Piper's Blogworld

In general, I find clothing manufacturers to have zero creativity and little to no sense whatsoever when it comes to producing clothing for little girls…in my humble opinion. They assume all little girls want to be princesses dressed in pink. I have struggled over the years to find clothes for Piper that she likes simply because she detests pink and refuses to be dressed like a princess. This leaves me in a wee bit of a bind. I am either forced to purchase so-called “boy” clothing or I am literally chained to my Pfaff sewing machine for weeks on end like Dr. Frankenstein madly sewing Piper’s latest original design line.

A true Steampunk girl will always have her keys close at hand.

I must give Piper an A for effort in the creativity department because she has come up with some of the most unusual requests. Over the years, she has gone shopping with me dressed as a wizard (complete with cape and the tall pointy hat), a pirate (thank goodliness that phase has gone), and the eleventh Dr. Who (complete with sonic screwdriver, fez, and bowtie…because fezes and bowties are cool). Some parents would cringe shopping in the produce aisle with a child shouting, “Arrh, matey” while wielding a cardboard sword. I was just thankful no one was ever captured and forced to walk an imaginary plank.

Piper’s Steampunk watch.

Now, this brings me to her most recent request: Steampunk. I have never in my life heard the word steampunk, so I had to Google it. I found it to be an interesting subculture enveloped around the 19th century steam engine. THIS was something I was excited to sew!

Steampunk binoculars are a must. I made these out of toilet paper tubes. I painted them bronze, silver, and black and then glue on cogs.

I painted welding goggles and then added loupes from Amazon.ca

For those not familiar with Steampunk (like I was), there are some serious hardcore Steampunkers out there. Experts who actually build mechanisms which “do something” like in the movie, Wild Wild West with Will Smith and Kevin Kline. Then there are other not-so-hardcore individuals who really could not give a rats arse about technicality and just have fun with an outfit. That would be us.

PIper’s Steampunk underbust corset. Because I sew, many of the buckles and fasteners were already in my stash. I had spare fabric and decided to create a pattern for the peasant blouse as well.

This underbust corset could have been smaller, but I reckon a wee bit larger is better than too tight.

For the underbust corset, I used painters tape and marked Piper like a side of beef. Then I used plastic wrap to create the pattern. Once that was done, I used scrap material to see where I needed to adjust the pattern before I used the more expensive fabric.

Since I could not purchase nor find an actual underbust corset patter that would fit Piper, I decided to create one instead.

Piper helped cut out the pattern pieces and pinned them to the scrap material.

My Steampunk girl!

I must confess that this outfit took me approximately 2 weeks to complete, but the smile on Piper’s face matched with the big hug told me she appreciated it. Now, she wants a pair of spats to go with it. Only Piper would think of spats. Scrooge McDuck would be proud.