just go with the vintage hat.

Sunday morning, just before I left, I realized that I had no way to attach the thing to my head.  I found some white ribbon in the stash and safety pinned it inside the brim to tie it around the back under my hair.  It held up surprisingly well!

The adorable tilt in the brim
may or may not have been caused
when it flew off my head
and got stuck in a doorway.

I also knew I needed some kind of fichu, but I didn't really have any suitable fabric in my stash.  I have a bad habit of taking home wayward scarves from the Goodwill, but I couldn't find anything (at 2 AM on Saturday) in the color I wanted that didn't look too modern.  When I woke up I remembered that I had some more scarves in the sewing room and I found this cream lace one.  It worked!

Shoes are from American Duchess.  I'm wearing the oxblood Kensingtons with the Fleur buckle and she's wearing the white Georgiana's with the Valois buckle.  They're so comfortable!  We walked around the city and museum for hours and they held up really well.  This is the first time I've worn them for longer than an hour and I did have one blister, but I think my sock is really to blame for this one.

I'm not 100% happy with these outfits, but overall I really like both of them and people were very nice about them.  I felt way less crazy walking around Philly in this than I thought I would, though we were definitely a spectacle.

Playing Dress Up at M*AR

Taken just outside the 2nd floor bathroom.
The stalls are large enough to get in and out of easily in that dress.
I am eternally grateful.  

The partner in crime and I headed out to the brand new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia this weekend. The museum doesn't officially open until April 19th, but they had a special members-only preview on Saturday and Sunday.

The museum is absolutely beautiful and very well laid out.  I majored in anthropology with a minor in art history, intending to go on to a master's in museum studies.  My life didn't play out that way, but it's always something that I've wanted to do and I really appreciate what they've done here.  There's a good mix of interactive displays and I didn't find it to be "dumbed down", which can really kill the appeal of an exhibit for me.

We started out watching a short movie on the first floor and I smelled something really nice, earthy but also kind of spicy.  Initially I assumed it was someone's perfume but I kept smelling it throughout the museum.  It is the museum.  The museum is so new that it smells good.  Like wood. Mmm

We went upstairs and started through the exhibits, attempting not to take out any unsuspecting children with our large rumps.  We were mostly successful.  We did have to explain a few times that we didn't work at the museum, but we expected that.  The actual museum staff are very helpful and friendly!

Ma Easter Bonnet!

We didn't take many pictures inside the museum (dark, crowded, no flash photography) but we took some selfies in a hallway while waiting for the Washington's Tent exhibit.  We're getting better about getting real photos, but old habits die hard!  (Plus, my hat's really cute.)

Unfortunately we didn't allow enough time to get through the whole museum before they closed, so we'll have to go back soon!

We did take some decent photos!

I'll write up another little post with some "behind the scenes" stuff (aka everything that went wrong), but I have no construction photos because I was literally working away for two days without stopping.