The Steamstress

I should be doing all kinds of other things right now. Instead, I’ll show you costume I’m working on.
I didn’t have time to get it done for halloween but did get enough done to wear it to a Renaissance Faire on their “you can wear any weird costume you want” day. 

My sweetly fierce oldest daughter dressed like a warrior ogre, drove in and met us there and it was a wonderful day!

I started off with a funky corset I already owned. I got it from the fabulous Damsel In This Dress. It came with bright yellow straps that I wasn’t in love with so I hadn’t worn it yet. Then… it finally occurred to me that hey, I’m a textile artist that uses paint, I can fix that!

So I fixed it. A brush, some bronze-ish paint – and there you go. All better now.

Next up was a hi-lo split skirt made of a print of fabulous vintage tape measures.

I drafted an uneven circle on a really, really wide roll of freezer paper I’ve been slowly using up for about 20 years, cut out a bunch of wedges and tried not to swear at my serger. I love that machine when it works and tear out my hair for the 45 minutes it takes to thread it every time something messes up. Let’s just say it’s not a high quality machine.

I dug through my bins and found an olive green satiny fabric for a lining. I didn’t want the skirt riding up or the wrong side of the fabric showing.

Tomorrow I’ll put up photos of the process for the accessories.