Steampunk Princesses #1093

What a fun project this was to work on!! I've been known to complain (who me??) about this or that project for being too hard or tedious or I just didn't want to do it, but who can't love Steampunk Princesses?!

Not much tricky sewing to talk about, so today I thought I would show you all the images I sent up to Simplicity for design and materials approval.

I will blog about sewing next time.

This is the sketch I sent up. You can see Tinkerbelle had bloomers. So did Snow White showing below her petticoat, but there were too many pattern pieces and they were eliminated ... sigh ... along with TWO WHOLE OTHER OUTFITS!!!

So, if this pattern sells well enough, it is very likely they will publish the other two ... just sayin' ...

I knew fabric choice would be really important for the success of these costumes. I hit up Joann's first. All of this first pile is from Joann's.  I really like their thin distressed fake leather. But it is so thin very sturdy interfacing needs to be used with it. The two green fabrics are their ... what's it called? ... Silky Essence? ... not silk at all, but a nice light weight fabric in good colors.

They, also, have a nice selection of Asian - Chinese brocades.

These fabrics are all from Joann's as well. The red is cotton gaberdine. The yellow is from their Casa collection, a dull satin. And the blue is one of the "costume" satins. Not the nicest fabric, but a good weight and I really liked the shade of blue.


The white of the color is satin and I used white cotton for the petticoat.

The tan lace is a Simplicity trim. They are always happy when I used their trims. And, of course the rick rack is Wright's which is owned by Simplicity.

More Joann fabrics here. More of the thin pleather in a darker color. Another shade of the Asian brocades and more Casa dull satin.  Even though I used the same tan lace in this photo, it's not on the actual costume. I didn't want two costume with the same trim. I found a similar lace at an independent fabric store near me. It's more a mustard color, which I liked better for this view.

Finding all the hardware was a challenge. Again, I first checked out Joann's and got a few things there. 

Then I searched on line and found more things.  Ebay and Etsy have interesting stuff. And most corset suppliers have interesting hardware now, too. Try Farthingales, or CorsetmakingSupplies.com or Richard the Thread ... all good.

I played around with the various fastenings and sent this photo to Simplicity. I wanted these closures to be functional not just sewn over the front seam for show. So, I needed to show how they were working.


Now the fun could begin ... making them!  And I will show some sewing on Wednesday.