Just got back from my annual steampunk Memorial Day weekend! World Steam Expo was replaced with
Up in the Aether, and they managed to pull off a pretty decent convention. My friend L and I really appreciated the vacation aspect of it this year and had great fun (as usual) wearing pretty costumes, visiting with some old and new friends, and learning many new things.
I decided to enter the first annual Miss Steampunk contest; while I did not win, it definitely challenged my costume making ability, and I had a blast doing it.
Fair warning: picture heavy post ahead.
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| Day 1 outfit: Adventuring! I went for a sort of field biologist approach - if you look carefully you can see a tiny (fake) butterfly and bird in the cages on the left. I also have a snake on my hat. |
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| Here's a full length look at the adventuring outfit. Who would have guessed the skirt used to be bedsheets? |
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| The Ace of Spades brought a super cool light up gun that also made noises when you shot it. Didn't you know, steampunks love noisy light up things?! |
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| Day 2: Egypt Punk. This is my 3rd Egyptian outfit that I've created, and I am finally happy with it. |
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| My bustle is a little crumpled in this shot (from sitting through a couple of panels already), but I was really quite pleased with how it turned out. |
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| Swimsuit competition! It's a little hard to see in this photo, but my bustle is made out of pool noodles. I then covered it in chiffon and netting, and attached little tiny sea creatures. |
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| Total fangirl moment: meeting one of my favorite musicians, Voltaire! |
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| Day 3: Serene in Green. This is the outfit I'm probably the most proud of. I used an old 2 piece suit as the base, and then added all of the fun trim and sleeves and poofy underskirt. I'm also wearing my brand new hat from Blonde Swan! |
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| Close up of the corseting on the skirt. I will probably do a How-To post on this later; it's great for being able to change the size of thrift store finds. |
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| The Mr. and Miss Steampunk Contestants. It's ridiculous how good looking we all are. |
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| Serene within the chaos :) |
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| One of my favorite photos of the weekend, taken by the talented David M. Rozian. This was part of the Dastardly Alliance's Miss Bad Ass Competition's War Face Round. |
Overall, we had a fabulous time (in case you couldn't tell by the photos. UitA, see you next year!
