Steampunk Costume Attempt

Petticoat front

Petticoat back is fuller, for bustle

There’s a sci-fi/fantasy con in Moorhead in April and one of my friends is having a Steampunk themed hospitality room. So I’ve decided to sew myself an appropriate costume. I’ve ordered a corset and jacket from an online store. I won’t have time to sew everything by April 15. Hope they get here on time. Since I’m into historical costuming I decided to go with a Victorian outfit but since it’s fantasy anything goes, right? Anyway, yesterday I began the costume by making a petticoat out of white muslin with ribbon trim. I didn’t have a pattern (it’s a petticoat. 4 gores, a ruffle hem and a casing for an elastic waistband. How hard can it be?) so I measured my hips, divided that number by 4, measured myself waist-to-ankle, and laid out the fabric to cut 4 gores.

Then I sewed the gore sides together, made a casing for two rows of narrow elastic, sewed the black ribbon over the edge of the eyelet ruffle (can you believe how much that stuff costs?!!) and and sewed a couple red ribbon roses over the black ribbon.

I also picked up a black hat and I will be putting ribbon and a silk rose on the crown, and maybe some netting?

I wasn’t planning on spending a lot of money on this outfit, but between the jacket, corset, hat, fabric for the petticoat,  blouse andskirt, I think I’ll be sinking around $200.00 into this project. I will have to go to every con I can find to get my money’s worth out of this outfit!

I’ll be posting as I go with pictures of the items I make.