Revamping the Steampunk Cheshire Cat and the diagonal seamed corset

Wild Wild West Con at Old Tuscon Studios was rapidly approaching and I was horribly sick with bronchitis.  I had planned on doing so many new costumes, but could barely muster the energy to do other mundane things that had to be done.  One costume that absolutely had to be finished was the revamp of the Steampunk Cheshire Cat.  I suppose I could have just worn it as it was the previous time, but the Albuquerque Steampunk Society was doing a group costume of Alice in Wonderland on the Sunday and I did not want to have my costume be a let down. As I felt a bit better I focused on this costume almost exclusively.

Some of the upgrades were simple.  First was the mask, the battery holders got moved to reduce the pressure point they created against my forehead and I added copper whiskers.  The whiskers are simple copper wire shaped and then super glued into holes drilled into the mask. I will admit the drilling made me really nervous, but the drill had no problem drilling the paper clay and made really neat holes.  I did not even have to fix the paint!

The second simple upgrade involved making a new belt.  Since I planned to move the tail attachment to the corset, I was going to need to destroy the belt that the tail was currently attached to due to the fact that the tail support was riveted to the belt.  I love the little cat face pouch I made and wanted to continue wearing it, so I made a really quick and dirty new belt.  This belt used scraps of the pink leather salvaged from the ruined belt and some brass colored rings.  The rings are for hanging curtains which I selected because they are the right size, but of unknown metal.  I just removed the clips that would hold the curtains and utilized the rings.  The spaced rings would allow me to clip on my little cat face pouch and also will allow me to make other bits to use in the future.  In particular I want a fan holster, they are so very useful at outdoor hot events. 

The hard upgrade was the corset.  I was determined to have a corset that had had stripes in pink and purple.  I also did not want simple vertical or horizontal stripes.  The solution came in the form of an article on Foundations Revealed which discussed a diagonal seamed corset.  The introductory article to these kinds of corsets is free and can be found here.  The advertisement is from 1885, so I figured I would see if I could use the 1883 corset patent I worked up for my HSM 2015 January challenge of foundations and turn it into a diagonal seamed corset.

To create the pattern, I made a simple mock up of the pattern I made in January and stuck it on my dress form.  I then drew diagonal lines were I thought they looked nice.  In hindsight, maybe evenly spacing the lines would have been good.  Maybe next time?













I realized that these pieces were going to be really confusing, so I number the pieces before cutting the mock up apart.










 I then cut this mock up apart to make a new pattern with the seams on the diagonal. 











Since the fabric could bias and stretch a bit when pinning to cut the corset fabric, I carefully copied the pattern pieces to paper.  I also realized that I needed to mark absolutely everything on my paper pattern!  Normally I can be a bit sloppy in my marking, but I was worried that these pieces were so unintuitive that I would add seam allowance where I shouldn't and miss it in other places.  I marked the center front, back, where seam allowances needed to be added and where they did not.  I also marked what pieces and exactly where each pattern piece attached to.  I was pretty terrified of messing this corset up really badly while sewing.

At this point I made my first set of mistakes.  The only bright pink and purple fabric I could find that also had a nice shine to it was a cotton satin twill.  Unfortunately it had stretch to it, a 2 way stretch.  I have never used a stretch fabric before for a corset, but I figured I could make a strength layer with non-stretch twill and as long as I cut the diagonal pieces with the stretch only in the vertical direction it would all work out.  This idea would probably have been O.K. if I did not have problems with the strength layer later.

The next mistake is that I was a bit terrified of doing the diagonal pattern and still line up bone casings so I made the strength layer with normal vertical seams. The combination of vertical seams and the diagonal seams made lining up the strength layer and the fashion layer really challenging, but I decided to press ahead and added bone casings to the strength layer.  At this point I had a real problem!  It turns out that even though I bought bone casing in bulk and tested the casing with my boning, full size bones did not actually fit!  The boning fits very tightly and while it worked for short pieces of casing (3-4 inches) that I tested with, it would not work for the full length of the corset.  In fact, I got several pieces of boning completely stuck and since they were spring steel the stretched completely out of shape trying to free them!  The only thing I can think of is that the boning I am using is an old order from Weissner and maybe the bone casing I bought from Canada cannot fit the thick bones from Weissner.  I actually bought the widest casing available and my thick bones wont fit at all.  I will likely buy other boning so the casing is not a total loss, but this casing wont work with any of the boning I currently own.

In comparison to the strength layer, the diagonal layer went together like a dream.  I stitched together each piece, clipped and ironed each seam and then stitched down the seam allowance for each stripe.  I was really worried that having all those seam allowance run around would be really bad in the final corset.  After stitching down the seam allowance, I trimmed off the excess seam allowance.  Of course, now I had the problem of what to do since my strength layer was a complete failure.

I turned back to the Foundations Revealed article and found that the majority of surviving diagonal seamed corsets are one layer.  The bone channels are fabric or twill tape (I am not sure) stitched directly to the diagonal panels.  Since the fabric I selected does of stretch, this is not an ideal solution.  However, I decided to try it anyway since the stretch was all vertical and I hoped it would be O.K.  I used black twill tape to make boning channels and a waist tape.  This of course meant that the vertical stitching which would have been reserved for the strength layer will now be visible on all the panels.  Since I did not want the stitching to match only the pink or the purple, I used a variegated purple thread to stitch down all the channels.   I also added non-stretch twill as a strength layer just to the front closure to stabilize the busk and to the lacing panel.  I was very worried that any stretch around the grommets would mean failure of the corset while wearing it!  The entire corset is bound with bias tape and had the purple straps hand stitched to the inside of the corset.

Here is the final corset, please forgive the odd lumpiness of displaying on the dress form!  My dress form has neither my hips nor my bust.  The extra ribbons on the back are to allow the tail to be attached. The only thing I wish to do now is floss the bone channels.  The use of a single layer makes me really nervous, even though many surviving corsets were only one layer.  I want the flossing to help reduce wear by the bones.

Speaking of tail attachment, I did redo the tail.  My husband boiled some leather and allowed it to dry overnight to make a strong base. He then took the wire supporting the tail and ran it through 2 holes in the first piece of leather.  After the wire was through, he made loops out of the wire flush with the leather.  This prevents the wire from sliding back out of the holes and gives a good strong base to hold up the tail.  The wire is then sandwiched by another thick piece of leather and the two pieces of leather are riveted together.  The image to the left shows the two thick pieces of leather which sandwich the tail wires.

I then added a decorative layer of pink leather which is attached by rivets and some grommets to lace the tail to the corset.

The tail can then be attached to the corset using the short purple ribbons.  This means that the tail is easily removable and easy to put back on for important things like car rides and bathroom breaks. 









The tail is actually quite long as you can see in the second picture.  So long that I often smack people with it on accident.
Don't mind the actual cat, he is trying to pull the fuzzy tail cover off the tail.  He actually did manage to stretch the fabric in the short time it took me to take pictures. He is very young and has not yet learned his costume manners!

This next weekend, I will write up the actual event and include pictures of the full outfit.  I am so glad I felt better in time to actually finish this outfit, it was so fun to play dress up with the full group and we ended up with 11 people doing Alice in Wonderland with us!

 

A turban for the steampunk caterpillar

On his first wearing of the steampunk caterpillar my husband lacked a hat.  We simply ran out of time to get a hat completed as well as everything else, but it completely made me nuts.  I love hats and his outfit needed one!  We are planning on wearing the Alice in wonderland outfits again to Wild Wild West Con in Tuscon in a few weeks and I am determined to fix up the few things I hated about our outfits.  First up is the lack of hat on my husband.  The original plan was for an Asian inspired hat to go with the coat, which is Asian inspired.  However, my husband flat refused and said it had to be a turban, so turban it is.  I also felt the hat need antennae, since it is a caterpillar and I wanted the antennae to light up.  The event has night concerts and lighted props are so much fun at the concerts. 

First problem, my husband wanted ridiculously long antennae! So the antennae had to be sturdy and stabilized to his head.  I decided the easiest solution was to buy a baseball cap from a local craft store (they are super cheap, less than $3).  Most baseball caps have interfacing in the front to stabilize them, so it should provide enough support for the antennae.  I then unpicked the seams that held in the brim in place.  Once the brim was removed, I stitched the sweat band back in place.  The baseball cap was adjustable, so we adjusted it to my husband's head size.  I built the antennae out of a coathanger and then stitched them to the hat. 

To make the antennae look less like a hanger, I stitched tubes out of bias tape that were 1.5 times the length of the wire.  After I slipped the tube over the wire, I added the lights to the end of the wire.  The light is the clearish thing at the end of the blue tube to the left.  These lights flash multiple colors and had a loop at the back for wearing them on a string.  I ran the wire through the loop and bent the wire back to lock the lights in place.  The lights hang down a bit and can move slightly since I did not want the wire too tight or I feared I would break the plastic loop on the light.  I wanted to add some dimension to the fabric tubes, since the looked like thin fabric over wire.  I did this by hand beading the bias tube and using the stitches between beaded areas to gather the tube a bit.  To hide the ugly end if the bias tube and the loop of wire, I made fringe out of a scrap of fabric, wrapped the fringe around the end and hand stitched it into place.  You can see the fringe in the picture to the left. 

Once the antennae were ready, I covered the ball cap base with blue brocade to make a turban.  Basically, I cut a yard of fabric in half.  Serged the edges to one half and used that the cover between the antennae and make the upper part of the turban.  I then made a tube out of the remaining half yard of fabric.  I ran a strip about 12 inches wide of cotton fabric through the center of the tube to give it a bit more body.  I then twisted the tube and wrapped it around the bottom of the hat.  I basically just played with the fabric until I was happy with it.  After I was happy with it, I stitched all of the fabric to the ball cap by hand.  The decoration at the front is made from a broken earring I had lying around and a feather plume I got from the floral department of the local craft store.  Anyway, here is the finished turban!  I think my husband will like it, since he wont actually have to tie a turban each time he wears it and the antennae really are rather big.  He is likely going to have to get used to ducking for doorways in this. 

Steampunk Alice in Wonderland

Last year, the local steampunk group decided to have an Alice in Wonderland themed tea in the park.  We all planned on making our own interpretations of Alice in Wonderland characters.  I was so excited as the Cheshire cat is one of my all time favorite characters.  My husband chose to be the caterpillar and promptly started working on a steampunk hookah. My husband and I also offered to help several of the others with their costume bits. Due to helping others and being in the process of studying for a major exam, the costumes did not get all the finishing touches I think they need.  However, I wanted to share what I did get done on them and hopefully I will share the updates in the future!

The Caterpillar
My husband has always loved the caterpillar in the Disney animated Alice in Wonderland, so he wanted the costume to be blue.  My first instinct was to make a blue Persian outfit due to the cute slippers depicted in the animated version.  However, my husband is very picky about shoes and would never wear the slippers.  So I needed to go a different direction.  From a British historical standpoint of the book's writing, I felt the caterpillar probably represented an Asian opium den inhabitant.  Since Steampunk is fantasy, I decided to do a loosely Asian inspired smoking robe and simple pants.

The pants were simple, elastic waist cotton pants in blue.  The robe is made out of the most evil fabric I have ever worked with.  I wanted something shiny as if the caterpillar could be a hallucination.  I found this fabric super cheap, around 2 dollars a yard.  However, it frays if you look at it and has absolutely no body. I had to add the blue edging to keep any shape in the garment at all.  I did find some really great frog closures for cheap at a local fabric store. 

My husband also wanted to wear this outfit out to local gatherings and maybe to conventions at some point.  I thought a simple shoulder bag to hold stuff while wearing this outfit might be good.  So I used my embroidery machine and some embroidery patterns from Urban Threads to whip up a quick bag.  The patterns are the steampunk alphabet and the Smoking caterpillar from the Alice design pack.  The Who R U ? is in tribute to the animated movie. Unfortunately, at this point I ran out of time and did not get a hat finished. This outfit needs and hat so very badly!  At least it was done enough to wear it for the picnic and out to an amusement park.





My husband and I did most of the work on the hookah in a hurry, so I have very few pictures of it in process  It is a really fun prop however. The blue base is a plastic drink dispenser, we drilled a bunch of holes into the lid and added some PVC pipe fixtures spray painted gold and silver.  To keep the pipes stable, they go all the way to the bottom of the drink dispenser and are glued there. The copper piece on the very top is an old baking pan we found at Good Will for $0.25.  The baking pan has a a set of multicolored LEDs which are wired in an array and then protected under a piece of plastic.  On top of the LEDs is a bunch of quartz crystals to diffuse the light, the glow is rather other worldly. The smoking tube is actually thin plastic tubing with the wiring running up it.  The 'mouth piece' is actually a switch that causes LEDs to light up and there is a cord from the bubble gun in the front that pulls the trigger.  The cording is quite long and he can hide it so the gun fires without people expecting it.   The whole thing has a leather strap so he can carry it with him everywhere. He took this prop to an amusement park and I started accusing him of being the pied piper.....all the local children started following him to play with the bubbles!

The Cheshire Cat

I also planned on basing my Cheshire cat off of the animated movie version and wanted lots and lots of pink and purple stripes.  Most of my steampunk is all very long skirts and highly Victorian/Edwardian influenced (none of which has made it onto this blog).  I wanted to make this outfit more fantasy and modern.  However, I don't usually wear short skirts and was a bit worried about short skirts and picnics outside...... So I decided to make a pair of bloomers to protect my modesty.  The bloomers are cotton with purple lace stripes down the sides.   The hem is finished with really bright pink cotton lace and pink pleated ribbon trim.  I sewed a purple ribbon down the middle of the pleated ribbon trim for a bit more detailing. 





Originally, I wanted a big fluffy petticoat under my skirt.  This was also a reason for the bloomers, to both protect my modesty and to protect my legs from the scratchy petticoat.  I bought several spools of 10 inch wide pink tiger stripped tulle from the fabric store and gathered 75 yards of the stuff to make the petticoat.  I was so glad the length was pre-cut and all I had to do was gather it!  If you look closely, there is an odd seam in the cotton of petticoat, this is because I originally made the petticoat too long and had to shorten it. Oops!  While I love the petticoat, I did not end up wearing it as it looked really strange under the dress. I think it would be fine with a dress with a fitted bodice, but with the lace dress it was just a frumpy look.  Maybe I will revisit the petticoat later when I make more stuff for this costume.

The dress was made entirely out of pink stretch lace and purple stretch lace that I found in the discount section of the fabric store.  First, I figured out the pattern for my dress, I wanted a full skirt to allow for the petticoat and long sleeves.  Once I had the pattern, I cut the pattern into stripes and then cut my fabric.  I have never been so thankful for my Serger in my whole life!  It was so nice to be able to just serge the fabrics together to make a striped dress.  Since the fabric is so stretchy, I stabilized the neckline with bias tape and ran a ribbon through the bias tape.  This makes the neckline a little bit adjustable and keeps the weight of the full skirt from stretching out the neckline too much.

For accessories, I wanted spats and mitts.  The spats pattern I started with is from Steam Ingenious.  This is a great starting pattern and is really simple to make.  My calves are very large and required a much larger size than my ankles, so I did have to modify the pattern, but it was simple enough to do and I enjoyed trying out the pattern. The base fabric is purple cotton bottom weight twill and the edging is pink bias tape. I found bright pink alligator patterned leather at the local Tandy's and used it to make strapping on the spats.  This created an issue, the leather plus the metal hardwear was quite heavy.  Over a day, the spats slowly slipped down my leg to pool around my ankles.  I need to fix this, but have not decide how yet.

The mitts are the fingerless gloves pattern from McCalls 6975.  The pattern called for stretch lace, I decided to use the purple twill anyway.  I will say this made from some really fiddly sewing. Also, I had to add a hand binding to cover the seam where the thumb joins the hand part as the twill would unravel there.  Still, the pattern was a nice base to work from and would be much easier if I had used lace.  I used the same leather to make detail bits on the mitts. 


Now I need the cat bits, specifically the ears and tail.  I bought some soft fleece stuff in purple and pink.  This stuff is so soft and, apparently, a cat magnet.  I have to hide this stuff from my cat, she was not planning on sharing at all!

 I have always wanted the Necomimi cat ears that move on their own, but really couldn't afford them.  Alice offered me the money for the cat ears if I would make her a skirt, shirt and fluffy bustle like the one I made for my steampunk doll for her Alice costume.  I was sold.  The only issue was the color of the ears, so I made new covers for my ears out of the fluffy stuff.

Next came the tail. I wanted the tail to be stiff, so I made a base out of wire covered in batting.  I then made a striped tail out of the fluffy fleece (again, so thankful for my Serger).  To get the tail to stand out, the top of the wired tail needed to stay flush with my body.  So I attached the tail to a belt I made out of the pink leather.   The tail is one of the things I am not happy  with, specifically that the belt has to sit at my waist.  Anatomically, the tail should come from my tail bone, not my waist.  I am planning on fixing this in the future, but am still deciding how I want to fix this. 

I also wanted a pouch to hold my stuff so I don't have to carry a separate purse.  So I designed a cat face pouch to hang from the belt.  I wanted the main part of the purse to be the same pink leather, but I wanted some purple details on the cat face and a fluffy pink nose and ears.  I also wanted fun eyes.  The purple details are made from the purple twill.  To make the front of the cat purse, I first cut out the face and detail in leather.  I then taped the leather to the twill with masking tape.  The masking tape kept everything stable while I was sewing.  After sewing the tape can be removed.  I sewed the outline, stripes and eyes with the tape over the leather.  I then pushed the bits of fleece for the nose and ears in the cut holes and stitched them down.  Finally, I made eyes and teeth out of sculpy.  The sculpy teeth had flattened tops with holes to allow them to be stitched into place.  The detail on the eyes is painted and then they are glued to the purple twill.  The back and sides of the pouch is just pink leather and there is a leather strap that snaps over the top to hold things in.

Finally came time for the prop part, the mask.  I wanted the eyes on the mask to spin and be hypnotic.  My husband designed a motor system and brass posts for the eyes.  The posts keeps the eyes from blocking my vision so I can still move around.  Unfortunately, the motors are fairly fast so the mask had to be really really stable and not move.  To do this, we used plaster infused strips from the craft store to make the mask base that fitted my face exactly. The large lump you see on the right side is the space for the forehead sensor for the Necomimi ears, I needed the sensor to sit under my mask.  The eyes were cut from plexiglass and painted with faux stainglass paints from the craft store.  Below you can see the brass posts, the wiring, switches, battery pack and the eyes.

I also made some teeth from transparent sculpy to add to the mask.  To attach the teeth and eyes, I first stuck these pieces down with glue and then built up plaster around them with the plaster strips.  To change the shape of my face, I built up the mask with paper clay and then sanded the clay smooth.  Mostly I built up the nose and added a ridge from my check bones all the way around  the top of the mask.  This served 2 purposes, to make my face wider and provide a place to hide the battery packs. 

Once the mask was dry, we glued the battery packs behind the ridge.  I then painted the mask and added a hair fringe to hide the straps.  The mask is pretty heavy, so the straps are heavy elastic to hold the mask up.  Overall, I am happy with the mask, I just need to tweak the battery pack positioning as right now it digs into my head pretty badly.  Being able to reach up and turn the eyes on and have them start spinning is really a fun trick.

My husband also helped the Tweedles with their hats.  They wanted to hats to have spinning propellers that were wings on the top. I think the hats are really cute, but the propellers are very fast and we will likely revisit them in the future.  Here are a few pictures of some of the others from the tea.  I love the yellow and red Tweedles costumes the best, but everyone was so creative and the event was so much fun.