Day 1 (13 days until the Steam Century Mystery)

Well, I've finally begun work on my second Late Victorian outfit. I've been an American Civil War Reenactor for over 20 years and branched out 14 years ago to SCA and about 10 years ago to World War II.





I've always been interested in all things Victorian. As a grade-school student my mom and I read authors such as Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Sir A.C. Doyle and others. The Steampunk Universe seems like a perfect place for my childhood imagination to come out and play. And my creative side gets a chance to design and make clothing I most likely would not get to show off at a historical event. Originally I started making Steampunk Style jewelry (some pieces are available in my eBay store and soon Etsy.com) and then realized I needed to be a bit more covered to attend Steampunk Style Events!

What is Steampunk you ask?
Steampunk is bringing together the elements of a Steam Powered world (the Late Victorian & Edwardian period of history) and mixing in Fantasy and Science Fiction. There is also an important element of Steampunk that seeks to take the modern and reinvent it in the Steam genre. Computers, I-phones and other modern conveniences take on new guises in the Steampunk world.

There are two distinct sources of Science-Fiction for the Steampunk genre. Please note that both lists are not all-inclusive and there is a wealth of books, shorts stories and more that are on the Internet and in bookstores.

First there is the SF that was written and published by those who lived during the LV&E era such as H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stephenson and Jules Verne. Second, there are the modern authors such as Michael Moorcock (Nomad in the Time Streams series), James Playlock (Homunculus), graphic artists such as Alan Moore (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Phil and Kaja Foglio (Girl Genius), and anime/manga artists such as Hayao Miyazaki (Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle) and Koichi Chigira (Last Exile).
As for fashions, the Steampunk world pulls from many sources, some reaching back to the Age of Pirates, others firmly grounded in the time of King Edward II and all points in between. My needle casts in the Late-Victorian period for my clothing.
My first attempt (the blue dress to the right) was done a few years ago and is a nice bustle dress, but a bit early for use with Steampunk. My Second attempt will be pulled from the pages of Ladies Magazines from 1889, and will have a small bustle. I don't have a proper bustle so I will be making that undergarment first.. This is a confidence builder for me as I have lots of outfits to get ready for vending @ Cyphan at the end of June.

I started today (at around 4:00 PM) with some printed cotton satineen that will serve as the fabric for both my bustle and corset. I researched through my own library (over 200 printed sources and nearly 80 gigabytes of digital references) until I found enough pictures to make a rough pattern for a bustle. Including a break for dinner I was finished by about 8 PM. Overall, I think my first attempt isn't too bad. I didn't have any spare steel hoop boning so I substituted 3/8 inch half round reed. I will have to put in a bit of lacing to shape the bustle more but I wanted to give the reed and the fabric a couple of days to get used to each other. Tomorrow, between visits to the Doctor and the Dentist, I will be cutting and shaping my corset pattern. Ick.