Steampunk Admiral

My latest make is a steampunk Admiral's uniform.

The Admiral stands on a cliff, having left the busy ship for a while to ponder her strategies in silence and enjoy the sea.

The inspiration for this costume comes from some different sources. The main inspiration was this, which I think is concept art for a character in an computer game, set in an alternative history 1880's. I also looked at 18^th century coats, the gold-work embroidery on 19^th century military uniforms, and some 1880’s does 1700’s ladies bodices. For those who use Pinterest, this is my inspiration board.

The coat is made in wool, with about 40 m of braiding hand stitched on collar, lapels, and cuffs. The wider trim is a vintage trim I found. The base pattern for the coat is actually from a Tudor dress, and then I constructed lapels, collar, and cuffs and added them. 

The hat is a 18^th century bicorne, a model that was not uncommon for military wear during the 19^th century.  I constructed the hat pattern based on a pattern I found on this blog, made it up in buckram and wire, and covered it with the same black wool as the gown. 

Steampunk Admiral - front detail

 The black wool is very easy to work with, as it drapes well, and the soft matte fabric efficiently hides stitches that would show on the right side in a more unforgiving fabric. That was important, as the lapels, collar, cuff, and the hat brim was finished separately and then hand stitched in place afterwards. The blouse and jabot is also made by me from my own pattern. The vest and leggings are from my modern wardrobe.

Steampunk Admiral - back view

An important part when designing this costume was to make it flexible in size – more specific, it has to be able to fit over a growing belly, as I am pregnant. This was quite a challenge, as I don’t know what size I will be much beforehand, and hopefully, I will go to an event in my late pregnancy. Thus, the design with an open coat, a blouse with lots of width, and a vest that will later be changed for a much larger one. 

The biggest challenge, except for finding a size-flexible design, was designing the braiding and the other trim. I wanted the braiding to resemble the oak leafs embroidered on collars on military uniforms, organic and flowing but still powerful. It was important to keep the coat looking like a coat, not becoming a dress. 

Details of the coat and hat:

Steampunk Admiral - braided lapel and button

Steampunk Admiral - braided lapel and cuff

Steampunk Admiral - decoration on the bicorne hat

As of yet, I have only worn the costume for a photo session, but I am very happy with how it turned out.

And as always, thank you Olof for the great photography!

The facts:

What the item is: A steampunk Admirals outfit, consisting of coat and hat (new), blouse and jabot (made for previous costumes), and modern leggings and vest.

Fabric: Black wool for hat and coat. Cotton for blouse and jabot. Scraps of silk for the cockade on the hat.

Pattern: Coat is a remade version of this 16th century English Tudor overdress, which is from the book The Tudor Tailor, but I have obviously modified it quite a lot, with collar, lapels and cuffs of my own construction. Blouse is the one I drafted and made for the Edwardian vampire.

Year: steampunk, inspired mostly by 18th century and 19th century uniforms.

Notions: old buttons from some type of civilian uniform, 4 m of vintage gold band and around 40 m of gold soutache braiding, a few very small clock gears for decoration on the hat.

Hours to complete: probably around 40 h for the coat, most of that spent hand sewing on all the gold trim, and at least 10 h for constructing and making the hat.

First worn: for photo shot at Femöre outside Oxelösund.

Cost: 500 kr, for the gold band and soutache braiding (not all of it used), as the rest was remakes, from stash, or from the wardrobe.
 

It was quite windy...

Steampunk at Jädersbruk Fair

I was invited to join a small group of Steampunks for Jädersbruk Fair near Arboga, Sweden. The fair is a lot about old vehicles, but this year the theme was "old and new", which goes well with steampunk. We was mingling, enjoying beautiful and weird cars and other vehicles, and got to explain what steampunk is quite a few times. Also met some other very nice steampunks. I wore my new hat for the first time.

Daughter and parents.

I found a Scania V8 engine and an old truck, and after all, I am a decently proud Scania employee nowadays.

The proud inventor of the vocal teleport, the slightly mad ghost detector box inventor, and the certainly not a spy technical attache of the French embassy.

Intense discussion of the two inventors.

The crown of the First Speaker

A very short story.

Over 30 years ago, long before First Speaker Amantha had managed to rise to her present office, she and her mother were visited by a stranded Time Lady. The Time Lady soon got involved in an intense romantic relationship with Amantha's mother. Eventually, the Time Lady left. The small family was left with tales of the possible and imossible things in the universe, and a knowledge of the Gallifreyan alphabet. Since then Amantha has been obsessed by the thought of time travel.

Eventually she rose to the title of First Speaker, through a combination of manipulation and actual skill. Since her election, the Council has put a considerable amount of its money into research on time travel. So far no progress has been made on the actual problem, but the country has become leading in both navigation and clockwork mechanics - a fact that does nothing to attenuate the First Speaker's fervent search.

(This is the story of the persona of my latest steampunk costume, that I am making for SilwerSteam. There will be lots of more pictures of the full costume later, after I have finished it.) 

Steampunk White Rabbit

A while ago, I was invited to a Alice in Wonderland themed party.  I decided to make a steampunk version of the White Rabbit. The coat is based on a 1890 walking dress that I made earlier, but never really liked. The fit was a bit odd, and as historical wear, it was painfully apparent that I bought polyester fabric with a slight stretch, in the vain hope that it would work anyway if I flat-lined it. (it did not, really)

Here, I shortened it and wore as a coat. With the fake leather parts of the tights, it almost looks like high boots in this picture. I wish...

Under the coat, I wore a vest and shirt, and a Victorian-ish high
collar, Steampunkishly combined with a 18th century inspired stock. Two watches, for the poor hurried Rabbit.

The hat is a very cheap one I bought from a shop with party accessories. The ears I made myself from fake fur, fabric, sturdy metal wire, and lots and lots of hot glue. I then added some gears to make it clearly recognizable as steampunk.

All in all, I am very happy with the result. It was comfortable to wear (except for being a bit hot since I was so covered up), and I have wanted a menswear steampunk costume for a while. And it feels good to give the coat this second life!

SilwerSteam - Nordic Steampunk Faire 2017

Last weekend, I was to SilwerSteam - Nordic Steampunk Faire 2017, and had a really great time! Wonderful location, nice people, fabulous costumes, and lots of interesting and enjoyable things to do.

I had offered to hold some kind of "get to know people" event, and that was one of the first things that happened on Friday evening. At 18:00 when it was supposed to start, there was just me, a friend and one other participant. Soon however I had "caught" about 10-15 people - by having the mingle outside the main entry and asking everyone arriving if they wanted to join us! Being a bit nervous (this was the first time I did this kind of thing), I don't remember so much of what I talked to people about, but I hope people had a good time!

After that, I think I just walked around, mostly looking costumes and the venue. In the evening, we had a steam pub all to ourselves. 
My costume for Friday was the Ghost Detection box, or more formally, the work-wear of an ectoplasmic residue detector workperson. I had made a broader tie and a softer hairdo than last time, which I think worked better with the overall look.

Saturday morning started off with a a wind orchestra playing outside of the venue. For me, who loves marches, it was quite emotional to hear two of my favourite marches being played! Great start of the day.

Then, I joined Director Munktell for a guided tour of the museum showing some of his inventions.

Later, there was people to talk to, and photos to take, and being photographed. I also went to a lecture on using LED in costumes, which turned out to be a lecture on programming the Arduino microcontroller to make it control a programmable LED strip. In that way, you can get lights that blinks and shifts color however you want. For me, it was very inspiring and seemed straightforward to do if you have some kind of experience in programming.

Then, on to the costume contest. I don't have any pictures of it as I was a part of it, but it was very fun to take part and to see all the marvellous costumes. And well arranged - we go to walk a round in the old engine hall, while the speaker told the audience about our costumes. There even was smoke when each of us was announced and entered stage - made me feel like a star!

My costume for Saturday day was the newly re-made forrest/mechanical dress. Here with Aurora in the engine hall, with all steam engines running and smoke coming up just in time for out photo.

 And more pictures:

A uniform and a backpack!

Karin the mechanic

I think this is Alistair in Wonderland.

In the evening, I managed to eat too little and get a bit low, but I got get a "uniform picture" with  Henrik (Pilerud Cosplay) and Martyn. I definitly wouldn't mind seeing more steampunks wearing uniforms, and I think another uniform might be my next steampunk sewing project.

Did not take many pictures on Saturday evening, but it was nice to meet Lykke and Marianne again that I first met last year in Gothenburg. Also - that riding habit!

 On Sunday, my parents joined me.

Proud daughter with parents newly introduced to steampunk.

And the chemist even found a lab!

There was live music, so in a few minutes, I will be waltzing with Y. In steampunk costume, in the engine hall, to live music - not something I get a chance to do everyday.

The Sunday ended with the finals of the tea duelling, and the announcement of the winners of the teapot racing and the costume contest. I am most honoured to be one of the costume contest winners, in the company of such talented costumers.

My mother made it to the Tea duelling semi final (wearing the newly purchased hat - of course a steampunk need a proper hat!) ...

..and final! After a thrilling contest, the victory went to the Norwegian gentleman.

But then, everything has to end. Luckily for me, there was other steampunk enthusiasts heading the same way as I, so I got company on the train, making the fun ended less abruptly. And on the way, we had time to talk both steampunk, space based navigation (as in GPS signals) and the perils of inventing too good Artificial Intelligence. A worthy end of a marvelous weekend!

Do you have a blog post about silwersteam, or a picture collection that is not found via facebook? Please comment and give us a link!