Theresa LaQuey - Guest blogger - Steampunk #4 - part 3, the fabrics and finishing

Today is Theresa finishes up this series by talking about the fabrics she used for these costumes and showing some photos of the work in progress.


Thank you Theresa for sharing all this with everyone and giving me a break from blog writing ... I love my sister!


When it came to fabric selection, I once again scored a lovely gold patterned silk from Discount Fabrics in Berkeley for View A. I had wanted to use an acid greenish colored wool flannel, but Betsy Burger asked me to look at the Pantone color of the year, and we ended up doing a purple color that reflected the Pantone color.  The skirt silk comes from reliable Thai Silk in Los Altos.

For view B I scored a wonderful black and silver novelty brocade at Stone Mountain and Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley which is unusual as they don't normally carry anything like that, and I found a very nifty changeable black fabric that was very buoyant at Piedmont Fabric in Oakland. 

Here I am showing you how I made the channels for the bones in the corset.  I carefully pin through the seam line and the lining seam line and stitch.  You always have to be very accurate when putting the corset pieces together as it won't look good if things are baggy or wrinkly. I also use fusible interfacing on all of the fashion fabric parts of the corsets to reinforce them. 

When working on the overskirt, I set a piece of seam binding into one of the two gathered seams to insure that they do not stretch and are the same length. 

After I dyed the Venetian lace, (yes I dyed it, it was rayon so I could) I started figuring out where and how it should be placed on the jacket.  This particular lace I found on eBay. 

 One of the great things about Venetian lace is that it cuts apart so well. Here is my placing it on the upper sleeve and then starting to hand sew it onto the back side of the fabric. 

 I prefer to work from the backside on this operation if I can as then your thread doesn't get caught on the lace.  

The next photo shows the finished pinned placement of the lace on the collar.  This lace has also been cut apart and altered to fit the shape of the collar. 

On the back of the jacket, I used some of the extra pieces from the collar for added prettiness. 

Here is the back of the jacket shell stitched together with the completed lace and a sleeve pinned to the form so I can get a final look at how the outcome will be. 

I used some fusible wigham to give the jacket hem a nice crisp edge.  You can just use bias strips of fusible interfacing. 

And here is the almost finished product, with out its chain decoration. 

 A closer detail of the jacket butting onto the corset. It has been some pretty intense days of sewing.

This is view B. I have used chain from the hardware store, some decorative buttons, some clasp buckles to attach the straps and an O ring for the back.   I took this photo before I had to make a second trip to the hardware store.  I hadn't purchased enough chain for the corset.

Finally a photo of the back of the finished garment with an extra photo of the wonderful cuff detail ... things that the envelope photo doesn't show too well.

In all of my Simplicity designs, as my sister taught me, these are just a jumping off point for all of the people who want to riff on the designs. I hope that you all have a good and fun time with them.

Theresa LaQuey