For NaNoWriMo I am planning on doing my first Steampunk inspired writing. Being in graduate school means a lot of wading through endless streams of academic writing, so I wanted to something fun and freeing this year.
That being said, I realized that while I have a closet full of obsessively accurate historical costumes, I have no Steampunk. Figuring I’d go from the top down, I began researching the various types of goggles, since I wanted to portray an airship captain in cosplay.
There were tons of examples online, some plain, and others incredibly ornate with all sorts of lenses going every which way. I hemmed and hawed a lot on having one-two extendible lenses and ended up deciding against it. If you have seen my wardrobe you know I do not like to wear things that are fussy or busy—you will never see a single print in anything I wear, and most are streamlined and simple. While I wanted to branch out and go a little off the beaten path with the costume, I also didn’t want to make something so outside my sense of style that I wouldn’t wear it.
As you can see in the top photo, I started out with:
— Painted welders goggles (thanks to Etsy)
— Old green purse
— Thread + creativity
First, I sewed a little bit of elastic to the goggles, since I wanted to be able to easily put it on and off my head, hats, other people’s heads, etc. Not technically accurate but this costume was about for once not being accurate.
Next I cut up the purse into two long strips and sewed three of their sides with the “right” side back to back. It took about two days of fiddling, but I managed to carefully push the fabric through the one narrow open side before sewing that seam. After sewing the two green suede strips to the bits of elastic on the goggles I had a base.
I then went on a hunt for any random cool objects I could find that would work. I picked some up in cast offs from a garage, a few odd buttons I’d saved that looked Victorian, some bits and bobs from antique shops, and a trip to Orchard Supply Hardware where I think they thought I had gone completely mad with the random assortment of objects. One, an “elbow” I believe it was called, had somehow lost its label. The cashier and I had no idea what it was and we had to call in a manager who definitely thought I was daft for buying something when I didn’t know what it was. The good thing about that trip is I saw tons of fodder for a potential Steampunk gun in the future if I ever finish the costume part.
I laid it all out and went for a sort of wave pattern overlapping clockwork-like bits and added in snaps to bring together the other two ends behind my head. Why you say—because someday I might like to adjust them for someone else who has a different head size, and wanted to leave that available. I could have simply sewn them together.
The key is to sew on securely—I learned that with years of sewing trim for dance performances. If you didn’t put it on for the next century, it would go flying off during the dance, becoming a trip hazard. I put this knowledge to use in costumes I decorate to this day, which has served me well. You don’t have to worry about glue coming off, or shoddy stitching coming out—if I put the trim on I know it is not coming off.
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