The Steam Wench's Salon

Tangential Rant: the Reprehensible Actions of Trestle Press

2012-02-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well, my good people, settle yourselves down with a cuppa and make yourselves comfortable.

I am pissed, and I need to rant. Today's rant is not steampunk-specific ... it involves the spheres of authors, publishers, artists, and theft. It involves professional responsibility, honesty, and integrity. And the lack thereof on the part of one small e-publishing house, which has harmed several authors and artists, including one author whom I value as a friend and as a favoured author.

Previously, in this blog, I gave an early review to an up-and-coming piece of periodic fiction, The Sauder Diaries, which was being released episodically at that time, on Scribd. In December, I was delighted to interview the author, Michel Vaillancourt, on the eve of the completed work's e-release on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook, via a small publisher, Trestle Press.

O, Trestle Press.

The Logo under this barred circle belongs to Trestle Press, not me, and I will remove this image if asked.

Yesterday, Mr. Michel Vaillancourt had to ask Trestle Press to remove his book from sale, upon discovering that they had not obtained permission to use the artwork they selected for his book. His discussion of this can be found on his blog, here. As a result, I have also had to remove the contentious artwork from my interview.

In point of fact, all hell has broken out online, regarding Trestle's wholesale thieving of artwork for many of their titles, creating a virtual Trestlegate over the past 4 days, seemingly starting here.

If you google the phrase "Trestle Press art theft" you will be amazed at the number of links you will find. Authors are leaving and complaining in droves, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, either because they have found their artwork belongs to an artist who didn't give their permission (and in most cases I've seen online, they weren't even asked), or in solidarity with other authors, and not wanting to be tainted by the (at most generous) negligent actions of the publishing house (at worst, it's theft - clear, obvious, theft).

I'm writing this because this is hurting both authors (who now have to find other publishers, not a simple chore) and the artists. It's hard enough to get a publisher these days, one should be able to trust them to perform their due diligence.

I wouldn't have thought it was rocket science. I'm not a publisher, and even I know that it is NOT OKAY to freely snag someone else's artwork and use it to sell your own product. If you are a publisher, you have a professional responsibility to your authors and to the artists whose work you use. A publisher's job is to edit the author's work effectively, arrange cover art (if the author hasn't made their own arrangements), and in either case, ensure appropriate permissions are obtained. If you can't reach the artist and gain their permission, it's not yours to use. That's pretty simple.

I am also writing this because I want to tell people - don't deal with Trestle Press. Don't publish your works through them - they have proven they can't be trusted. If you do publish through them currently - check your artwork - it may be stolen; also, consider doing what other authors have done, and leave them in a show of solidarity with the artists and authors who have been harmed by Trestle's Personally, I won't ever buy a book from them ever.

Finally, I am also writing this because I am personally pissed. Michel Vaillancourt is also a friend, and I do not take it kindly when someone hurts my friends.

Creating a Display Board - Part 2 of Creating a Steampunk Group Promo Table

2012-01-24T10:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Part Two of creating a promotional table for the local steampunk group, for Imaginarius Fantasticus, a local fantasy-oriented Christmas fair.

Once the brochure stand was 'punked out (previous post), it was time to move onto making a visual display. A local merchant who was giving me moral support and ideas, suggested I use one of those old-school trifold science-fair cardboard displays. This sounded like a great idea! I could cover it with fabric, and attach photos and stuff to it, fabulous! I think I maybe did a science fair display once, in elementary school, but I don't think I ever used one of these displays. (It would have been taller than I was!) Of course, it turned out to be a slightly more complicated affair than I had planned.

I bought the board, brought it home, measured it, then headed out to look for a) fabric to cover the board, and b) modge-podge to attach the fabric. I decided to get a pretty fabric for the front, and, realizing it would be potentially visible from behind (since it is a trifold) a plain fabric for the back to hide the messy glued-down back. So my goals were pretty and cheap (since I was paying for all this entirely out of my own pocket)!

Well, I got the pretty (curse you quilting cotton). And at least the backing fabric was cheap, as I grabbed it from the bargain table. With measurements in hand, I carefully ordered enough fabric to cover the board, with a few inches to spare for safety.

Well, my measurements were technically correct. The fabric would cover the board. Sideways. This is where I learned that you have to rethink things if it's a patterned fabric with a distinct up and down (did I mention I'm new to a lot of this?). When I laid it out the correct direction, it looked like this ...

Whoops. More than long enough, but not wide enough. Quick last minute measurements demonstrated that I would have to cut the pieces for each section of the trifold, and I did NOT have enough to cover the whole front, without tons of patching. I could cover the centre portion entirely, and part of the sides. So I decided to go with equal partial coverage for both sides, and patch in a different fabric at the top, for "subheadings". Sometimes you just have to work with your stupid mistakes.

After much modge-podging on the edges and folding edges over, and trying to make the edges at the inner folds as straight and smooth as possible, it looked like this.

I realized my board was now rather fragile, as the fabric edges and glue in the folds meant that, at this early stage, it already was incapable of folding shut completely. I foresee a storage nightmare looming in my future.

I added the cheap backing fabric, cutting it in one piece just slightly larger than the cardboard, and modgepodging it first at the side edges, then, after folding and standing up the board, figured out where to attach it along the top of the side panels and at the sides of the middle panel, leaving the surplus fabric on either side of the folds, so it could stand freely bent, without problems (see ... covered. And no, I did NOT iron the fabric before I applied it).

Now to deal with those gaping holes on the front. Fortunately, my friend who was working on the table cloth (which will be posted in a separate post) had leftover pieces of the lovely dark brown taffeta she bought to make a boxpleat. She gave me those, and I modge-podged away. It was looking pretty good so far.

Next step was to add some trim to define the panels. I selected a brown narrow grosgrain to separate the panels (set to the inner sides of the folds, so it wouldn't get warped on the bend), and a sequined trim (another remnant from the tablecloth construction), to enhance the border between the brown taffeta-like top pieces and the patterned blue and brown. Modgepodge worked fine to attach the grosgrain. Unfortunately, not so much for the sequined trim - it wouldn't remotely stick. It just made a mess, and the glue damaged the taffeta, giving me this dark hard mess:

I panicked, and freaked. This was hideous. I made myself a cup of tea, let the glue dry fully, decided the sequin trim would mostly cover the dark blotch, and decided it was time to resort to the hot-glue gun. Which I had been avoiding because, well, I always seem to end up with strands of hot-glue everywhere. And finger burns. Good news, the hot-glue gun worked a treat, and the sequin trim pretty much hid the dark mess.

Next, I covered the header piece, that stabilized the stand, with more of the brown taffeta.

This was looking good. Kind of a valance thing going on there. Nice. And then I thought ... hey ... tassel fringe!

And voila, that was the perfect design touch for the board. Now for the actual display!

I made a heading of our group name, using Word, a copperplate font, my colour printer, legal-size paper, scissors, and the joys of laminating.

I decided to create three different display sections: "What IS Steampunk?", to give a visual answer to that inevitable question, "Local Event Photos" to show what we do, and "Yes Virginia, You CAN Steampunk Christmas", to fit the theme of the craft fair we were going to be at. Images for the display were printed on my colour printer, and I laminated some for durability (tho gave up doing that because of eventual cost). My original plan had been to glue the images to the board, but I decided they should be removeable, to make the display more useful in the longterm, so I attached all images and headings to the board with small gold-tone safety pins. Which is not as easy as it sounds, and I had sore fingers by the time I was done!

Steampunking Christmas involved me googling "Steampunk Christmas and sorting through the images I found til I got this:

For event photos, I pulled some shots from local steampunk events, including events we've hosted, events before this group started, and photos from Steamcon.

For a visual definition of steampunk, I hunted online for images that conveyed steampunk to me, searching for a variety of images of costumes, technology, gadgets, etcetera.

I also added a few small objects for extra dimension, including a vintage glass button, and a pendant I made myself out of bits and pieces.

To reinforce the Vancouver theme, I also added an art piece that was a collaboration between myself and another steampunk local, David (the Gastown clock and gear image below) and a photoshop delight I asked my friend, S. Sebastian Smith, to create for me (the vintage aerial shot of Vancouver, with airships!).

So, when you added it all together, this was the final visual display I made.

And here it is set up on our table, from two different angles.

And the great thing is, now we have a display for Vancouverites for Steampunk, which we can use over and over again. I just have to figure out how to store the darn thing, since it doesn't fold up with the fabric on it, and it's huge when laid flat. Perhaps I should sweep under my bed and store it under there in a massive garbage bag.

On Strike in Protest of SOPA

2012-01-18T00:05:00.000-08:00

I'm not web-savvy enough to figure out how to black out my blog to support the anti-SOPA strike (and blogger didn't provide a handy tool to make it easy, as apparently wordpress did). So, in lieu of an actual site closure, I have posted this poster instead.

Thank you,

The Steam Wench

Steampunking a Brochure Display: Part 1 of Creating a Steampunk Group Promo Table

2011-12-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, one day, I suddenly realized I was running a local steampunk group. I had also just been invited to have a promotional table for steampunk at a local fantasy-oriented Christmas Craft Fair, the Imaginarius Fantasticus. It took me about a week to realize, whoops, I need to do more than just show up in costume with a smile, and talk to people. They were going to give me a table, and I was going to be there for two 7-hour days. I needed a display. I needed promotional literature. I needed something to PUT the promotional literature in. Yikes.

I decided to create a brochure, (which took forever to write, and I will discuss that in a later post). Then I had to think about a display for the brochure.

Fortunately for me, I had picked up a small cabinet at a Salvation Army store over the summer. It was a small Bombay Company piece, with some dings, and was a bit busted.

I remembered it, and pulled it out. I decided not to worry about the dings. Now it just needed some tricking out to steampunk it.

Firstly, I tackled the front. I simply unscrewed the small brass knobs, centred small gears over the holes, and rescrewed the knobs back on, which nicely held the gears in place.

When closed, it looked like this:

Next, since the cabinet would mostly be open while on display, was to trick out the inside.

I decided to use vintage photographs, which I bought in an antique shop in Quebec City, to decorate the inside of the two doors. So that I wouldn't damage the images by permanently affixing them, I used old pocketwatch faces as fasteners. I made small pencil marks on the inside of the door noting the watchface placement, where I wanted the photo to be, and where the glue would have to go to provide a "pocket" for the photo. I then used E6000 adhesive, spread on both the pocketwatch faces and the door, to affix them. I held each one firmly in place, let them dry, and then carefully tucked the vintage photos into the non-glued portion. On one side, I decided to add a key decoration, from a scrapbooking set.

The final step was to fill the cabinet and set it up at the event. Pamphlets (and candy canes for children - and adults - who asked nicely) went in the back section, postcards for our sponsors, Plush (a local shop which sells crafts and allow us to use their back workroom for our craft meets) went into the next section down (with a hidden piece of styrofoam tucked on the bottom so they were placed well), and then I placed our business cards, my cards for the Steam Wench's Salon, and themed Christmas freebies of gift tags with Victorian & Edwardian images. Here is an image of it all set up, with some decorative holly, at the Faire.

And, voila, a lovely cabinet to display steampunk brochures and business cards, and whatever other handouts and literature suit our next event.

Author Interview - Michel Vaillancourt of The Sauder Diaries

2011-12-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

I cast my mind back to almost a year ago, when I reviewed a piece of addictive serial steampunk fiction, entitled The Sauder Diaries, that was being written and delivered episodically on Scribd, by Michel Vaillancourt.

Now, just 11 months later, I am delighted to announce that The Sauder Diaries: By Any Other Name, by Michel Vaillancourt, has not only been accepted for publication by Trestle Press, but is being released in ebook format on Monday, December 19th (paper book to follow early in 2012). Needless to say, well, I'm excited, as this was an engaging piece of airship pirate steampunk fiction.

In preparation for the release of his debut novel on Monday, I decided to interview Michel Vaillancourt. (Proper full novel review to follow, once I've had the pleasure of the reading the whole thing all of a piece.) Please find below our interview, held late at night, from West Coast to East, Friday December 16.

Hi Michel, thanks for agreeing to this interview regarding your about-to-released Sauder Diaries.

It's my pleasure. I'm really enjoying this whole new world of being interviewed as an author.

Let's get right to it.

Sure thing!

First of all, to start, how would you summarize the Sauder Diaries (sans spoilers)?

It's a Steampunk-themed pirate adventure romance. The core story is about a young man who breaks out of the shell of his own making and realizes there is a bigger world around him.

The main character, Hans Sauder, is on his way to university on an airship when he gets shanghaied by infamous pirates. He eventually winds up traveling with the pirates all over Europe and beyond as part of the crew.

His life gets complicated when the woman in charge of the gunner-marines decides she's attracted to him. Things get even more complicated when the ship he is on undertakes a dangerous mission into the territory of the Russian Empire.

What made you pick this moment in history (well, in alternate history) for your novel?

Really, I was reverse engineering a justification for airship piracy. How does airship piracy work? You can't have it without the economics to support it. There is no point in stealing something unless you can sell it or trade it. So who are they selling it to? What made air travel more practical than land travel such as trains?

I needed a point in time that represented a major war in Europe that pre-dated the "core" of the Victorian Era. For airship piracy to work, Europe had to be in a condition that meant that railroads and canals were unusable. So, the Russian War, aka the Crimean War, was the event in history I was looking for. From there, I started working forward in time to choose my year and date.

And why pirates?

The full explanation is on my blog, Split Horizons. The short version is that I was listening to Abney Park's "Airship Pirates", and one line made me think, what sort of lunatic swings on a leather thong at 15000 feet in the air?" And I wanted to answer the question, "who are the sort of people that live in a world where airship pirates are possible?"

Originally, the Sauder Diaries was released as episodic fiction, on Scribd, as each portion was written. In an ideal world, where any form of published work is available (and will of course provide a living), which is your preference ... releasing a solid novel, or the Victorian style of serial fiction, released chapter by chapter, as Dickens etc did?

Absolutely serial fiction. In fact, if the fans would go for it, I'd love to release the second book that way. Every week, release another chapter on a subscription arrangement or something.

However, I know authors who have tried this route and in this world, no one wants to buy at a buck a chapter.

The Sauder Diaries contains some very strong, very independent female characters. Was this a deliberate choice on your part, and why?

Absolutely. One of the most iconic moments in the adventures of the Victorian Era is Henry Morton Stanley’s popular quotation, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”. In the real world, that question could not have been delivered by a woman of the era. But what about a world where it could? What an interesting place that would be!

One of the things that the Victorian Era served as was a kind of watershed for the Suffrage Movement. To me, to be true to "Steampunk" as I see it, you pretty much need a female lead or supporting character to be ahead of the curve; already be out there, doing the sort of things that the women of the time rallying in the streets could only dream about.

I also have a pet peeve about what I call the "Dry Ice Heroine" ... "Strong and frosty, strong and frosty, whoops here comes the hero / hunk, she melts." I refuse to write that character, unless she's clearly a plot device.

And your female characters don't do that?

Absolutely not. They may have moments of vulnerability, they might get scared or worried, but when the chips are down, they're as dependable as the men they work and live alongside.

What makes them different?

They're all women living in a men's world, and they've earned their equality, and they'll be damned if they'll be treated any different. They work as hard, they fight as hard, they risk as hard.

What was the process, or motivation, that embarked you on your voyage to write the Diaries?

It's a complex answer. Mostly, it was a goal-driven process for me; I had never done this sort of a project before. I had done short stories and serial fan-fic, but never a novel. So, it was a matter of setting a goal -- write a chapter and publish it -- and then do it. Rinse and repeat. Then I had a novel. So, set the next set of goals: Get a Facebook community page. Get a publisher. Get the book out there. Get people talking about it. Start working on the next book. One goal at time, achieve it, celebrate it, and aim for the next thing.

Has writing a novel been in your head for a while? Or was this a new idea that just overtook you?

It is actually something I had wanted to do since my late teens or early 20's. I just had not found the right combination of life circumstances and story to have it happen.

Is there a character in The Sauder Diaries you have had more trouble writing than others? If so, what was the challenge or difficulty?

The two female lead characters, Arrieta and Annika. I'm not a woman, and so I can't claim to really understand what they think and what they hold important. So, I did research; I'm a lucky fella that knows a lot of attractive professional women that are also good friends. They were willing to answer questions about how they thought and what they felt. So, in a certain way, Arrieta is one group of women I know, and Annika is another.

Alternately, was there a character who came to you particularly easily? If so, in what way?

Michael O'Raedy, known as Captain Blackheart. He was the easiest to write, as I've known a lot of captains, and people in the real world who work in leadership and command. I've gotten to talk with them and learn about what they do, what they handle, and what they don't show.

Is there anything in The Sauder Diaries that surprised even you, when writing it?

Two things. The first was the good Doctor Koblinski. He was supposed to be essentially a one scene character who was irrelevant to the long-term plot. The fans, however, were enamored with him and insisted he had to stick around. I had tremendous feedback at the release of Chapter One that everyone loved his wit and clear common-sense. So, the Doctor is around to stay.

They second thing that surprised me was how often I cried writing my first book. I found that when I was writing the Sauder Diaries, I intentionally went places with my writing I'd never gone before, in terms of inspiring big emotion in the reader. There are parts that I can't read aloud without choking up. Both Book 1 and the in-progress Book 2.

Is there any little tidbit, which I'm not covering with the questions I've asked so far, that you'd like to share with us about the novel, or your process? This is your opportunity to answer a question you want to answer, that you haven't been asked yet.

Don't tell me this isn't Steampunk. It might not be your Steampunk, but that's okay. This is my take on Steampunk. It is what I see the fans and advocates at Cons, concerts and meets talking about as cool. This is a book for Steampunks, written by a new member of the Steampunk movement.

As well, I'd like to stay that to me, the word Steampunk is composed of two words: "Steam" and "Punk".

"Steam" is the temporal reference marker; the Age of Steam which firmly brackets the Victorian Era. There is so much factual and pop-cultural imagery in that period that it is astonishing. On land, at sea, and in the air, History was happening and the world was changing like never before.

"Punk" is the conceptualization of social ideologies that are mostly concerned with individual freedom and anti-establishment views. It's about freedom, it's about walking counter-class or caste, it's about doing things that would scandalize the "main stream culture" of the day.

So, that's part of what this story is about. Underneath the pirates, airships and clockworks is a story with themes that take at least passing looks at the social norms of the day. The treatment of servants, class-based poverty, the perception of women as objects or property, and Calvanist morals... there is a lot to run at angles to here.

On a slightly off-book bent ... Steampunk: what draws you to it? And do you think it has to have a nailed down definition ?

Something I heard Phil Foglio say at Steamcon was that "Steampunk fiction is about when technology can save humanity. It isn't the problem, it is the solution."

I agree with that. Steampunk fiction is, to me at least, inherently hopeful. It is about people doing incredibly cool things at a point in time when when no one knew what the boundaries were and they seemed to be on the brink of revolutionizing the world. Everything was within the realm of possibility; everything was within reach. The right man (or woman) with the right perseverance and the right science at the right place could change the world for the better. That's pretty empowering.

In "The Sauder Diaries", being a pirate is as much about freedom as anything else. It is an inherently hopeful act; taking ownership of their own futures by their own actions and associations. Maybe it isn't very nice, but I'll leave that for the moralists. The pirates in this world are inherently the rebels and underdogs. They are living outside the physical, social and moral walls of the setting.

So you're more on the Jules Verne "optimist" camp of Victorian science fiction, then H.G. Wells "pessimist" camp (note for readers, the opposites are excellently described here.

That's one way of looking at it, yes.

To me the best way to define Steampunk is by inclusion. I prefer to be inclusive; it's all Steampunk, unless we all agree that it isn't.

Oh man, that's probably going to produce comment. Yay! I love it when the conversation gets exciting.

Thank you very much, Michel, for taking the time out late tonight for this interview, and congratulations on your debut novel! I very much look forward to having it in my hot little hands, and even more to reading future work from you.

Dec 20/12 UPDATE: If you're keen to get your hands on this book (and I do highly recommend it!) the ebook is now available for purchase online at Amazon's Kindle store here.

Feb 2/12 UPDATE: Due to reprehensible actions on behalf of the small publisher, Trestle Press (stealing artwork from multiple sources and artists without permission, and presenting them to the authors as legitimate), Michel Vaillancourt, along with numerous other authors, has had to remove his book from sale at present. You can see his blog entry on this situation here.

So Bieber did a Steampunk Video. Get Over It.

2011-12-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

Okay. I've been seeing a lot of crap going around about Justin Bieber's Steampunk Christmas Video, and peripherally, because Macy's in New York decided to do a steampunk Christmas display.

Shot from Justin Bieber's "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" video

Part of the Macy's Christmas window in New York

Get over it, people. Bieber can do whatever he wants. He hasn't murdered steampunk. In the Gawker site's snide blurb, Justin Bieber Ruins Entire Nerd Subculture With New Christmas Video, they conclude: "Sorry, steampunks: time to get a new quirky aesthetic pastime before it blows up among 14-year-old Beliebers." Um. No. Well, actually, if Bieber's involvement is enough to chase you away ... fine. Go. Please. If you're afraid some teeny-boppers may get involved ... then I guess your steampunk time is done. Leave now. If you just participate in steampunk because you want to feel like you're part of some private little clique, and you think you'll wither and burn because "your" subculture is given some mainstream limelight, then please, go find some other reclusive little subculture to hide in, where you can feel all special and unique until it hits the mainstream.

However, if you're really into steampunk, well, you'll still be into Steampunk despite Bieber. Or Macy's. You're into steampunk because at least some portion of it appeals to you (and it doesn't matter what part). Steampunk entering the mainstream shouldn't scare you off. New people getting involved in steampunk, even just temporarily, as a fad, is not the death knell, people. If it's just as a fad, they'll leave. If they take to it, well, we've got more people! How is either option bad?

Personally, I don't care that Bieber was either intrigued enough, or savvy enough, to do a steampunk video. He's in business to succeed. (And the boy's pretty darn popular, so maybe now I won't have to try explain steampunk to so many people, since he just threw it into the limelight.) And you don't have to like the lad, or what he does. But he hasn't killed steampunk. I'm not a Bieber fan, by any stretch of the imagination, but his video is entertaining, except for the very distracting sporadic cartoon clips that don't fit at all. The dancing is excellent, the costumes are good, and I love the windup dancer. The set is pretty nifty - and how can you not steampunk Santa's workshop? And kudos to Ian Finch-Field of SkinzNHydez for having his armpiece used on the video, because of his quality work. (And I daren't get into what I think of the jealous whiners who kvetched on about the artist "selling out", as it will cause my language to decline radically!) So the music is a pop version of a Christmas tune ... why is that bad, but hardcore industrial music is "approved of" by some unknown entity, for steampunk? So far, no one has managed to reasonably define steampunk MUSIC.

I don't know why so many steampunks are freaking out about this, and seeing the apocalypse in Bieber doing steampunk and the potential movement into mainstream. Though I do suspect it's the same small noisy population you find in all walks of life, that snobbish percentage that has to feel they're unique, because they're part of a unique community who all does the same thing ... really? Think about that for a minute.

I see way too much snobbery in steampunk these days, and it's ticking me off. I've heard steampunks disapprove of how people dress (see previous post), I've even seen steampunks ignore folks because they don't fit their image of steampunk people (NO, you don't have to be young or pretty or slim or some obscure definition of "cool" to be steampunk).

If you're unique, you're unique. I'm not unique because of who I hang out with, or how I dress, or because like making things, or because I'm into steampunk. I just am. The steampunk is just a symptom of how it's all coming out. If other people are getting twigged into the stuff I'm into ... AWESOME! More people to play with. How is this bad?

So come on people. Really. Get over Bieber being steampunk. Get over Macy's Christmas display being steampunk (man I wish I could see that in person instead of just seeing pictures here!) Or, just get out. And leave steampunk to those of us who really enjoy it.

Thank you.

On Unexpectedly Becoming a Steampunk Group

2011-12-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

Settle in, good folks, have a cup of tea and a sweet. This will be lengthier than usual.

In the general scheme of things, I am relatively new to steampunk - discovered it several years ago, but was only able to become actively involved just over two years ago, due to a variety of conspiring circumstances. I started costuming in March of 2009, and attended my my first local event (a craft meet!) in late April 2009. I was an immediate keener and have become increasingly avid about it. Imagine, then, my dismay, when local events trickled to a complete halt. Another group started up, holding sporadic events, but they seemed largely private, and included a High Tea or two (a lovely steampunk idea, but not for me, alas, as I dislike tea and I'm celiac - can't eat anything with wheat - so there's not a lot of reason for me to pay for a high tea). I attended one or two events, however, when I could, but even those events trickled off. However, I had the impression there were still folks wanting more. And personally, I was frantic to have another craft meet-up, like my first ever event.

And I was brought up under the concept that, if someone else isn't doing something you want, you do it yourself.

So, despite my hesitation to get that actively involved (I've been involved in various fandom groups over the years, and learned the lessons of small politicking etcetera that has made me gun-shy every since), I realized, I had only two options. Hold the kind of event I wanted, or do without.

So, I organized my first event ever. With the help of a local shop who offered us their workroom (thank you Plush!), I organized a Steampunk Craft Meet in July this year ... approximately 14 months after the one that was my introduction to the steampunk events. I posted it online, on the two local Facebook groups (one of which hadn't been active in several months, but still had members) in the hopes folks would attend.

I was hooked, and it seemed a success (those who came had a blast), so I scheduled another one to occur about 2 months later, and used photos of the stuff made at the meet as my event image.

Due to a local community split and polarity, I also decided to create a Facebook group, with the mind that it would be a bridge between the personal divides in the small community, and function as an old-school bulletin board, on which upcoming events that would appeal to anyone interested in steampunk could be posted (like Vancouver's Mini Maker Fair). Hence Vancouverites for Steampunk was born on Facebook, an open group seeking to create a courteous and non-partisan atmosphere, in which people could communicate, discuss things, and promote, create, and encourage local steampunk activities.

I asked people on the funct and defunct local sites (I know, "funct" isn't a word - but it should be), including mine, what they wanted to see, and I got a lot of responses. Having a book club was a big one, and some discussion happened online. A couple of months passed, and nothing happened. I saw the writing on the wall, and realized, if I didn't just pick a date and organize it, it wasn't going to happen. So I did, contacting the main person whose idea it was, and choosing the book via an online poll, and picking a coffee house with a private room as location. And voila, the Vancouver Steam Librarium & Consortium was created.

And so I find myself running a craft meet that occurs every 2 months (we've now had 3, and the next one coming up in January), and a book club that seems to go about every 6 to 8 weeks (3rd Consortium in January). There is still periodic murmuring online about having regular casual get-togethers. Murmurs that I've heard for months, with no one just saying, "Hey, how about next Wednesday at such-and-such." So I figure, why not. Just pick a date, book the room in that handy central coffee house. So I do. And the Coffee Klatches are happening now once per month, with our third one set for January.

And then it occurs to me, around the end of October ... hold on ... I seem to be running a steampunk group. In fact, I seem to be running the only one holding local activities. And I seem to be the one organizing the activities.

Isn't this what I wasn't wanting to do? I just wanted to see stuff happening. Not to run it all. Um. Oops.

And then comes an opportunity and invitation for the local steampunks to have a table at a local fantasy-oriented craft fair. So I figure, why not. It occurred to me, about a week after I made that decision, that this was going to involve far more than just showing up in costume with a smile. I need ... promotional literature, like a pamphlet. And a table display. And a table cloth. And people with me. Yeep! Fortunately, with the excellent assistance of a couple of very good friends in the steampunk community, and with suggestions from a steampunker with experience doing craft fairs (and hence on displaying things), we made it happen. I lost about a month of my life, as I created and wrote a pamphlet and had various good folks review it for me, made a display from one of those school-science-project boards, and turned a thrift find into a literature display. An excellent local steampunk and costumer made an awesome fitted table cloth and lent me a skirt for a costumed dress model. Two friends did two awesome bits of Photoshop work at my request, for the group. (More on the logistics and creation of the display in a separate post). Two excellent individuals also dedicated their weekend to join me in working the table.

And so, the conclusion of this lengthy post ... is that having vowed otherwise, and originally planning only to provide a bulletin board, and the craft meets I wished to participate in, I seem to have proven that one can accidentally find oneself running a group and organizing the local events! I am having fun being a local steampunk ambassador, talking to all and sundry who shows the smallest bit of interest, and I'm enjoying seeing new people show up to the various events, and come back! The active pool of people is still very small, but it is growing, and I confess to hoping that after our weekend at the fair, we will continue to grow. I am less happy that this has all personally cost me money (the table was free, but printing colour pamphlets was not, nor was making the display), and that this has absorbed so much of my time (both resources would normally have been all mine, and gone toward my own personal costuming and entertainments). However, I do hope to recoup some costs, over time, if not the time (unless someone manages time travel). And I have hopes that I can encourage others to host events, and run some things.

So beware ... in the course of pursuing your own fun and entertainment, you may find yourself, without warning, doing exactly what you had previously decided not to do.

Current Costuming Controversy: Commercial Mainstream Costumes

2011-10-31T16:50:00.000-07:00

It never fails to fascinate, the various little controversies that ebb and surge in Steampunk (not the least being the very definition, but we will leave that tricksy little topic for another time).

The most recent controversy to cross my vision was regarding costuming, and it so riled me that it inspired me to write this. So take warning, a rant follow! The starting issue was a query on a Facebook Steampunk group, as to how steampunk folks would react, at, say, a steampunk convention, if they were to encounter someone wearing one of the popular-this-Halloween cheap "Steampunk" Halloween outfits.

For those who haven't seen these commercial costumes around, by the way, I will paste a few samples here:

These are from a range of Halloween online sites, such as Halloweenmart, BuyCostumes, PartyCity, Anytime Costumes, etc, and I've seen some bits in stores here and there.

My standpoint is, I would not have a problem encountering someone at a convention or event, wearing a Halloween steampunk costume. Most likey, I would assume they are new to steampunk, or relatively new, and perhaps didn't have a lot of costuming experience.

Now, while many people seemed to feel similar, there were more disparaging comments than I expected, along the lines of "buying steampunk from a store is an abomination" and accusations about "lazy steampunks" (a phrase that truly made my eyes roll).

You know, I've seen an awful lot of people at conventions and other events, clearly wearing stuff they bought. So, there are already "lazy steampunks" out there, solving their costuming and accessorizing quandaries by throwing money at it - so this is an unenlightening standpoint. Though it is of benefit to those who can take advantage by making and selling their craft. In addition, if you want to look at this from a historical point of view, buying off the rack is very Victorian ... the invention of the sewing machine in the mid-1800's made the Victorian era the first time people had the option to buy ready-made garments at department stores (versus having a garment made specially for you or making it yourself).

Pointing out that there are already "lazy steampunks" out there buying things prompted a defense along the lines that it's okay when one is buying from "reputable" craftsmen. I'm sure some of these are "reputable" craftsmen. I've seen them in dealers' rooms and online myself. Their stuff is awesome. But this is a vague phrase, and some of the online "reputable" stuff seems to be simply carefully sourced items, bought in bulk (and just as easily made in China as the cheap Halloween outfits), well-combined and sold "ensembles". (And no, I don't have a problem with that either.)

However, I suspect that what really dictates whether folks buy the commercial Halloween stuff shown above, or the "reputable" goods from steampunk online companies and individual craftspeople, is money. The commercial stuff in question, here, ranges around the $50 to $80 range for entire outfits. And when I've priced outfits at the "reputable" steampunk concerns (quotes only because that's the word used to me), the range was from $350 to $600 and it only goes up from there, especially if you start adding accessories and gizmos, and corsets, shoes and boots.

Now, I can tell you, that while I've drooled over many exquisite items I've seen in the big steampunk companies online, and at Etsy, and in vendors rooms (oh gods the drooling I've done!), I can't afford most of it. Or really, hardly any of it. I took over a full day at my first steampunk convention to talk myself into a handmade hat that was over $100. And that hat is now a favourite, well worth every penny spent on it, as it's a high quality, exquisite piece of work. But I did not buy it lightly, and it took the most of my spending budget for that convention.

I am certainly not going to blame someone else for going the $50 commercial route, if it's available. Not everyone can sew, or knows how to go thrifting to source all the pieces (just know the pieces you need to start is somewhat of a skill), nor does everyone have the abilities to modify thrifted and found items. And certainly, not everyone can afford costumes in the $400 and up range. Especially when you're starting out.

I am just happy when people make an effort at a convention or event, to dress up. We all have to start somewhere. I think it's absolutely fine for people to buy an inexpensive Halloween costume for a few cons or events, until they a) decide that they're willing to commit to to steampunk, and then either b) find people willing to help them thrift / make / sew outfits, or c) commit to spending big money. Depending on where you live geographically, sourcing steampunk stuff or finding folks to help one out, becomes much harder. What if someone lives in the country, nowhere near a steampunk group, and has to travel just to get to events? Suddenly all one's money is going to just getting to events and staying there and eating, and there's not much left for shopping for costumes. And finding people to help sew, hire for sewing, or to help demonstrate how to thrift, isn't always easy, even in the bigger centres.

As far as I'm concerned, elitism will get everyone nowhere, and it only serves to destroy what steampunk is to me.

If someone is happy showing up in a cheap costume, because that's what they can manage, and afford, that's just fine. If someone else doesn't like it, then they should kindly and politely offer help looking for thrifted items, and tips on modifying, rather than offer criticism and ostracize. And if a body isn't willing to help someone with reasonable and affordable alteratives, or to help them make things, then maybe, just maybe, that person should keep their mouth politely shut.

My steampunk is not about ostracism and being exclusionary. We should be welcoming, and polite, and helpful, and open. I would personally far rather see someone show up at any steampunk event wearing a cheap Halloween steampunk costume, than find out someone didn't show up at all because they didn't feel comfortable. Making any attempt to dress up is better than no attempt at all. Nor, for that matter, should we scoff at someone who shows up without a costume to an event, because they don't know what to do.

My steampunk is friendly, and open, and non-exclusive. I want to help people. I may not have the money or time to make stuff for other people (I'm appalled at how long it takes me to complete something for myself!), but I can tell you, I'm willing to provide what help I can, especially when it comes to thrifting, a pet hobby of mine.

So there's my rant on this subject.

On a side note, what does bug me about the commercial steampunk Halloween costumes I've mostly seen (in addition than their shoddy workmanship), is that women aren't offered the same level of "class" (if I can call it that) that the men's mass-produced outfits convey ... men get more dignity, women get the slutty outfits, by and large. Unfortunately, that appears to be de rigeur among all mainstream Halloween costumes, and in fact, much of mass-produced clothing. (And I don't have a problem with women deciding to go the slutty route - though I prefer my slutty costumes to have a touch of class - I just think women should have more options available, besides slutty.

Fangirl Squeeing: Scott Westerfeld in Vancouver

2011-10-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

So, with the inaugural convocation of the first Vancouver Steam Librarium & Consortium scheduled to discuss Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, imagine my delight upon discovering that Scott Westerfeld was scheduled to speak in Vancouver on October 11, a bare week after the book club meeting, as part of his tour for the third book in his trilogy, Goliath.

"Meet Scott Westerfeld" was hosted by Kidsbooks, with a ticket price of $5, redeemable against the purchase of one of his books, and there was a signing opportunity after the author spoke. The crowd was mixed, mostly older kids, young adults, and parents, with a few avid young steampunk all dressed up!

I was most delighted to realize that Scott Westerfeld is an excellent speaker. (Not all authors are good at getting up and talking to their fans.) He discussed the Leviathan series at length, and also made references to his previous (non-Steampunk) series, the Uglies.

Along with sharing the information that the Leviathan books were inspired by the "boy's own adventures" that were popular in previous decades, and were written to provide an opportunity for girls to have their own adventures, the author also gave an interesting perspective into the place of artwork in fiction.

Previous to and throughout the Victorian era, adult books often included art, including the works of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. This was a common feature which fell out of favour and was delegated to children's books, as photography came to prominence and replaced artwork in newspapers, magazines, and catalogues. Book artists lost their bread and butter of commercial artwork, and as a result, faded.

Shown above are two illustrations (by Hugh Thomson and C.E. Brock) for Victorian editions of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, as well as one by George Cattermole for Charles Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop. Below is the frontispiece for the original printing of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

By deciding to include illustrations by Keith Thompson in the Leviathan series, Scott Westerfeld brings art back to our literature. He completely dismisses the modern notion that illustrations belong solely to the sphere of books for young children. And thank heavens for that. Anyone who has seen these books has surely admired Keith Thompsons amazing illustrations. If you want to peek at more of his art, his gallery is here.

Westerfeld discussed the unique relationship between himself and his illustrator, pointing out instances where they have pictured things differently, and times where Keith Thompson has inspired him to write scenes. In order to ensure continuity when doing scenes on board Leviathan, Thompson apparently has drawn layout diagrams of the ship, which introduced Westerfeld himself to areas of the ship he hadn't even imagined (and then had to set scenes in, just because they were there).

Westerfeld announced at the event that there will be a fourth, supplementary book in addition to the Leviathan trilogy, which will utilize the layout diagrams and other behind-the-scenes artwork by Keith Thompson, to give fans a further view into the workings of the fabricated beasties and clankers of Westerfeld's and Thompson's alternative world. I keenly anticipate the publication of this 4th supplementary art book, and will be keeping an avid eye out for further information and preordering! How can one resist an entire book of artwork like this:

Keith Thompson's caricature map of the powers of Westerfeld's alternate 1914 world.

A piece of Clanker propaganda, drawn by Keith Thompson.

In summary, the evening with Scott Westerfeld was highly enjoyable and well worth attending. My only regret was that I had lent my copy of Leviathan to a friend's son, so did NOT have it with me to get signed. Though I did buy a copy of Behemoth, which I got signed. I will await Goliath in trade format, which is easier to read on public transit!

Vancouver Steam Consortium & Librarium: Steampunk Book Club Discusses Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

2011-10-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone!

Apologies for the distinct lack of activity over the last couple of months - life has prevented me from having the time, and more critically, the spare brain power to allow me to write here (or tinker as much as I'd like either!). Alas, I lack minions upon whom I can toss all the menial and uninteresting tasks that periodically occupy more of my time. (If anyone has spare minions, do let me know).

However, one of the things keeping me occupied has been my attempts at prompting more local steampunk events. I started up a craft meet on a bimonthly basis, and so far have had one in July, one in September, and one is upcoming in early November.

I also created and instituted the Vancouver Steam Librarium & Consortium, since a few like-minded keen readers expressed an interest in us having a local steampunk book club.

I am organizing this through my Facebook group, Vancouverites for Steampunk, and our first meeting was in early October. The book voted for the first discussion was Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld.

I faced various challenges starting this up: firstly, I have never attended a book club, let alone run one (though I do have a BA English Major), and secondly, there are not a lot of book club questions out there for steampunk literature (that I could find). All I found for Leviathan were a few questions on E.M. Rowan's blog.

So I had to make up my own. And, it occurred to me, as our consortium meets and discusses various books, perhaps I should post the questions here, for the benefit of others starting up Steampunk / Dieselpunk book clubs in their area. So, good folks, I am including here:

Discussion Questions for Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan:

1. Steampunk as literary genre: Is Leviathan steampunk? Or not? Does it matter? What makes it fit or fail the steampunk genre.

2. Did the plot pull you into the book, or did it leave you cold? Are you anticipating reading the sequels?

3. Were the characters (Aleksandar, Deryn) sufficiently developed? Were they engaging? Realistic?

4. Were the illustrations an enhancement to Leviathan? What are your thoughts on the art?

5. Was there anything unique or different about the setting that caught your attention?

6. Any thoughts on the world created in Leviathan? The Darwinist fabricated beasts versus the Clankers and Monkey-Luddites?

7. What do you think of the time-period of Leviathan's setting, and of it being based around the reality of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria, and his wife, Sophie? Would you have preferred an entirely fabricated world?

8. Upon reading the cryptic ending of the book, what sort of beast can you conceive of, “no bigger than a top hat”, which could possibly keep an empire out of the War?

9. What are your thoughts on reading Young Adult fiction as part of a book club?

10. Finally, on a scale of 1 to 5, rate Leviathan (1 is I hated it, 5 is I loved it, 3 is meh)

Let me know what you think of the questions. Alas, for the first meeting of our Steam Librarium, of the four others who attended, only one other person had read the book. Though, to be fair, when the others said they couldn't come as they hadn't read the book, I encouraged them to come anyway, so we could discuss the club in general, select the next book, etcetera. And everyone had a good time.

I will keep everyone posted on how this experiment in running a steampunk bookclub goes. Our next book, as voted at the Consortium, is Soulless, by Gail Carriger, discussed in mid-November.

Does anyone have any feedback? Questions? Suggestions? Has anyone started up a steampunk bookclub in your area or attended one?

Note: The book and glasses image which I am using for the Vancouver Steam Librarium & Consortium is borrowed from an archive post from victorianamagazine.com at http://www.victorianamagazine.com/archives/6598 , until I manage to create an image of my own.

The Innocent's Progress: A Foray into Steampunk Erotica

2011-09-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings good folks. Before we venture any further, I must point out that the subject matter of today's salon is a review of adult-oriented, hence, reader discretion is advised, and you may wish to move along to another post. I shall give you a moment while I review my notes.

And now we can commence. Feel free to have a cup of tea, or a sniff of something stronger, if you wish. My automated valet can bring you something.

My voyage through steampunk literature has recently brought me to The Innocent's Progress, by Peter Tupper, published in electronic format. This is a collection of 6 short stories set in an alternate world of the author's devising. This is no common set of erotic tales with minimal plot and excesses of sexual content, nor is it overdone steampunk riddled with gears and parasols; this is intellectual fiction, subtly written and focusing more on the people and the stories. Several characters are interwoven through the tales, slowly drawing back the curtains around this Victorian-flavoured world.

The best part of this work, for me, is the slow reveal of this unique world, story by story. Readers are first introduced to the Commedia, a form of theatre in which archetypes are performed on the stage, and privately performed offstage, for the pleasure of the audience. One quickly realizes that dichomoties are rife in this world, as in Victorian England. Performance and sexuality are blended and blurred in the Half-world of the actors, yet it is clearly unacceptable for them to stray, in any way, from the limited range of traditional archetypes. Sexuality is quite acceptible within the Commedia, yet the Decency Board strives to remove the threat of pornography from society, to protect women and the lower classes. There are allusions to historical figures and works throughout the tales, which enhances the reading experience. Peter Tupper even thoughtfully includes an Afterword, in which he gives background information and historical references for each tale.

My favourite story is "Delicate Work", where the reader is taken deep into the Honeycomb, an "Institution for the Reclamation of Wayward Women". The Honeycomb is the Victorian workhouse writ very large and very dark. In true Victorian fashion, this is where wayward women (those who do not live within the rigid and narrow boundaries defined by society) are "helped" by permanently hiding them out of sight. The Honeycomb is seen through the eyes of Tangwen, one of the Tinker Girl inmates employed in producing technology for the world outside. "Delicate Work" shows us the dirty, dystopian, dark side, which is all too often neglected in much of steampunk fiction.

There is one tale in the collection, "The Impurity", which differs from the others. "The Impurity" is an imaginative retelling of the Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde story, into which the author breathes new life. I don't want to reveal the details here, but suffice to say, it is refreshing.

I recommend the reader look beyond the cover of Innnocent's Progress. Peter Tupper takes the reader into a familiar yet foreign world, which is richly textured and multifaceted - part Victorian, part steampunk, part intellectual foray, part erotica. If you wish to acquire this book yourself, the various forms and manner of procuring it can be found at Peter Tupper's site for Innocent's Progress.

Summer Hiatus Is at an End

2011-09-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

To my horror I have realized that a month and a half have passed since my last entry. This is what comes of it being summer, and life impeding the amount of time I can commit to online! However, more posts will start shortly.

One of the contributing factors to me lacking time to post (in addition to spending time outside in the sunshine, and getting to have an actual week of vacation in Halifax), is that I have started up a couple of local steampunk events, which have taken some effort in planning and organizing.

Along with getting a Facebook-based steampunk-event-bulletin-board group up and running, to share and spread word of steampunk and related events to locals (Vancouverites for Steampunk), I also have started up a Steampunk Craft Meetup (2 events so far, in July and early September) which I'm hoping will run regularly) and commenced a Steampunk Book Club (Vancouver Steam Librarium and Consortium - first meet booked for October).

Collage of creations crafted by various attendees at the First Steampunk Craft Meet

For local Vancouverites interested, I shall embed the Vancouverites for Steampunk Google calendar here:

And, of course, I have a busy full-time job. So it's been busy. However, I'll be getting back into the swing of regular posts shortly!

Cheers all,

The Steam Wench

Inspiration and Resource: 1000 Steampunk Creations by Joey Marsocci

2011-07-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

For any of you good folks who want to embark in the maker side of steampunk things, but are pehaps having a hard time finding inspiration, this is the book for you.

As a result of my love of books and my inability to stay away from Amazon.ca, this little gem arrived in my post fairly recently. Compiled by Dr. Grymm (Joey Marsocci), 1000 Steampunk Creations contains, well, precisely that: 1000 lucious colour photos of a mind-boggling variety of steampunk contraptions, clothes, jewelry, home decor, gadgets, accessories, artwork and scuptures, created by numerous steampunk artists and artisans.

This book has done but I've been floundering to do for myself: I have 1080 steampunk inspiration photos on my memory stick (categorized into 28 folders) which I have downloaded over the last couple of years. I had even printed out a bunch of faves and partly assembled a Steampunk Scrapbook (with the idea of using it to bring to events as a "this is steampunk" book).

I have pored over this book many times since it arrived - I can't get enough of perusing the smooth glossy pages and dreaming of the many awesome things portrayed within.

This book has proven to be the perfect addition to my stack of stuff to bring to the local steampunk Craft Meets I have started holding (first one last week!), as it gives new folks and old-hands something to paw through while trying to figure out what to make (or, in the case of the new, a graphic illustration of what steampunk can be).

In my opinion, 1000 Steampunk Creations belongs in every dedicated Steampunk's walnut and brass library. As do many of the items pictured therein.

Quick and Dirty: Quirky Thrifted Jacket Quirked even Further!

2011-07-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

Hello folks!

At long last, I'm back and have the freedom to post! Work has settled down into it's usual routine, and remain at it's usual pace until mid-September, when it ramps up for a bit. Today is another "Quick and Dirty" post. My goal, with these Quick and Dirty sections, is to demonstrate how useful it is to go thrifting - you find unique pieces for inexpensive and sometimes downrightdirt-cheap prices, and with just a little bit of thought, you can modify them for a steampunk outfit. The trick is to learn to see the potential in garments, even if, sometimes (not in this case) they are spectacularly ugly. My hope is that by demonstrating what I have done, if this isn't something you aren't used to doing, you can learn to see that potential lurking out there in your local thrift stores! Also, I want to reiterate, that many of these projects require minimal sewing skills.

So, today, I want to show you a very quick and dirty modification of a very funky little jacket I was able to find at a thrift store.

Part of what attracted me to this quirky little piece (other than the fact it fit!) was the use of gold-coloured zipper as trim along the collar edge, and the sleeve pocket and bright green ribbon detailing, and the dangle-ties on the front pockets.

This piece had a tangerine and green ribbon tie (shown below hanging on the hanger) at an impossible spot to close it, for the female form (across the fullest part of the bust), so the very first thing I did, even before I took photos, was remove the tie and replace it with a fancy hook and eye closure in a much better location, under the bust.

And the big thing to really change up this jacket was to jazz it up with a nice, Victorian tassel trim. I decided this should go around the collar (ensuring it still showed off the glitzy, punky, zipper trim) and at the sleeves, covering the seam where the cuffs attach. I just used my sewing machine to attach the fringe trim to the collar (with a bit of handstitching at the ends) and sleeves.

I also ensured the trim ended just inside the jacket, so it was clean-edged and tidy when closed.

The tassel trim really changed the look of the jacket.

And with the addition of a winged trilobite pin on the collar (touch of Girl Genius - I admit I'm a fangirl), voila, the jacket is done and ready to wear as one of my steampunk pieces.

Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Please feel free to leave them here! And remember, if you want to start any steampunk or steampunk costuming discussions, please feel free to do so on the Steam Wench Salon's Facebook Page, where there is a place for discussions.

Work and All Those Other Things that Interfere with Life

2011-07-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings, all. My apologies for the lack of posts here lately, alas, things such as work and other aspects of life have interfered with my available time to post (including a very recent and intensely-time-consuming attempt to sew new garb for a medieval event, which has failed miserably and left me appallingly disappointed).

I will be back and posting soon!

Regards,

The Steam Wench

Decorating Hats: Not Just for Milliners Anymore -Part 2

2011-06-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I lack the money to buy all the lovely expensive hats I see for sale in the steampunk world (I have splurged on one), and I lack the millinery skills and equipment to make lovely hats from scratch. Therefore, I have made it my goal to make hats using cheap costume hats as bases (where I can find ones that are cheap yet not hideous), and using found and thrifted hats. The previous post shows what I did with a cheap costume base; today's post is on what I did with a lucky find of a dressage hat at a thrift store.

I have a pricey dressage hat I treated myself to years ago, which I don't want to alter. Imagine my delight in finding the virtually identical hat at a thrift store, for less than1/4 of the price of a new hat.

It's a lovely felted hat, with a grosgrain ribbon around the crown and a decorative grosgrain bow on one side. The crown is slightly dented on the top, which suits me just fine.

To decorate the dressage hat, I browsed through my stash of ribbons, beads, accent pieces, etcetera.

Ultimately, I went for the bronze coloured wide satin ribbon (to the left of the above left photo) to cover the unexciting grosgrain, and that I would make a bow out of it to cover the grosgrain bow. The bow is not tied, it's an artificial decorative bow made by making a loop of ribbon, which I sewed shut, and then pinched in the centre with a strip of ribbon folded in half and tacked in place with thread.

I used the copper chain (above right photo) to lay over the base of the crown (partly as it helped keep the ribbon nicely flat). The bow alone seemed plain (sorry, no photo of it at this stage, I wasn't thinking), so I decided to use the brass rose (from the above right photo) to decorate the bow.

Since the centre of the rose was plain and showed a small hole, I selected a burgundy pearl bead, which I slipped into the centre of the brass rose, securing it with metal-friendly glue (Gorilla glue). To carry this colour a little, I decided to use a sheer rusty/burgundy glittery ribbon to place below the rose and above the bow, for a little flash of colour. The original idea was to use an elaborate rosette of the ribbon, as shown below here.

However, this was easier said than done, and when I tried to tack together the ribbon for this rosette, it all went cattywhumpus. Every time I tried. So, after several botched unsuccessful attempts, I opted for an easier decorative effect with the pretty but temperamental ribbon. (Keep in mind, I have no training in this, have never made rosettes from ribbon, or anything!) I also decided the simpler accent suited better, as it emphasized the bow, rather than hid it, which the complicated rosette seemed to.

And voila, the completed hat. I do not yet have a photo of me wearing this hat - I didn't get a chance to wear it at my last convention (tho I wore my other 3 hats!). I hope to remedy this soon. Perhaps I need to make the right outfit to complement the hat!

From an angle, no flash

Side on, with flash

These two posts are here to show that you don't need to have millinery skills to trick out a hat. What you do need is patience in finding the right inexpensive hat to decorate - keep an eye out in thrift and consignment stores, and in costume shops (especially in the month or two leading up to Halloween, when shops bring in extra supplies they may not carry the rest of the year). And when it comes to inexpensive hats, if you see something you like, buy more than one! I bought 2 of the one I used in the previous post, and good thing, because I haven't seen it since. I am hoping it reappears for Halloween this year.

Decorating Hats: Not Just for Milliners Anymore - Part 1

2011-06-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

I have been envious of all the lovely ladies' hats I see out there in the steampunk world, and that I see in all the old Victorian catalogues and photographs. However, I don't have the money to spend on purchasing a plethora of hats, nor the funds and time to embark on learning hat-making, which is far more career than hobby - needing hatblocks, felts, and a skillset requiring training and time to learn. So I determined to decorate existing hats - either thrifted hats or decent costume hats. My job is made harder by the fact that many inexpensive hats sold for costuming are unspeakably cheap-looking (I'm thinking of those minihats that look like they're made out of paper).

I have decorated the one hat, as shown in an earlier post, but I wanted to show here what I was able to do with 2 entirely different hats, one a cheap costume hat and one a quality hat found at a second-hand store.

Hat Number One - Cheap Costume Hat to Smart

I started with this $13 costume hat from Dressew in Vancouver.

And this assortment of ribbons etc.

I played with a few ideas.

I ultimately decided on using the brown ruffle from the infamous blouse which has provided me with trim for a bustle, a parasol, and now this hat, and a cheap dollar store hair elastic that had a flounce of sheer ribbons trimmed with rhinestones on the ribbon tips, and a ribbon rosette in the middle.

I sewed a stitch down the middle of the brown ruffle and pulled it to gather it a bit more, and then sewed the two ends together so it would fit over the hat. For the hair elastic, I cut the elastic part, knotted it right against the rosette, and then sealed it with hotglue. I then hotglued the rosette and dangly bits to the brown ribbon. I then set the ribbon on the hat, and then worked to figure out which accent piece to put on the centre front.

The keyhole and key seemed the obvious decision, and with its nice black-copper finish, blended nicely with the ribbon. I attached the key with a few links of copper chain, and then firmly sewed the keyhole to the ribbon.

And voila, the hat is done.

And here is the hat, worn with two different outfits:

Thanks everyone!

Next article will be on Hat # 2, which I made the same evening as this hat.

Quick and Dirty: Tricking out a Thrifted Skirt

2011-05-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings, again.

Today I'd like to post a brief how-I-did-it piece, on tricking out a skirt I found at a thrift store that was closing (which meant the skirt cost me 90¢!)

Below is the skirt, which had an Italian label and is made from 100% cotton.

Front (taken with flash)

Back, taken without flash

The skirt was pinned up entirely randomly, at different height levels. It also had two braided ties (?) at the sides, made of the same skirt fabric, which were very long, and in these photos, can be faintly seen, clipped up at the top to loop them. I considered keeping the braids, but they were at a height and angle which I found difficult to work with attractively. Since I was going to be wearing a corset over the skirt, I ultimately decided the extra bulk was unnecessary, so I unpicked their stitches to remove them from the skirt (and have kept them just in case I find another use for them).

Skirt pinned to dressform under corset. (Braided ties still attached)

After staring at the skirt awhile on the form, I decided I wanted to trim the hem, and definitely embellish and accentuate the pinned-up portions. So I went and sorted through my accumulated trims and buttons, etc, and ended up starting at these selections:

Trim I have from previous projects & shopping trips

Buttons bought online

I went a bit nuts, and began pinning things to the skirt on the dressform. (I was also working on the corset at the same time, and pinned things all over it too. See separate entry earlier on the corset mod)

I decided to attach the fairly stiff, light tan & white striped, narrow ruffle trim (which was slightly elasticized) to the hem, and use the fancy buttons to accent (and reinforce) the pinned-up sections, with some of the plaid ribbon dangling down.

Upon deciding this, I pinned the striped trim to the entire hem. Turns out when laid out, the hemline was a huge rectangle. Pinning elasticised trim is frustrating (and turned out to be pointless ... once the machine hit it, my pinning was moot, as the pins took up more trim than sewing did, so my pins were all off). After I was done sewing, I measured the hem circumference ... 19 ½ feet of hem. Yikes. No wonder it took forever. After sewing, the skirt looked like this:

I wasn't happy with how much the hem now stuck out, but realized, when worn under the corset, it wouldn't be so bad. At this stage, it took me a week to figure out exactly where to go next, what to do with the pinned-up parts, and with the braided ties (which are still in place here).

Since I only had 6 of the large fancy buttons (3 really cool, 3 slightly less cool), I decided to use small brass buttons for the smaller, less prominent tucked-up bits. And I decided to add some coppery-ish soft ribbon, in addition to the plaid ribbon, to accent the pinned-up parts. When attaching the ribbons and buttons, I took care to use the opportunity to reinforce the tacking, since the fabric is thin and I was worried there would be tearing eventually in the original tacking.

So, the plain cheap 90¢ skirt ended up looking like this:

And like this, when worn with rolled stockings this April at Norwescon 34 in Seattle:

So, this goes to show you can buy a cheap skirt at a thrift store, and with trim on the hem, dangly ribbons, and buttons, trick it out a little.

Thanks for listening, and as usual, feel free to comment below!

Information for Locals - Vancouverites for Steampunk FB Group Google Calendar

2011-05-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Just for the information of any local Vancouverites in British Columbia, here is the Google Calendar I have created for the Facebook Group, Vancouverites for Steampunk. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_200416936668345&ap=1

The calendar is to facilitate the planning of steampunk-related events for locals, and I will update it with all new events I hear of in the environs of Vancouver, Victoria, the of BC, and Seattle. Feel free to bookmark this page, as this embedded calendar will automatically update.

News: The Steam Wench Salon Page

2011-05-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings good people,

I just wanted to share the news that the Steam Wench has opened the doors of her salon further, with an independent Page on Facebook. This will provide a place for additional posts that may be less suited to this blog, and more importantly, the Salon on Facebook will allow folks a venue to ask questions, start discussions, and post pictures of their own projects. I kindly ask that folks do not use the Salon to sell things or place links to shops, etcetera, as there is an abundance of places to sell one's work. I encourage open discussion and sharing of ideas, projects, and DIY attitudes in my Salon, not commerce. I will be obligated to remove all such posts I see.

http://www.facebook.com/SteamWenchSalon

Please use the above Facebook Salon to ask questions, share your projects, and start discussions.

I will, of course, continue to post here as usual, no fear. Links to new posts will also be placed in the Facebook Salon.

Thanks everyone for helping me to make Steampunk fun and accessible to everyone!

The Steam Wench

Quick and Dirty: Steampunking a Basic Corset

2011-05-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'd like to present a little "how-I-did-it" piece. This one is on the decoration of a basic, plain black corset, to give it a bit more flair and flavour for steampunk outfits. This was very much a quick and dirty modification, since the corset is one I've owned for years, and had been given to me a decade ago, by someone whom it no longer fit.

The corset in it's basic state is a plain black satin corset, a bit worn but still very functional.

Here is the basic black corset ... and a pic of me wearing it back in 2006, as part of another outfit.

I decided it's time to dedicate it entirely to steampunk costuming, which gives me free rein to trick it out a bit.

I decided to added some decorative brass fripperies on the upper left and the lower right of the corset, and opted to use an existing leather belt I tend to use with the corset anyway, which has a leather keyfob (made earlier) and vintage keys.

Frippery number one is this exquisite brass plate I found, with intriguing pattern. I have no idea what it was for, it was a box of scrap brass. But it's very pretty with its cut-out design, and a little worn looking. I added a decorative key charm to the bottom, pinned it to the corset, and liked the look.

I was going to add actual small brass gears I have to the corset at the right hip, but I realized that real gears are very sharp, and satin is not so forgiving. So I decided instead to opt for decorative gears, which were part of a set called "Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears" which I found at Michaels Crafts. (see link here) http://www.michaels.com/Tim-Holtz%C2%AE-Sprocket-Gears/pc1458,default,pd.html I am not one of those who gets my knickers in a twist over seeing steampunk stuff out there in the mainstream world. Makes it a lot easier for those of us who are making things, to source parts inexpensively. Anyway, I pinned the gears to the corset, figured out an attractive arrangement, and decided to add an old chain from a necklace to enhance it. I added a fleur de lis pendant on the end of the chain.

Once I had everything in place as I wanted it, I handstitched everything in place.

I did not add the keychain fob to the garter strap loop at the bottom left (as shown in above picture of everything pinned) ... but I haven't ruled that out as an option. I would have to sew a new loop for the fob, as the existing satin loop is sewn into the hemming at the bottom. Perhaps a nice black leather loop, to blend in. This would be handy, as I then would not necessarily have to wear the leather belt. Thoughts?

Below are two pictures of it on my dummy, finished.

And here is the final look, worn with three entirely different outfits:

Again, if anyone has a comment or suggestion, or an idea to improve upon this, by all means, please feel free to comment.

Is "Hat" Some Sort of Steampunk Euphemism?

2011-05-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

Right then, ladies and gentleman, riddle me this.

I spent the long Easter weekend at a general science fiction / fantasy convention. As it is very much the flavour du jour, there were a lot of Steampunks out and about at the Con, and I myself pretty much exclusively wore Steampunk. Most of my outfits had hats. And most of my hat-accompanied outfits had some cleavage. Interestingly, when I was showing cleavage, men would compliment my hat. Even men who weren't dressing Steampunk. Even men who were working at the hotel where the Con was had. Saying things such as "What a lovely hat." "Ma'am, I have to say I admire your hat." "My, your hat is quite charming." These were men ... generally not steampunk men ... complimenting my hat.

Intriguingly, they weren't always looking at my hat ... or looking me in the eye, for that matter.

I posit that, if you are staring at my cleavage and complimenting my hat ... you are not really admiring my hat.

So, I am wondering, has "I must compliment you on your lovely hat" become a euphemism for the less politically-correct, "My what lovely cleavage you have"?

Chapeau-Curious in Canada

Cordial and Costuming

2011-04-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hello! I just wanted to do you all the courtesy of letting you know that I will likely be quiet over the next two weeks, as I frantically ramp up my costuming efforts for an upcoming general sci-fi / fantasy convention (and then attend said convention). Once I am back home and settled in with a cup of invigorating cordial, I will recommence my writing.

Thank you all for stopping by my salon, and I shall be back at the end of the month.

Cheers!

Quick and Dirty: Plain Hat to Steampunk'd Lid

2011-04-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome, good people. Today's piece is on a relatively quick and dirty modification of a plain hat to a steampunked lid.

With luck, when out thrifting one day, I stumbled upon a somewhat louche velvet hat which fit my small head like a glove (rare) and had rather the look of having been sat upon at one point in its past. Below is that hat.

While I loved it's appealingly slightly crumpled and abused air, it needed some livening up. I purchased some white lace trim, which I added on top of the black grosgrain ribbon, ending at the bow. I really loved the crumpled grosgrain bow, and decided to leave it as it was. (You can see in the rear view picture how the hat sort of crumples to the side a bit.

Next, the hat needed serious adornment. Fortunately, a couple of years before I was able to actually start my steampunk costuming, I had gone browsing online for old pocketwatch broken bits and parts, and was able to find some relatively cheap (compared to trying to find the same things now!) and had bought several batches. With some of the pocketwatch pieces, a freshwater pearl and a tumbled garnet raided from my beading supplies, and some nice clockhands from Lee Valley, and with considerable amounts of Gorilla Super Glue, I made a clockwork decoration for my hat. Warning: I got that glue on my fingers (cause I seem to lack fine motor control) and it took sandpaper to remove it - along with a bit of skin.

I firmly attached the ornament to the hat by sewing it on, using the holes that were in the various clock parts. Below are two views of ornament and hat.

I'm not as sure that this qualifies as quite as Quick and Dirty as some of the others. However, the hat was cheap (and I am happy it's not the usual mini-hat), the lace was cheap, the clockwork bits and gears had been cheap when I got them. And the mod was relatively easy, with the most complicated bit being the creation of the ornament.

However, it is proof that even a sad sat-upon hat can be turned into decadent little accessory.

Hamming it up in my louche little lid.

Quick and Dirty: Steampunking a Vest Bustier

2011-04-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's another how-I-did-it piece on quick and dirty steampunk costuming.

Because sometimes, you want it fast and you want it to be easy.

Hmm ... hrm ... ahem.

So, I wanted a vest I could throw on with a skirt and blouse to jazz it up a bit. Again, this was part of a 2-week costuming bender I went on right before a Con. So I hit the thrift stores, and came up with this:

What I really liked about this black heavy-weight cotton vest was its fit - very snug, and very firm fabric, so it provided good support and close to corset-like shaping. However, it definitely needed some quick jazzing-up. Using a scrap of black leather the sewing machine could handle, and a silver clip, I made a keyfob which I stitched directly to the vest.

I had some silverish wind-up and skeleton keys, so I added them to the built-in keyfob. I added a silver pocketwatch.

I played with a few other ideas, tricking it out with a old medal I'd found (which I planned to mod) and a silver kilt pin with a cluster of silver safety pins at one end and a sewing chatelaine on the other end (thimble case, needle case, seam ripper).

I wasn't so happy with it, but it suited for one convention.

I have now removed the medal and the kiltpin chatelaine, and have replaced them with an ornament I made with a silver kiltpin and a teapot charm.

Not sure where this will go from here, but I don't want to give up on the vest.

Anyone have suggestions for tricking this simple and very convenient vest into a more steampunk realm? Or is it sufficient as it is?

Quick and Dirty: Steampunk Work Apron

2011-03-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings good folks. Today's focus is on on example of Quick and Dirty steampunk costuming - how to make cool costume pieces without lots of skill, money, or time.

It was approximately a year ago that I decided to finally embark on making some steampunk outfits (having been planning and accumulating brass bits for over 2 years). There was a general sci-fi/fantasy Convention coming up (Norwescon) in a couple of weeks and, in typical fashion, I decided to make new costumes. Of course, this meant I had little time.

I wanted a steampunk work apron of some sort. I had little time, less budget, and was costuming in a hurry. I decided to find something I could modify.

Hurrah for thrift stores! I found this large burgundy sleeveless tunic-dress at Value Village for about $5, and decided to use it as my base for a work apron.

Front

Back, with ties

I decided to make it more apron-like by cutting up the centre back to open up the tunic, with the plan of using the back ties to close it. After cutting it open in the back, I cut and reshaped the garment from the top of the shoulders down to the hem, again to make it more like an apron. I also removed the ties at the front neckline.

Front with ties removed

Back reshaped - seam binding to finish inside edge

Closeup of reshaped back

This now needed that quintessential workapron necessity - pockets. I had some scrap reddish-brown leather, and I cut these to the size I wanted and attached them using my sewing machine. I also made a leather keyfob for a belt out of the scrap leather, and decided to enlist one of my leather belts to wear over the apron waist.

With 2 lower pockets and belt

Detail of keyfob (and keys!)

Still, this was clearly not done. I decided to add a third pocket above the lower one, with a built-in keyfob / hook, and to add brass findings to detail the outer corners of the pockets.

The third pocket ended up being further divided, and decorated with more brass findings. To finish, I added a small pocket high up, and to close the slit in the neckline, I made a small decoration from broken pocketwatch parts, a freshwater pearl, and a tumbled garnet.

Third pocket, divided in sections and decorated.

Neckline decoration & small pocket added

This was looking much better. A wearable steampunk work apron converted from a old oversized tunic-dress.

And voila, the final product - 3 views, 2 different presentations:

It might not be a show-stopper, but it is effective, all the pockets proved to be super-handy at Cons, and I liked the result. This was an easy, quick and dirty conversion of a cheap garment into a decent steampunk costume piece. Proof that you don't have to get complicated, have awesome sewing skills, or spend lots of hard-earned money to do steampunk.

It's My Steampunk, and I'll Dress Like I Want To

2011-03-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

After following the ongoing costuming controversy in the steampunk communities, which has recently resurged due to this appalling article, http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/jackalope/2011/03/wild_wild_west_con_eight_overd.php, I was inspired this morning to write the following steamfilk:

(To be sung to the tune of Lesley Gore's "It's My Party")

IT'S MY STEAMPUNK

by Tracey Ernst

It's my steampunk, and I'll dress like I want to,

Dress like I want to, dress like I want to,

You can dress however you want to, too.

Everybody's in bustles and top hats,

I see goggles and gears;

Everyone is having fun,

Why are the mavins in tears?

It's my steampunk, and I'll dress like I want to,

Dress like I want to, dress like I want to,

You can dress however you want to, too.

Playin' our music, we're dancin all night,

Leave us alone with our style!

'Long as we're free in fantasy,

We won't be their rank and file.

It's my steampunk, and I'll dress like I want to,

Dress like I want to, dress like I want to,

You can dress however you want to, too.

- musical break -

You're in striped tights and I have pink hair,

And he's head to toe in orange plaid,

Small hats and brass everywhere,

Why are they getting so mad?

It's my steampunk, and I'll dress like I want to,

Dress like I want to, dress like I want to,

You can dress however you want to, too.

Coming soon to MuchMusic Steampunk channel (wouldn't that be awesome).

Creating a Steampunk WorkCoat

2011-03-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

Greetings, good people.

Help yourself to the tea and spirits, and have a seat. I have another "how I made it" experience to share.

Today, I would like to share with you my adventure in constructing a steampunk coat. My original thoughts were of a sort of durable lab coat, in a nice practical colour (brown), to wear with various outfits, but particularly over the steam wench ensemble as mentioned in the Bloomer Business post. I wanted a long coat with full length sleeves and preferably cuffs, with a centre-front opening rather than the more in-vogue mad scientist chef-coat-style side opening. After much desperate hunting, this was the only pattern that struck me as being close to what I wanted (and I checked men's and women's coat patterns, chef coats, everything):

Now, I will remind you, I have no sewing training, and no experience with patterns. The bloomers mentioned in previously were my first foray into garment via pattern since grade school. I embarked on this coat while working on the bloomers (in fact, I started on the coat as a break, when the bloomers went badly). Because, of course, coats are simple. Yeah. Right.

I selected a superb brown cotton duck (I think it's duck) for the coat. I elected not to line the coat (too much work) but did decide to finish all seams with contrasting (brick) double fold, extra wide seam binding (lots of work). What can I say, I can be a bit of an obsessive perfectionist, and I did NOT want fraying seams to ruin the look of the garment. I wanted the inside to be pretty. I had at hand some lovely leather, and I decide to do the cuffs and the outer part of the standup collar in leather. I figured my old sewing machine could handle it. (Cuz that's easy, right? Cutting and sewing with leather?)

Please note the pattern is for a man. I am a woman. I am also short, with narrow shoulders, substantial bust, and moderately trim otherwise. So. Alteration city, before cutting, since there didn't seem lots of room for error after. Fortunately, the pattern had lines to show where you should shorten and lengthen. However, there was no indication of whether I was to fold up or down from this magical line. And of course I had no idea what I was doing, having never done this before. However, I took my measurements, compared them to the measurements on the package, and, well, guestimated how much to shorten the coat torso and sleeves. I also knew I didn't want the coat to be floor length, so I conservatively shortened it from the bottom by an additional 14 inches.

A bigger issue was how to fit the torso around my proportions. This required extensive modifications to the bodice of the pattern. Since the pattern was for 3 sizes, I elected to use the middle size for the waist-hip region (I didn't need it snug), the largest size for hips to hem (so I'd have maximum fullness and flare), the smallest size across the neck and top of the shoulders, the armhole on the back pattern pieces, and from shoulder to partway down the armhole on the front pieces, and then I used the largest size the pattern had to offer in the bust region, which included the lower part of the front armholes, and for about an inch or two down below the underarm. For the sleeves, since they seemed very full when I wrapped the paper around my arm, I opted for the smallest size.

This was all the hardest part, along with getting all the pieces to fit on my limited amount of fabric (bought fabric, then bought pattern - whoops - of course much smarter to do that the other way around). Then I cut it all out, prayed a lot to the sewing gods, and fit the bodice together. The nice thing about the coat, was it was all long pieces (2 front, 2 side-back, 2 back pieces), with no waistband crap, so the body gratifyingly went together fast. I did have to attach the collar at this point, so got to do the leather collar right up front. By the way, cutting out leather for a fabric pattern - it does NOT act the same as fabric. (Plus, you try pinning an effing thing paper pattern to leather. Yeah.)

Oh, did I mention the back has PLEATS? Yeah. Pleats. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Luckily, I managed to figure it out. Oh, if you are going to sew with patterns, buy washable fabric marking pencils, one white, one dark. Seriously. And BEFORE you remove the pattern pieces from cut-out fabric, mark EVERYTHING you think might be relevant. I ended up doing a LOT of pulling out the pattern piece and marking stuff after the fact. I know about notches and stuff ... not all the complicated stuff for centre this, pleat marking that ... Sigh. Live and learn.

I was pretty happy with how this looked, and hurrah, when I tried it on, it seemed a decent prelim fit. So ... since it looked fine, time to hide those ugly fraying inside seams:

Inside-out, with most seams finished in brick-coloured double-fold, extra wide seam binding

Then it was time for the sleeves. I cut out and sewed the cuffs first, leather lined with the cotton duck. Then sewed sleeves together, sewed cuffs to sleeves, and sleeves to coat.

Both cuffs, leather, lined in duck, sewn together

Frankly - insetting sleeves is a bitch. Don't let anyone tell you anything different. "Easing" in a sleeve is a pain in the hiney. I did lots of online googling to figure out a decent method. I elected to do what is apparently called "pin-easing". With lots of swearing and hoping.

The shoulder edge ended up coming a bit further out than I wanted them to, so I ended up redoing the shoulder-arm seam for a better fit (easier said than done - as I decided this AFTER trimming the interior seams).

First setting in of sleeve

These 2 pics above are the arm seam detail after taking them in more.

After this, it was finishing the front seam and doing fancy shmancy stitching where the back pleats were.

I had to finishing ALL the internal seams, and hem it. I bought Dress-Sew entirely out of brick seam-binding, and still ran out, so I had to use black narrow seambinding I had lying around, for the inside of the sleeves, and a different hemming finish than I planned.

Then, it was how to close it. I saw and bought these clasps at Tandy, intended for leather. I pinned them to the jacket, and yes, this was the look I was wanting.

I wanted pockets, and I cannibalized leather pockets (same leather as cuffs and collar) from a previous steampunk workapron that I hadn't been entirely happy with.

The original apron, made from an oversize tunic dress found at a thrift shop

However, when pinned on they looked crap (see below). I very much want pockets on this ... but I think I need to resize these smaller, and perhaps select a different placement (thoughts, anyone?)

Once the coat was finished, I realized this does not have a "lab coat" look, as I had originally intended, but instead looks more like a general, durable worker's coat (and I think very steampunky). It did prove to be very practical and handy, especially as its debut was at Steamcon II, in November, where there was much running between two hotels in freezing temperatures.

Alas, I have no photo yet of me wearing yet, but here is the finished product:

Again, as usual, folks, feedback is welcome. Especially if anyone has suggestions for the pockets! I really, really want to add pockets.

Victorian Resources for the Curious Steampunk (and the re-creationist)

2011-02-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

Greetings, dear visitor. Please have a cup of tea, or cordial, or, if you are currently enduring the grippe, as I am, I do have a small selection of remedies you may try ... perhaps a cup of bracing Peruvian Wine of Coca (wondrous sustaining powers) or perhaps you may wish to indulge in a pinch of Siberian Catarrh Snuff (I normally don't touch the stuff, but this is guaranteed to produce immediate relief of sore throat, nasal catarrh, hayfever, or cold in the head).

I thought today I could recommend a very small sampling of interesting resources for the steampunk looking for inspiration from the past, or the Victorian recreationist seeking ideas. I am an avid bookhound, and I would like to share with you a couple of my favourite resources for day-to-day aspects of Victorian life.

As a costumer, the first couple of things I will recommend to you relate to costuming. Alas, these largely involve women's attire, but gentlemen, I do have suggestions for you later.

The first book is Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazar 1867 - 1898 (published by Dover).

This book contains 1000 illustrations, giving excellent black and white drawings of the variety of fashions current during the specified years. It's a great resource for inspiration to make / craft your own outfit. Dresses, cloaks, hats, parasols, hairstyles, are all shown here. Many outfits are shown in front and back views. For those interested, children's outfits are also shown periodically.

The book second is Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Woman 1840-1949, by Kristina Harris (published by Schiffer).

This text is geared for the fashion collector, to give information on authenticating garments and on appropriate pricing. However, this book provides actual photographs (many in colour, often on modern models) of period garments. This book is good for the dieselpunk as well as the steampunk, with its inclusion of garments from the first half of the 20th century.

Admittedly, these books are geared for women's costumes. Alas, there is less available for men (and, as a gal, I've been spending my pennies on women's fashion). However, men can find similar information in Men's Clothing and Fabrics in the 1890's (another Schiffer guide for fashion collectors, though admittedly limited to a single decade) and Men's Fashion Illustrations from the Turn of the Century (another Dover book).

Men's fashion information can also be gleaned from the following two resources.

One of the best views into day-to-day living is the old-fashioned catalogue. Two reproductions which are easily available are two North American department store catalogues, both from Chicago (and both published by Skyhorse Publishing): Sears Roebuck & Co Catalgue from 1897 and the Montgomery Ward & Co Catalogue from 1895.

These volumes are fascinating. In the Victorian years, you could order everything from dry goods (tinned foods, flour, sugar, salt) and drugs, to shoes, dresses, suits, coats, and undergarments, to carriages, furniture, and farm equipment, to valises, trunks, and guns. A stroll through one of these volumes is truly a stroll through the daily life of the North American Victorian person. Men, you can find sections in here on suits, vests, coats, shoes, shirts, hats, and undergarments. Here's a wee taste for you:

These catalogues provide an endless supply of ideas and inspirations for makers, costumers, those seeking character ideas, recreationists, and those wanting to decorate a space or make their artwork more accurate in detail. I lost hours wading through the sections - guns, farm equipment, cookware, undergarments, personal items, purses, luggage, carriages, fashion, furniture, pocketwatches, jewelry, hats, etc. My favourite remains the "drug department", which makes for a highly entertaining read. Sears Roebuck sold an alarming array of quack cures, all "guanteed immediate results" and "guaranteed harmless" (two of which I mentioned above, in today's welcome to my salon). I won't spoil your fun by listing all my favourites. Perhaps I will save that for a separate entry on quack cures.

Another similar resource, which I lucked into used from Amazon.ca, is The Victorian Catalogue of Household Goods (published by Studio Editions)

This is essentially a wholesale catalogue for retailers - it lists no prices, but has detailed drawings of everyday household objects and ornate luxury items.

If you are interested in the social history of Victorian London, then I strongly recommend reading Molly Hughes' autobiography, A London Family: 1870-1900 (published by Oxford University Press). You will likely have to look for this in used condition.

This is a combined publishing of three separate books by Mary Vivian Hughes (M.V. Hughes): A London Child of the 1870s, A London Girl of the 1880s, and A London Home in the 1890s. This book is a very personal and somewhat rambling work, but I found it a compelling read, and it gives a view into the era from a first-hand point of view.

A modern text which gives an excellent view into domestic social history is The Victorian House by Judith Flanders (published by Harper Perennial).

This modern work gives a detailed view into the domestic life of an average English Victorian household, by taking you from room to room. While the focus is on the new Victorian middle class, you also see glimpses of the life of the serving class, as well as the upper class. It provides intimate details gleaned from contemporary diaries, letters, domestic texts, cookbooks, and novels. If you like to see how the daily life was lived, I can't recommend this book enough.

This by no means pretends to be anything close to a comprehensive list of resources. However, I thought I would share the resource book which I have discovered, and which have entertained me and provided me with extensive information about what is truly a fascinating time period. And perhaps I will assist someone in finding the book they were looking for.

Carry on, good people, in your steampunk endeavors. As for me, my catarrh is worsening, and I must make myself another hot tisane with honey and lemon (perhaps I shall try that Siberian Snuff ... my neighbour insists that her husband's brother swears by it).

Calling Cards

2011-02-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

Ah, the lovely calling card. I strongly recommend that steampunks should create and carry upon their persons calling cards (also called visiting cards) and a pen. (Or have a reputable stationer create a set for you.)

Calling cards, or visiting cards, were a Victorian social requisite. When going visiting, the Victorian lady, gentleman, or person of note or ambition) would ensure they had their card upon their person. Cards would be left at a house (either in person or by a servant), to convey their intention to visit, or to leave a message. Cards would be left on a silver platter or basket or similar device if the person was not at home, or was not receiving. Calling cards could be used for introductions, to further acquaintance, or to send messages, announce one's arrival or departure from town, or to send congratulations or condolences. The calling card was a handy little device for communication. It could be as simple as just your name on one side.

There could be an elaborate design around the name:

They could include your photo:

or be exceptionally frilly or whimsical:

They could also be a cunning way to let a lady (or, in today's world, a man) know of your interest (and some are definitely less high-brow than others):

For a wide variety of actual Victorian styles, this website has a lot of images: http://www.daysofelegance.com/callingcards.html

I think the calling card is perfect for the steampunk world. You can put your name and address (and / or email address) on them, and keep a pen handy to add a personal message, a phone number, your Facebook name, or some such. You can give one to whomever you wish. They can be simple or elaborate, and as classy or as playful as you like.

I decided to create my own calling card, so I have a handy way to give my information to people, no matter where I am. I have some printed with just my name, and the city I live in, and I have another set which also has my email address, where a street address would have been on a Victorian card.

I used one of the fonts I found online. The background is a very washed-out version of an image I found online of a set of patina-ed brass gears sold by Objects and Elements. The card back is plain, to allow me to leave a message, write my cell number, etcetera.

Of course, I needed a case to carry my cards in:

And a silver plate to receive them (not that I have a doorman (human or automaton) to receive them for me ... yet).

I just wanted to bring calling cards to your attention, if you weren't familiar with them, and perhaps plant a seed to create a calling card of your own, to suit your personality, or your persona.

Back from Vacation

2011-02-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

My apologies for the lack of posts, in the past couple of weeks. I took an airship for a wee vacation for a week. The flight was excellent, if stupendously chilly, at that altitude. The wintry views were amazing, and clear almost the entire way. I indulged in a bit of shopping and some research at my secret lair ... I have now returned, relaxed, recharged, and feeling very good. Regular posting will recommence shortly.

Inspiration garment I saw on my travels.

Thank you all!

The Steam Wench

Ephemera Fun

2011-02-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings, good folks. I thought I'd chat today a bit about ephemera, and the place it can have in steampunk.

Ephemera is the transient paper detritus with which we have surrounded ourselves for generations, and which were never meant to be kept beyond their short time of use ... tickets (train, omnibus, airship, fair, exhibit), receipts, postcards, pamphlets, notices, posters, etc. I have taken this also to include, for my steampunk purposes, other paper items (not necessarily included in the dictionary definition) which have a temporary lifespan (passports and other travel documents, and letters) or which don't tend to endure, such as paper money.

Ephemera can be an excellent enhancement to a costume or persona, if you really want to get into a character's world. What would your character have upon his or her person, in addition to clothes, shoes, hat, gloves, parasol, goggles, pocketwatch, and other obvious decorative accoutrements?

Below are a few cool vintage images of Victorian ephemara I've found while prowling online (yay image Google!)

Visitor Pass to Photographic Society meeting

Football match ticket c. 1880

Assorted railway tickets and passes (specimens)

Chicago-Northwest Railway Ticket c. 1880

Steamboat and ferry tickets - early 1900s

Telegraph form

Undoubtedly your steampunk persona would have money, paper and or coin, tucked in a purse or wallet, or in a document case or pocket. She also may have a ticket, if she is traveling, for the conveyance she took or will be taking (train, airship, omnibus, ship). If traveling in a different country, she may well be carrying a passport. Passports have been in existence in for centuries - for a brief timeline of United Kingdom passport history, look here: http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1080.htm). She may be carrying tickets for a show, exhibit, or fair which they have seen or plan to see. Maybe her purse is crammed with receipts (just as it is nowadays!) or she has a hotel bill tucked in his wallet. Perhaps she has a postcard from a friend or loved one tucked in their valise.

I have decided to try to create some of my own ephemera. My first experiment was in November. Since I was going to Steamcon II in Seattle, I decided to create airship tickets to get there and to leave, and decided to play up where I was coming from and where I would return to. Some browsing online found me passenger Lady Drummond Hay's 1928 airship ticket for the Graf Zeppelin's first trans-Atlantic flight.

I used this as my template, downloaded some cool Victorian/Edwardian style fonts, played with wording, and came up with an airship line for the Girl Genius world, Luftshiff Wulfenbach Transkontinental.

I left some fields blank to be completed by hand, and the cabin details in the top right will be manually completed as well, with circles around the selected options (as per the original. I also filled in some fields with a mock typewriter font, to simulate the form being partially completed by typewriter.

Apologies for the weird large spacing of these - conversion from pdf to jpg resulted in large borders.

My next, more recent project, in the past month, was to create a passport for my character. Attached below is the only United Kingdom passport I could find from the era when I did an image Google.

I also found this United States passport from 1916 (with extension stamps dated for 1917 and 1918).

I elected to combine the two, with my preferred elements of each, to create my own. At the top is the UK coat of arms as of Victoria's reign. I removed the excess verbiage in the body, and modified it slightly, using some elements from the American passport. I also decided to include a descriptive section, as in the American example, and I will be attaching a photo on the upper left, as in the American, since photos existed then, and it seems a good step.

I decided to have the lower coat of arms be the City of London arms, since the Foreign Office was based there, and it was the main place to have passports issued. Alternately, one could decide on other cities allowed to distribute passports, and modify accordingly.

Below is the final product. The first one is blank, which I will complete manually, once I've mastered a decent Victorian hand, and the other is an example of it completed, using another computer font to fill out the details.

I also hope to add some stamps and images showing the passport has been "viséd" by various country consuls, as shown on the reverse side of the period passport above:

My future plans include creating ticket stubs, pamphlets, and flyers, and likely more.

I want some period reproduction paper money for my character. I looked into producing my own, but realized I wasn't interested enough to go to the work of making it and then making it look worn like real money ... so I went the easy route, and purchased some from Professor Otto. http://professorotto.livejournal.com/ I am eagerly awaiting its arrival by post!

That Blasted Bloomer Business

2011-01-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, "esteamed" friends. Please help yourself to a cup of tea or a nice cordial, and settle in. Today, we'll embark on something rather intimate - lady's delicates, with a focus on bloomers.

This past autumn, I felt my budding steampunk wardrobe was insufficiently wenchy. I decided I wanted to create an outfit faintly reminiscent of Agatha Heterodyne, from Girl Genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/) in her "whoops I'm wandering about in my underthings" look, with a bit of saloon-girl flair. So: chemise, bloomers, and corset.

I have a corset, so that was taken care of. The chemise was fairly easy, as I already had one in my possession, which just needed some treatment. I took my old chemise made about 18 years ago for the SCA (which I had then hacked short about 5 years ago for a burlesque show) dyed it in a tea bath (50 teabags, 25 cups of hot water), finished the hacked-off hem with double-fold wide seam binding, washed it, and voila, chemise done.

Tea Bath (still with bags)

Chemise in tea bath (bags removed)

Chemise unhemmed and undyed

After hemming and tea-staining

I had a pattern for period-styled bloomers (picture below), so I figured it shouldn't be too difficult to make some (other than the concepts of waistband, and fitting it).

Now, I haven't used a sewing pattern by myself for a garment since Grade 7 or 9, and my memories of that experience are not pleasant. (I have more recent and equally unhappy memories from about 18 years ago or so, of an attempt at a pirate shirt by pattern, which ended with someone else doing sleeves and collar and cuffs.)

I bought a lovely cotton which was a decent match in colour and weight for the tea-stained chemise. I wanted something inexpensive ($5 per metre) and relatively non-wrinkling. I took my pattern, and fabric, and laid it all out according to directions. The pattern looked so ludicrous when held up to my body, that even with my limited sewing knowledge, I decided to alter it a bit, shortening the leg by 2 inches (I'm only 5'2") and narrowing the lower part of the legs by about an inch, and bringing the pattern's taper up higher to remove some of the ... um ... crotch sag.

I cut it out and eyed the pieces dubiously. Holding up to me, they looked insane. I shrugged, figured I was likely missing something because I don't sew from patterns, and decided to continue.

Now, I *had* actually noticed the pattern would make crotchless bloomers. I figured I could get around this with lingerie snaps, or, if I was lucky, there would be sufficient fabric to overlap across my parts nicely, and I wouldn't risk flashing people inappropriately at Steamcon or any other public event.

So I followed the instructions to sew the pieces together, including the waistband. Well, the waistband got attached flawlessly, and the flat-felled and French seams were beautiful (thank heavens for Google) ... but the bloomers themselves looked like this ...

The alarmingly wide crotch / butt region ("rear" view)

Fuller view of bloomers

Now, I had wanted attractive, sexified bloomers, since my plan was to wear them as is, NOT concealed under a dress. On the pattern package, they don't look bad, and I had already decided to finish the leg ends by gathering it in for a trimmer look. But ... the crotch came almost to my knees, you could fit at least two more asses in there along with mine (yet the waistband fit just fine), and they came to my ankles (despite the fact I had removed two extra inches from their length before cutting). And yes, I followed the correct size - in fact, the pattern had been bought years ago, and I am now a bit bigger than the pattern was geared for, but my only modification for that was to add an inch to the waistband length alone (since the bloomers gathered into the waistband, no need to add there).

But here I was, in possession of baggy, supremely unsexy, unflattering bloomers, with a very open crotch and room for a few more bums than I possess. I did NOT take a picture of me wearing them, mostly because I was, in fact, in tears at this point.

After stepping away from the project for a couple of days, I realized radical alterations were required if I was going to salvage the situation (I had no more fabric). I removed the lace from the legs (I don't know why I added the lace trim before trying them on - that was a mistake). I tried the bloomers on inside out, and, in front of a mirror, tucked, folded, pinned and repinned them til they fit more closely, and then VERY carefully extracted myself from the now-hazardous pin-riddled bloomers.

I then modified my pinned bunchings and tucks, guessing at what would look best. I cut the legs shorter by about 6 more inches, to below my knee, and I took in and narrowed the legs considerably. I basting the leg seams, and it was looking better. I followed the same slow procedure of pinning and basting to try and "tuck in" the butt, as well as closing the crotch seam from 2 inches below the centre front waistband, along the crotch, and up to about 5 inches from the back waistband.

Here is what the bloomers ended up looking like, when laid out on top of the single leg pattern piece I had used. And the second shot is of the completed bloomers folded in half, laid out on top of the single leg pattern piece folded in half. Note the HUGE difference.

This project ended up being what a friend of mine likes to call "yet another goddamn learning experience." However, the bloomers turned out okay, and I learned I can improvise even with a pattern. Remember, I'm the wing-it-without-a-pattern woman, with no training in proper sewing, adjusting for fit, etc.

Front view of finished bloomers at waist

The rear of the finished bloomers

I chose to finish the bloomers differently from the pattern. So rather than have the waist tie shut with a cord, I used a wide flat hook and eye for the waist closure, and I used lingerie snaps to close the gap in the bum. This also allowed me to have an overlap in the back seam (again, I planned to wear these as is, and didn't want to be "overexposed").

To finish the legs, I gathered the leg ends slightly, so they were just barely big enough to put on, and finished the edges with seam binding to prevent fraying. I trimmed the legs with gathered wide blue lace (3 times the circumference of the bloomer-leg), sewn into a circle and then sewn to the leg end along the gathering point of the lace . I then took baby-blue eyelet beading lace, threaded a deep blue velvet ribbon through it, and attached it by sewing it, top and bottom, over the gathering seam on the lace I made two tiny bows out of small bits of the same ribbon, and hand-stitched them in place on the front of each leg, so it looked like the legs tie shut there.

To complete the outfit (for added saloon-girl effect) I made a choker out of wider deep blue velvet ribbon, edged with lovely beaded trim (thank you ladies from Plush for your goodie basket access!), and decorated with a fleur de lis pendant and a lovely button I had found.

Choker

And voila, here are three pics of the final complete outfit:

The steam-wench ensemble, complete with gentleman accessory

Final note on this outfit. I love it, and it is fun to wear. For a short while. I wore it for most of a day at Steamcon II. However, this outfit is comprised of a chemise tucked into bloomers, with a corset worn over all ... so, going to the loo ... was, well ... challenging, time-consuming, and required assistance with lacing up the corset afterward. I look forward to wearing this outfit again ... but the first time I need to go to the loo, I'm changing into a new outfit!

Thank you for joining me and listening. Good luck with your costuming experiments, dear friends! And feel free to share tales and links of your own adventures!

Pimping the Parasol

2011-01-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my Salon. Today, we have another how-to for you, from the Steam Wench.

This time, I'm going to outline how I pimped a parasol for my Steampunk outfit. I had never done this before, but I found a lovely vintage umbrella when visiting Seattle, at Red Light Vintage Clothing http://www.redlightvintage.com/ (Capitol Hill location). It had a lovely carved wooden handle, and interesting striations and staining from being stored closed for many years (see Fig 1 and 2). I couldn't resist. I had to buy it, and then make it mine.

This is the tale of how I took this abandoned vintage umbrella and pimped it into my lovely parasol.

The first thing I did was open the umbrella and wipe down the fabric surface umbrella with a damp, clean cloth, which removed some small smuts of flaked rust and surface dirt.

Additional supplies I used in this project, in addition to the parasol are:

- extra-wide double-fold seam binding (brown)

- brown bobble-trim (found in the bargain section of Fabricland)

- brown velvet ribbon (narrow)

- teal blue fabric flower from a cheap hair clip (from Ardene)

- pretty gold and teal buttons (from Dressew)

- teal blue ribbon (very narrow)

- a glue gun

- Fabri-Tac

- brown ruffle ribbon (extracted from a hideous thrifted blouse also used in the Bustle Skirt project (see Fig 1 and 2)

Fig 1 (scary blouse)

Fig 2 (ribbons segments removed from blouse)

Fishing the Raw Edge

Since the fabric of the umbrella was frayed and had no finishing left around the edges, I decided to finish the edges between each rib with seam binding. I cut the seam binding in appropriate lengths to fit between the ribs, pinned it in place so that it overlapped the raw edges, and then machine sewed it into place as best I could, along the "inner" and open edge of the seam binding. Then, I hand-stitched the inch or so on either side of the rib. Attaching the seam binding was an interesting dilemma. I desperately wanted to machine sew it (way too much handsewing otherwise), but you try sticking an open umbrella into a sewing machine ... hence, machine stitching plus hand-stitching.

Bobble Trim

Then it was time for the bobble trim! Yay, bobble trim! Child of the Victorian era and the 1960's! Who doesn't have fond memories of bobble trim? Well, okay maybe I'm just odd ... or should lay off the opium and absinthe ...

I decided I wanted a ruffle on the outside of the parasol, on the edge, so the bobble trim needed to go on the inside. An added bonus was that adding a continuous strip of bobble trim on the inside, would allow me to hide the bare patches around the ribs, where the seam binding ended and the fabric showed through. Being a parasol, the inside is visible when you have it open. So, I started pinning the bobble trim on at one point, and pinned it all along the perimeter of the umbrella, bobbles at outer edge. I had to do little tucks at each rib tip, to accommodate the sharp corner.

Once again, I had to manhandle an open umbrella in the sewing machine (I used one hand to stabilize umbrella, as well as balanced part of it on my raised knee (used a footstool to raise my leg). I sewed the umbrella with the underside up, attaching the bobble trim along both edges of the trim. I had to hand-stitch the bobble trim around the ribs, once again for about an inch or so on either side of the ribs. I whipped through all the maching work first, and then did the handstitching around each rib after. See Figs 3 and 4 for closeup of the attached bobble trim from the underside. Fig 5 shows the open umbrella with the bobble trim sewn on the inside. Fig 6 shows the umbrella closed, showing the seambinding along the outside edge, and the bobbles peeking out.

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

Fig 6

At this point, determine whether or not the existing closing-strap of the umbrella can handle the extra bulk of the trim you have added. I did NOT do this, and realized it only at the end. It is easier to replace the strap now, BEFORE trimming the ribs. My instructions for replacing the strap are at the very end of this entry (because I figured it out late). It was, fortunately, doable - just would have been tidier at this stage.

Rib-Tickling... I mean, Trimming

Now, it turns out, the next step was to trim the ribs. (I did NOT realize this til I had worked on the ruffle and pinned it on - so I'm saving you my grief. This will also explain the order of what you see in my photos!) At this point, I realized this was going to have to involve glue. There was no other way, with the umbrella intact, to trim the ribs. And the umbrella was simply to0 fragile to embark on a complicated procress like trying to safely remove the fabric from the skeleton (yikes, I can't even imagine trying to do that).

I selected a nice dark brown velvet ribbon, moderately narrow, to trim the ribs. I cut the ribbon into lengths to match the ribs, ensuring they would go from the top and tuck nicely under the ruffle along the circumference.

So, with the umbrella OPEN, and using Fabri-Tac and toothpics, I gingerly glued the velvet ribbon strips along each rib. I will confess, this involved extensive unladylike (and suspiciously sailor-like) swearing. Lots. Of. Cursing. Finally, however, it was done (see Figs 7 and 8). Please recall I goofily did things in a different order, so the pics show things I haven't discussed yet.

Fig 7 Ribs Trimmed (ruffle is just PINNED on at this stage)

Fig 8 (Close-up of Ribs)

The Ruffle

The next step was the ruffle. I took the strips cut from the scary blouse (Fig 2) and stitched the ends together to make one loooong ruffle. I then did a gathering stitch down the middle of the ruffle, so I could pull the thread and gather it a little more, to make it a little more, well, ruffly.

The brown ruffle was lacking punch, as it was, so I decided to add a very narrow teal ribbon down the middle of the ribbon. So, after gathering the whole thing, I then pinned and sewed a narrow teal ribbon down the middle of the ruffle (one line of stitching, in the middle of the narrow ribbon).

Fig 7

Trust me when I say that it was tricky to get this ruffle the right length. Sure, I could have made it longer and then just cut off the excess (oh, 20/20 hindsight) but no, I am a perfectionist, I wanted a minimal overlap. So I measured the circumference of my umbrella, and measured my ribbon length, and estimated from there. (end result was I was short a centimeter when I pinned it on, which provoked me to unpin the entire thing and stretch, stretch, stretch ...) Here are pics of the parasol with ruffle but ribs not trimmed (it was after I'd pinned the ruffle all along the edge, that I started to realize I had to do the ribs before sewing it on).

Fig 8 (showing off the striation)

Fig 9

Yet again, attaching the ruffle to the parasol involved a balancing act of the beast on my knee while using my sewing machine, followed by hand-stitching to finish.

Garnishing the Ferrule

So, I had to do something with the end, or ferrule, of the umbrella. I decided to place a mini-ruffle at the base of the ferrule, using the same remnants from the scary blouse, trimmed with blue teal narrow ribbon in the middle. I used a remnant about half-again as long as the circumference of the ferrule, and did a gathering stitch down the middle. I gathered the ruffle so it was nice and full, and fit around the ferrule. I added the teal ribbon down the middle, as with the circumference ruffle. I then stitched closed the ruffle so it became a little wee roll, or loop of ruffle. I sewed it so the joining seam would be on the inside.

I attached the ruffle to the ferrule using my glue gun. I set it on so that the middle of the ruffle was almost at the base of the ferrule, and the ruffle splayed out over the umbrella top, and conveniently hid where the velvet ribbons on the ribs ended.

Fig 10

Next, I decided to add a flower. I used a teal fabric flower from a cheap hair clip from Ardene. I used the hot-glue gun to attach a pretty button into the middle of the flower (Fig 11).

Fig 11

I also used hot glue to attach 2 long teal narrow ribbons to the underside of the flower, gluing the ribbons in the middle to form 4 dangly bits. I then used hot glue to attach the flower to the ruffle at the ferrule, placing it over the seam in the ruffle loop, to hide it.

Fig 11

Fig 12

Closing the Parasol

Figs 13 and 14, below, shows the parasol, closed using the original umbrella's closing strap. As you can see, it's very tight - I could hardly close it, because of the thickness of the bobbles and ruffles.

Fig 13

Fig 14

So, I needed to change the strap. Of course, this SHOULD have been done before adding the velvet ribbon rib-trim, so I could hide the stitching under the velvet ribbon. Fortunately, I was able to conceal what I did mostly, under the ribbon.

I trimmed the original strap as close to the edge as I could, with sewing shears. I then cut a length of velvet ribbon long enough to easily and comfortably go around the parasol to close it, without causing stress on the parasol. I folded one edge over, and where it doubled over, I sewed a decorate button onto the right side of the ribbon. Immediately under it, I sewed one half of a snap onto the underside of the ribbon. I determined where the other half should go, to close the umbrella easily, and sewed the other half of the snap to the right side of the ribbon, at that point. I then hand-stitched the ribbon to the umbrella, where the original ribbon had emerged from the seam, tucking as much as I could under the rib trim to hide it. Again, this was tricky to hand-stitch, as the umbrella had to be partly open as I worked. And voila, a much more attractive and functional closure for the parasol (Figs 15 & 16).

Fig 15

Fig 16

Below, find several photos of the final product, in use at Steamcon II in Seattle, WA.

I hope you have enjoyed my little description of how I pimped my parasol. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments you wish.

Steamed Decor - Coffee Table Display

2011-01-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

This is just a brief note on steampunkish decorating - I thought I would post oddments of my attempts at steampunk decor here.

With my interest in the steampunk scene, I would love to embark on a steam-decor blitzkrieg of my apartment, but I lack several things: 1. Hardcore steampunk maker skills; 2. Money to hire other folks' awesome maker skills or expensive items, and 3. I don't own my place, so my hands are tied in many ways for what I *can* do.

However, I am a decent forager, and between keeping a sharp eye out for many years on eBay (before steampunk-connected stuff became outlandishly expensive), and having an excellent local source for nifty bits and pieces, I have accumulated some pretty cool oddments. (Did I mention? I'm also an appalling packrat.) Now that I am working on tidying my very messy apartment (really, no, there is NOT half a dozen homeless people squatting in my abode, it just, um, looks like it), I am also trying to incorporate more steampunk details into my eclectically and erratically decorated place.

I thought, as I create little vignettes around my apartment, I will post them here, for your comment, entertainment, etcetera.

I decided to start with my display coffee table, which has a glass top and a drawer below. The front 3 compartments of the drawer are visible under the glass top, and I decided that 2 of those compartments would make a fun display of some of my found steampunk objects - the 3rd, middle compartment is occupied by a portion of my vintage marble collection (which I wasn't about to move).

Photo of the cofffee table top

Objects found while scrounging, plus a rivet hammer

Assorted brass objects plus opera glasses

Closeup of a brass teapot and a small round brass box found while scavenging.

I'm interested in seeing what other people do for steampunk decorating. Please feel free to post links to photos and tales of your own steampunk decor ideas, in comments to this blog. (I had hoped perhaps folks would be able to post photos directly in the comments, but I don't think that's an option. But if you find a way around that, please do!)

Exhilarating Episodic Steampunk Pirate Fiction: The Sauder Diaries by Michel R. Vaillancourt

2011-01-12T16:11:00.000-08:00

If, as I am, you are always hungry for new, quality Steampunk fiction, ready your plate for something new and toothsome. The Sauder Diaries is an episodic tale being served for us online by newcomer, Michel R. Vaillancourt, at Scribd, at http://www.scribd.com/collections/2718398/The-Sauder-Diaries.

Currently at seven posted episodes since its commencement in mid-November of 2010, this tale is being released with impressive speed, and a darn good thing, because each one is eagerly anticipated.

Mr. Vaillancourt sets his story in an alternate world where the Crimean War has resulted in the development of advanced weaponry, such as the impressively-engineered HMAFS Bloody Rose, the airship on which the main character, Hans Sauder, finds himself after capture by notorious pirates. Hans Sauder finds himself firmly persuaded to turn pirate (the alternative isn't shiny), and he joins the remarkably multinational crew (representing Scotland, Russia, Ethiopia, Norway, England, France, Spain, Arabia, and Slavic nations) of the Bloody Rose.

Each episode starts with an excerpt from Hans' diary, and is followed by a third-person narrative fleshing out the details of what actually occurred. Each chapter is well-written and consistent, and Mr. Vaillancourt's tale is not marred by the plague of poor grammar and misspelling that taints much online and unprofessional fiction.

The characters are real, and are engagingly presented and developed throughout the story, which isn't as common as I'd like in the unpublished realm. Included among the people you get to know is the upstanding and moral Hans (likeable for his foibles and yet occasionally making me yearn to smack him); the deliciously sardonic yet caring Doctor Koblinski, and two strong and quite different main female characters, Arietta the Chief Engineer, and Annika the Captain-Gunner. These people are gritty, and most of all, REAL.

The Sauder Diaries pose a refreshing change from much of what I've found in this genre. This isn't trite and fluffy fiction, nor is it a series of unrelieved battle scenes, or endless intricate descriptions of incomprehensible tech for tech's sake. There are sufficient action scenes, realistic characters, entertaining scenarios, conflict, humour, cool steam tech (love the dual-gas-bag airship with the EMIPALE - Electro-Magnetic Inductive Polar Aerostat Lift Engine and tempting hints of things to come with Galvanotaurs, Chimera and Dragons), and a spice of sexual tension to offer something for most readers of both genders to sink their teeth into.

I'm not into spoilers (hate coming across 'em) so I admit I am not giving you lots of details of the story itself. And, as it is episodic fiction, none of us knows what happens next until the author tells us.

So, in summary, good people, if you have been jonesing for some awesome steampunk fiction and wondering where the good writers are, go read the Sauder Diaries. You can find it online at Scribd (link below). But be warned - it's addictive, and episodic, and Michel Vaillancourt will keep you coming back for more. Keep an eye out on this new author - I hope we see more. In print.

http://www.scribd.com/collections/2718398/The-Sauder-Diaries.

What Can I Do or Make with This?

2010-12-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, folks, open question time:

This wooden watchpart box has come into my possession, complete with many tiny glass vials. See pictures below (which include a dime for size reference). Any ideas what I can do / make with this, for a cool steampunky accessory or item? (Important Note: I have zero engineering skills etc, so I can't make cool things that actually DO stuff. However, I can make things look nifty, and have quite a range of cool brass etc bits and bobs lying around.)

I want to make something with this cool box / and or vials, but I'm stumped on ideas.

Oh, and to show I do have lots of nifty bits and bobs around, here are a few pics of a bit of what I have to hand to trim / decorate / etc:

So ... open season! Suggestions?

Bustle-Skirt Making Madness

2010-12-05T16:59:00.000-08:00

I will warn you in advance, this is perhaps less of a how-to, and more of a "how-I-madly-made-a-bustle-overskirt-without-a-pattern-or-a-clue."

What I started with: a very long piece of 60-inch wide brown crepe (lovely stuff to work with). I started with 4 metres, and after much draping around a dress form, I ended up using approximately 2.28 metres (or 90 inches). I also had two apalling blouses (pictured below) which I planned to poach for trim.

Blouse One

Blouse Two

Detail Blouse Two

My inspiration was the following two vintage images:

Pinning my 60 inch crepe to my model, with one selvage at the top (waist) and the other selvage at the floor, I decided to gather the entire fabric width (60 inches) at the sides, where my side waist was. I made 2 parallel rows of basting stitches at each gathering point. In rough Paint sketch below (Fig 1), the brown rough-like edges are the cut ends of the fabric, with the more solid dark outer edges being the selvages. The red start points at centre front waist. The brown arrows indicate where I gathered the sides, after sewing the 2 (shown) parallel lines of basting stitch.

Fig. 1

This was easier said than done, as I gathered the entire 60-inch width down to a tight 15 inches, as shown in Figs 2 and 3. I broke many gathering stitches, which resulted in having to resew the rows, and had very sore fingers.

Fig 2

Fig 3

The next step was figuring out trim ideas. I decided to use the gold ruffle from Blouse One. I cut it from the blouse and pinned it to the overskirt, on one side starting at the top of the gather and going down across the bottom front, and then down the side of the front toward the back, to see what looked best. See Fig 4. I decided to go from top of gather across bottom front, and up other gather side, as the ruffle stuck out on the side front toward the back. At this point, I also decided to add a narrow plaid ribbon (25 cents/metre) to the gold ruffle.

Fig 4

Fig 5

Note in Fig 4 you can see how nicely the front ruches, with the gathers. At the top of the front, you can see the selvage edge naturally folding over.

I pinned the narrow plaid ribbon I'd selected, to the gold ruffle and sewed it down the middle, as shown in Fig 5, so it's outer edge was just over the gathered line of the ruffle.

Fig 6

Fig 7

I then pinned this to one side gather and across the front, and up the other side gather. It took me a while to figure out whether to leave excess at the back, to decorate whatever I decided to do for the back. However, I decided to trim it off - any decorate ruffle for back could be added later. I hand-basted the ruffle in place, and then pushed my machine's limits by overstitching the whole thing in place, through the depth of the gather and all. Looking good from the front (Fig 8) ... but what to do at the back ...

Fig 8

Fig 9

Pinning it up as shown, looked good (Fig 9). So, I took the hash of pleats I'd made (Fig 6), evened them out manually while still pinned to the mannikin, and sewed straight across them to fix them in place (see Fig 20 at the end). Now, keep in mind the back that you see here, is the two ends of that long length of fabric ... so there are 2 ends of fabric meeting. In Fig 9, I stitched the two fabric lengths together, from the bottom selvage edges to 21 inches up, which is where it seemed to hang best when pinned to the centre back waist. (Note good pics of this are at the end, Figs 17-19). I then hemmed the bottom, which actually meant hemming from the side gather back, all around that length of fabric that lays on the floor (see Fig 7).

I decided to cover the hem entirely, using the ruffles from Blouse Two. I cut off all the ribbon segments from the blouse, sewed edges together to make one long ruffle, and then did a gather stitch down the middle to gather it slightly more for added fullness. I decided to add the narrow plaid ribbon down the centre, for the outer edge of the skirt. I also decided to cover the underside hem with the dark brown ruffle as well, in case it was visible at times (ie, if I ever wear the bustle skirt on it's own). I opted NOT to decorate the underside trim with plaid ... I was having enough work as it was.

Fig 10

Fig 11

Fig 10 shows the detail of brown trim with plaid ribbon, and Fig 11 shows a portion of the hem, showing outer edge and underside folded over, to show the two ways I've dealt with the brown ruffle. I admit, at this point, the back isn't looking quite as I imagined pinned up.

Fig 12

Back, then, to the waistband, and how to actually attach the pinned-up bit to the centre back. Not knowing how to make a waistband, I decided to use dark brown grosgrain ribbo. I used a double layer, so that I could sandwich the skirt between two layers of grosgrain, which would have the added avantage of being very sturdy, to handle the weight of all the fabric. I used very large black snaps to close it - using two, again, to help handle all the weight.

Fig 13

Fig 14

To attach the back "drape" to the centre back, I decided to attach a loop of flat cording to the centre point of the back drape, exactly at the point where I had stopped my 21 inches of sewing from the bottom (as mentioned earlier) - Fig 15. I also covered the 21-inch seam with more of the brown ruffle (Fig 17). I did a bit of handstitching, as shown in Fig 15, to sort of neaten up the way the drape hung. I then attached a large button to the centre back waistband, on the grosgrain ribbon (Fig 16).

Fig 15

Fig 16

I'm not 100% happy with how the back looks, and some times it looks worse than others.

Fig 17

Fig 18

Fig 19

Fig 20

To show some more detail, here are a variety of views of the back, with the "train" up and down. Fig 17 shows it done up, and the detail of the ruffle trim on that 21 inch length. Fig 18 shows the train undone, and with the 21" trimmed length more visible. Fig 19 shows it train undone, and shows the gap (hidden when train is buttoned up) from top to 21" from hem. Fig 20 shows a closeup of the pleats. (These pics are to try to help show what I've done).

However, it looks great from the front, and it looks great on:

I may tweak it further ... and if I do, I will post the details and pics on my blog.

If you have any questions or comments about what I did, or how I did it, or want more explanations, please add a comment.

Introduction to the Steam Wench's Salon

2010-12-02T15:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings and welcome to my Salon.

Please have a cup of tea, or a glass of wine, or a snifter of spirits if that is more to your taste. We don't play terribly on ceremony here.

I hope to indulge myself and you in some steamy talk ... well, no, perhaps not quite in that vein. Some book reviews, as I encounter good (or not) steampunk literature, and some music reviews, perhaps (though, for me, that shall be much more subjective). I will share my steampunk social experiences, and photos, and such interesting things as I find on my worldly and aethernet wanderings. I also plan to share my creative endeavors (successes and disasters) with how-to's and such. Hopefully with photographs, if I can determine how best to incorporate such things in this new-to-me "blog" world.

So indulge me, enjoy yourself, and please feel free to comment as you will.