Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Working on the good copy of the corset
It was akin to doing a logic puzzle. Brenda & I had made the necessary adjustments to the corset pattern and spent a good deal of time trying to fit all of the pieces onto the piece of coutil that we'd dyed. Once we got it cut out, it was time to start sewing things together.
We put an order in to Farthingale's for some spiral steel bones and a busk. You can see the busk in the image below:
Labels: corset, costume, design, steampunk
Posted by Dre at 10:23 AM
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Thursday, May 12, 2011
Dyeing the Coutil
Coutil is a heavy & very tightly woven cotton that is used for making corsets. It's fairly expensive, so Brenda suggested that she had a piece that we could use. Unfortunately it was white, and that would not suit the Steampunk costume at all. We picked up some black fabris dye and wound up with a lovely warm brownish gray...
Labels: corset, costume, design, dye, steampunk
Posted by Dre at 10:14 AM
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Thursday, May 05, 2011
The fit of the corset
Well our mockup has been very handy. By making it and trying it on, we have realized that we need to really re-work some of the pattern. We're going to make the waist area smaller, and we'll need to increase the room and height in the bust cups.
Labels: corset, costume, design, steampunk
Posted by Dre at 10:07 PM
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Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Goggles for the Steampunk Costume
I'm trying to make my own goggles. Attempt #1 is to use some crafting aluminum to build the frame. Not sure how well it'll work but so far I've found that mason jar lids are too large, and I haven't been able to find any appropriate plumbing fittings.
Labels: costume, design, goggles, steampunk
Posted by Dre at 10:02 AM
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Thursday, April 28, 2011
Back to the Steampunk Costume
Last year, Brenda & I came up with a plan for an original Steampunk costume. We got started on the project, and then we both got very busy with other things, and the project was shelved for a while. We have taken it back on and our hopes are to comeplete it for Halloween this year.
We took a basic 19th Century corset design and reworked it so that it would fit properly. We created our own pattern out of a thick brown paper (like the kind used for wrapping parcels) and then pulled out some inexpensive cottom so that we could make a mockup. We'd need this so that we can test the fit. Corsets have to be pretty spot-on if you want a good fit...
It's a real treat using the industrial sewing machine. It takes a little bit of getting used to and you have to be very careful when using it because it's rpetty powerful...
We sound up sewing channels for the boning with twill tape. Our plan for the actual corset was to cut the fabric a little wider and use the fabric itself to create the boning channels.
Labels: corset, costume, design, steampunk
Posted by Dre at 9:25 AM
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Monday, March 15, 2010
Steampunk Costume Fabric
Brenda and I made a trip to Fabricville yesterday where we found some lovely fabrics for our costume. From top to bottom, the fabrics are as follows...
• The top silver with black striped organza (0.5m of Iowa 53760) is for the airship that will be on top of the top hat.
• The purple fabric (1m of Stapleton 64740) will be for the corset and will be underneath a black lace.
• The purple and black fabric (5m of Stapleton 64740) is for the skirt.
• The pewtery-striped fabric (1m of Liverpool 65040) will be for covering the hoops for the hoop skirt.
• The grey-green fabric (1m of Velveteen 44525) is for the gauntlets and knee-high spats (and possibly a band on the top hat).
• We found some great 18 mm buttons (Elan 15 2055 Y) which we will use on the spats and gauntlets.
Labels: costume, design, sewing, steampunk
Posted by Dre at 12:57 PM
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Primo Compass
So one of the things that I wanted to try was using polymer clay to make a design that could be made into a mold that we could use so that we have our own buttons for the costume. Except that I'm more of a 2-d artist, so sculpting things is a bit of a challenge. Here's my first try at a 20mm diameter button concept. It's a start, I suppose. I won't bother doing this though if I can't get something I'm actually happy with.
Labels: costume, design, polymer
Posted by Dre at 10:31 PM
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Steampunk Costume Concepts
Brenda McLeese and I have been talking about work-shopping a costume together for a couple of years, and now that we finally have a bit of spare time, we've gotten started. We agreed on a Steampunk costume (think Jules Verne alternate reality with airships and Victorian stylings and perhaps a touch of Goth). We wanted to create and build something that would be inspiring and that would give us an opportunity to practice some good quality craftsmanship. Not to mention, it is a great excuse to hang out!
We both did some research and pulled together many concepts and bits of inspiration, and then we narrowed it down to an outfit that will have a knee-length hoop skirt, 19th century under-bust corset, shirt, bolero, knee-high spats and matching gauntlets, a refurbished parasol and a fancy miniature top hat.
Here are some concept sketches as we were working things out...
Labels: costume, design, steampunk
Posted by Dre at 9:47 PM
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