Halloween Costume Idea- Cave Girl

I always want to do something awesome for Halloween and it never really happens.  The internet tells me I can make a mummy costume, or become a lego version of myself with only my innate make-up ability and 10 minutes.  That way ends in disaster.

I also want to go for something scary, rather than all the silly popular culture inspired ones that proliferate the interwebs, but that limits the options further. I went for something in the middle, not a witch or vampire but also not a humanoid emoji or confectionery item.   I chose cave girl.

Cool Find- Stylish Geek

Stylish Geek makes clothes, some boring fashiony ones and some super cool cosplay ones!  Cosplay is where grown up people dress up in Sci-fi/fantasy themed costumes.  It’s v. big in Japan, that’s how you know it’s cool!

Here’s her Han Solo costume!

The Asylum- Steampunk Event

Boyfriend and I recently went to The Asylum, a steampunk event run by the Victorian Steampunk Society in Lincoln. Steampunk, if you don’t know,  is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century, according to Wiki anyway. The Asylum website describes the event thusly:

“Weekend at the Asylum is the largest purely steampunk event in Europe and attracts participants from around the world. For three glorious days each year the historic streets of Lincoln are thronged with splendidly dressed steampunks enjoying a festival which strives to combine art, literature, music, fashion, comedy and simple good fun. ”

For my costume I made a jacket, shirt, skirt, camera case, bag, headband, a bustle, and ray gun.  I wanted to make everything by hand and I did (apart from the ray gun which was a plastic toy gun that I painted).  In hindsight I shouldn’t have bothered with the gun and holster as it just got annoying to carry around.

The event itself was a little disappointing.  The schedule was released very late on by which time all the Saturday tickets had been snapped up.  We got Sunday ones but it seemed clear that most of the interesting stuff had happened on the previous day.  There was a disorganised feel to the proceedings which only served to exacerbate the feeling that this was aimed largely at an inner circle of Steampunkers who all knew each other.

There were some fun stuff though like the costumes people were wearing and the effort they had gone to.  Also there was a display by the Minimum Altitude Display Team who wore jet-packs and ‘flew’ around the castle grounds.  This was followed by ‘Wacky Races’ in which people raced their bikes and jet-packs (one small child was pushed in a little car).  We got a good view of the first race (although I had no idea who had won as they each seemed to race a different distance) but the second race took place around the corner so we missed it.  An example of how a fun event was spoiled by bad organising as people didn’t really know what was going on at the end of the races.

We felt that we were sitting around waiting for things to happen a lot so we left early as there was a big gap in the schedule at about 3pm.  We did get yummy ice cream first though!

 

Steampunk Camera Case

I’ve made an entire costume for my upcoming steampunk event (skirt, bustle, jacket, shirt, ray gun) and I know I want to take my lomography Diana F+ as well as my digital guy.  It seems fitting to use a film camera at an old-fashiony futuristic event… But the camera is very plastic and anachronistic so I wanted to make a case to put it in.

I needed to be able to access the various buttons to adjust the settings, and get the camera in and out.  A fabric case with a zip or fastening of some kind would have been great but I didn’t have much time so I knocked a quick one up from cardboard.

 

I made a prototype out of paper before moving on the cardboard, unfortunately my first attempt didn’t go very well because I suck as cutting out circles so I had to try again!  I simple made a front and back piece with a hole cut in the front for the lens and one in the back for the frame counter which protrudes. Once I’d made it up I painted it brown and used a gold ink pad to add a distressed effect.  I cut 4 thin pieces of elastic and sew them into loops, I painted them with the gold ink pad and this is what I am using to hold the case together.

Steampunk Shirt

Continuing my steampunk outfit for an upcoming steampunk themed event I move onto the last major piece; my shirt.

I just copied an existing shirt I have but made the sleeves much longer and wider.  I put elastic in the wrists of the sleeves and they poke out the ends of my jacket.  I made the shirt quite loose and sewed it together so I could avoid the dreaded button hole situation!  I did add darts in the back and front to give a little shape.

The result was quite a plain shirt, and also quite see-through so I added a fancy frill to the collar.  For this all I did was take some rectangles of fabric and sewed a loose row of stitches then pulled one of the threads to scrunch it all up.  I did four of those to create a neck piece.  And that’s it. 🙂

Steampunk Jacket

The latest part of my steampunk costume is the jacket.  It was going to be the blouse but that didn’t go so well so I moved on to the jacket which proved to be the easiest element (I’ve already done the skirt, bustle, and gun).

I traced around an existing jacket that I have and decided to just cut one piece to make it quicker.  I then sewed up the sides and on top of the shoulders and tried it on.  The jacket I had drawn around had darts in it that I had totally ignored so the fit was quite boxy, after adding the darts it would become quite a snug fit!  

I made the sleeves and hemmed them before sewing along the side edge which was a lot easier than the other way around.  I made the top of the sleeve bigger than it needed to be so I could ruche it when I came to sew it and make a pouffy shoulder.  It’s easy to do you just sew the edge of the fabric with a loose running stitch and then pull the thread until it’s the size you want.  I created a tail for my jacket at the back so it would blend better with my bustle which is in the same fabric.

How To Make A Steampunk RayGun

Steampunk Ray Gun

As part of my very slow-going project to create an entire steampunk outfit I present to you my ray gun!

I bought a cheap plastic water gun for £4 from ASDA, and painted it!  I used acrylic paint mixed with a little glue to help it stick and layered on some brown for the main body.  I had to do two layers to fully cover the green but I didn’t worry too much about getting it the exact same colour as I wanted a slightly worn look to the finish product.  I used a darker shade for some of the details on the gun, and an orange-brown for the top which houses the water.  That part was originally light yellow and I thought about leaving it be as the colour kind of went but it looked too plasticy so I decided to cover it all in paint!

To finish I used a gold paint stamp and pressed it on to the gun to make it sparkly and pretty,and also to age it.

Steampunk Ray Gun

 

Steampunk Style Bustle

Original Bustle Dress

Modern Bustle Interpretation

I previously posted about making a steampunk skirt for an event boyfriend and I are planning to go to.  Well this is the bustle I made to go with it.  For the uninitiated bustles were added to the back of skirts and dresses in the C19th to add fullness.

 

I was using large remnants of a patterned denim fabric so the pieces I had to start with were an odd shape.  I roughly estimated how wide I wanted the bustle (about half my waist measurement) and then shaped the piece of fabric I was using as the base accordingly. I added two pleats at the top so it would curve around my body and rounded off the bottom.  Then I hemmed the whole thing.

How I Made A Bustle

I got my other piece of fabric and spent about four hours trying to figure out how to fold it to create the bustle! I simply folded the fabric and used about 7 million pins to hold it in place before sewing.  The layers start wider and get narrower which wasn’t my original plan but the fabric piece was an uneven shape so that was my only option. I hemmed the edges before I folded it, then sewed the hem again as well as straight down the middle to keep it all together. Then I sewed it onto the base piece.  It’s not as full as I would like so I might add some more padding to it further down the line.  But here it is:

My finished steampunk bustle

Steampunk Costume- Ruched Skirt

I did a post before about a fabric haul I had made with the intention of making a steampunk costume.  Boyfriend and I are thinking of going to a steampunk event and I’ve been planning my costume.  If you do a google search you will find some really cool outfits but also a lot of ladies who seem to forgotten to put there clothes on (there does seem to be a big steampunk/burlesque/porn crossover on the web, but then most things crossover with porn on the web I guess…), these are some of the pictures I’ve been using for inspiration:

I started off with the skirt which I felt would be the easiest part of the costume.  I wanted a ruched skirt (ruched in the front and flat in the back to accommodate the bustle I plan to make) with a tulle/gauzy underskirt.  I didn’t have enough gauzy fabric for a full skirt so I just made a poufy bit and sewed it on the bottom of the skirt!

1, I had a rectangle of fabric large enough to go around my widest point.  I hemmed the bottom.

2, I created the waistband which is a tube for elastic to go.

3 +4, I fed the elastic through the waistband.

5, I loosely sewed along the bottom of my gauzy fabric (without back stitching).

6, I pulled one of the threads which ruched the fabric.

 

1, I ruched the skirt and planned out how I wanted it to look.

2, I pinned the wrong side of the skirt where I wanted the ruching.

3, I sewed it.

4, This is the right side of the skirt.  I actually added some more ruching to it though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the finished skirt- not totally convinced by the ruffly fake underskirt but I can edit the costume as I go.

I am going to add a long bustle on the back, and wear it with a blouse.  And then either a waistcoat or blazer (corsets are popular but hard to make and, I assume, uncomfortable to wear).

Masquerade Mask

This is something of a fancy dress outfit as I am going to a masquerade themed hen do.

I bought a plain mask from my local Hobbycraft and painted it black.  I then sponged on some gold ink  (from a stamp ink pad) around the under eye and bottom tips.  I bought some sticky gold and bronze bead things which I applied around the eyes.   I also glued some small black feathers to the left side.