Summer will soon be here and I'm making my plans. This year I'm going to attend RWA(Romance Writers of America) Nationals in Nashville. Part of the festivities is a steampunk party aboard a steamboat.
I've got a steel bra that I made as sculpture back when I was an art student. I'm planning to remake it as part of a corset. But now the ideas are snowballing and I'm planning an entire steampunk costume.
Last weekend, I began drafting the pattern for the corset. I made a rought preliminary out of paper then made a muslin and redid the pattern. I'm going to do another muslin next.
I purchased fabric, a burgundy colored linen/cotton blend for the outside and a cotton twill for the inside layer. I'm going to do the lacing on the sides and a split busk on the front. I looked into purchasing a split busk and decided it would be better to make my own out of steel mesh and wire. I'm going to put the busk on the outside
Yesterday I went from hardware store to hardware store looking for steel mesh. I what I was looking for at Lowe's. Loui, a salesperson there, was a great help. He writes science-fiction short stories. He had a Mowhawk and tattoos. We talked about art and industrial goth. I never thought I'd be doing industrial goth. This costume won't be. It's more industrial than goth.
I drew a layout for the corset, and put the steel parts on top.
