Bits and Pieces

Little by little, I'm getting the details worked out on my steampunk outfits. I've got all the major clothing bits - hats, shirts, waistocoats/vests, socks, boots - and I've got pieces that tweak those bits into Steampunk ensembles - goggles, the gauntlets, the gaiters. Now it's time to step it up a notch.

I've repaired my goggles - the loupe exploded while at Steamcon, and one of the little nuts that holds the lenses onto the main arm went completely AWOL. I replaced it with a new one, and added a targeting reticle made out of an ornamental gear and some brass screen cut into an X. The strap has also been upgraded, and can now be properly fitted either as a hatband or as actual goggles.

I made a couple of kilt hose flashes out of thin leather, and then realized that I actually needed to make two complete sets if I wanted them to match - but unfortunately, I ran out of larger chunks of the thin leather, so the pairs have been split up so that I'm at least symmetrical. Now on days when the gaiters are just too bloody hot to wear, I have something else steamy to put on my legs. 

This weekend's project is to finish up a steampunk sporran that I got cut out last weekend. Need to punch some more holes, glue and stitch the pieces together, and then decorate. Then on to the headset...

Catching Up

Sorry about the radio silence lately - life got unexpectedly complicated after SteamCon last year, and I have not had a lot of time or energy to write lately. If you know me in so-called "real life", you've already heard the story, and if not, this isn't a place where I choose to share large chunks of it - look me up at AnomalyCon, SteamCon, or on the Steampunk Cruise and I'll tell you more...

Anyway, there are things that I had wanted to talk about on here, but of course it's now just a few weeks until the Steampunk Cruise and I'm once again madly rushing around, finishing costuming projects and postponing the really cool ones. I've got a little time, however, to put down some of my thoughts about the events I've recently attended, and I've got a few more pictures of the projects I've actually finished that I can share.

So - back in October, I made it to MileHi Con, which is the local science fiction con. There's a sizable local Steampunk contingent (thus AnomalyCon, our local Steampunk event), and a fair bit of programming aimed at the Steampunks. Cherie Priest was one of the guest authors this past year, and I really enjoyed her presentations. I also made it to an author reading by Carrie Vaughn, as well as a panel discussion that she moderated. There was also a hands-on workshop on resin casting that gave me a lot of ideas for costume elements...

Cherie Priest talked about several things - her house, her characters, Steampunk in general - but the ones that stuck out to me were the ones that dovetailed with some of my own interests within Steampunk, specifically the cultural critique that Steampunk lends itself to in talking about issues of colonization, colonialism, race relations, etc. At that point, Ms. Priest's novel "Ganymede" was the most recent one out, and I really enjoyed the cast of characters. Evidently, some people complain that certain of her characters are "too unrealistic", and that this interferes with their suspension of disbelief. Zombified corpses are okay, and turning the substance that causes zombification into a street drug is fine, but they have a problem with, for example, a strong female character that functions as a highly effective spy. Insert eye roll here.

As Ms. Priest pointed out in her presentation, that particular character (not from "Ganymede", actually - this character is one of the primaries from "Clementine") is in fact based loosely on Belle Boyd, and was toned down for the novel. It certainly says something about the way some people think that a Steampunk fantasy novel in which the Civil War drags on for an extra decade or two as steam-powered war machines slug it out is somehow made less "realistic" by a Belle Boyd character - and it's probably worth noting that, in looking up Ms. Boyd's name, I immediately ran across references to articles regarding the "embellishment" of her record. Evidently, people have the same problem with a strong female character in real life as well...

And that's pretty damn sad. Plenty of male memoirs are "embellished" - and in a lot of cases, it's still the embellishments that people remember (George Washington and the cherry tree, Paul Revere's ride, Robert E. Lee's tactical brilliance).

Gaiters - Finished! (Part Two)

So in June, I posted about having done the initial riveting of the pieces together. Basically, my design involved  riveting a strip of leather to each side of the pattern pieces up the front of the shin and up the back of the calf. I did not include any seam allowances, since I was not sewing them. I measured out the rivet holes, marked them and punched them, then used Tandy Rapid Rivets in an antique bronze finish.

 I started out using Medium size, and realized they were much too large for the thickness of leather I was using - Smalls were just right.

 The pieces fit together pretty well - you can't quite see the curve of the calf seam in this picture, but it's there:

I did the same thing up the front seam, and then measured and punched the holes for the toe kick. Here's a closeup of the toe kick on the completed gaiter:

You can see the end of the front seam rivet strip - I tapered the end and used a single rivet to attach the top of the toe kick. At that point, I started attaching the straps that wrap around from the shin to the outside of each leg, and eventually buckle up the side. I used decorative steampunk rivet plates from Tandy that look like they're screwed on - they actually are, but from the back. At the toe, I was going through 3 thicknesses of leather, and had to sub out Chicago screws for the ones included with the rivet plates (fortunately, they're exactly the same diameter and thread pitch!)

Having placed the rivets 1" apart, it made positioning the 1" straps pretty easy. They're 8" long - I tapered them with a belt end punch and then marked and punched the belt holes. I punched holes for the two screws on the back of each plate, and used that to attach the straps. After attaching all of these, I placed the strap that goes under the sole of the boot (ideally, just in front of the heel) and riveted it in place:

At this point, I went to figure out where to attach the strap buckles, and realized that the additional material I'd added to the pattern was bunching, so I cut out a small dart and riveted the leather back together with a small overlap. These pictures didn't come out too well - I'll have to retake and update them.

You can sort of see the cut line here, running just above the trio of rivets (one for the dart, two for a buckle) and then out to the other two that mark the overlap. Here's a frontal view:

Blurry as all heck - it was late when I took these, so my eyes probably were focused... The two rivets at the bottom of the pick are the same as the ones on the right of the previous picture. The buckle strap covers up the third rivet, and you can sort of see how the slit puckers a little at the end. I punched a round hole there to mitigate any stress and keep the slit from expanding further.

Then, I cut out short 4" strips, used an oblong punch to cut a hole for the buckle's tongue, and punched rivet holes in each corner. Making an original and using it as a template was a big time-saver. I put the short strips on each buckle, then buckled them onto the long straps using the third hole on the long straps to get a relatively consistent placement - truly professional looking spats have the buttons or buckles in a straight line, but was going for a more tinkerer/homemade look on this pair, so they're not completely straight. I'll save that for Version 2.0.

Then I started the whole process over on the right gaiter... My spouse has a shot of me wearing the finished product. I'll have to grab it from her for the postscript.

Gaiters - Finished! (part one)

I did manage to finish the gaiters before SteamCon, and I even got pictures.

Looks like my original pic post got as far as making the duct tape template. Once that was done, I cut the template along lines that I wanted to be seams, specifically up the back of the calf and up the front of the shin, as well as up the outside of the leg (where I planned to put all the straps and buckles). Note the triangular toe kick, to cover the laces:

I then used the template pieces to cut out a pattern using some leftover canvas. I neglected to get a photo of the canvas pattern pieces as I cut them out, but here they are stapled together for the pattern fitting, at which point I found that the pattern was somewhat too small. I cut out a new piece with several inches of additional fabric added on (the stripes at the edge of the pattern). The original outer leg piece is next to the assembled expanded pattern parts, with the straps stapled in place:

At this point, I went ahead and cut out the pieces in black leather (since the boots I planned to wear these over were black; I've since acquired a brown pair, and will probably make Version 2.0 out of brown leather):

That's where I was at when I worked on them in June.

Cultural Appreciation, Cultural Appropriation, and Steampunk

Recommended reading (via the Silver Goggles "Read These BeforeEngaging" list):

• "Thoughts about Orientalism, Imperialism & Steampunking Asia" - Ay-Leen the Peacemaker
• "What is cultural appropriation" - Ardhra
• "An Introduction to Edward Said, Orientalism, and Postcolonial LiteraryStudies" - Amardeep                                           Singh, linked in Ardhra's article above.

"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

This blog of mine was originally intended as a space within which I could explore the various facets of this thing called Steampunk, as I encountered and explored them. So far, I've written mostly short bits on the superficial aesthetic stuff - the clothes, the accessories, the events I've attended. The deeper stuff, however, I find more difficult to write about in the confines of a blog post, in part because of time constraints and in part because I'm used to having 20 - 40 pages (typed, double-spaced, plus bibliography and notes) to explore topics in depth.

One of my concerns when first delving into Steampunk was the perception that this was yet another racial project by mostly white people, reifying an era of the past that wasn't nearly as jolly as the people looking backwards seem to think it was. Fortunately, while there is certainly a large amount of uncritical Victoriana to be found, there is also a good bit of critical analysis going on as well. I found Jaymee Goh's Silver Goggles blog fairly early on, along with Ay-leen the Peacemaker's Beyond Victoriana. Now that I've spent some time reading and digesting, I'm feeling a little more confident in my own ability to critically examine my own hangups, blind spots, and problematic opinions.

As a white male, it would be all too easy just to go along with the whole neo-Victorian aesthetic, dress in khaki and pretend to be at least comfortably upper-class without really thinking about what I already know from my sophomore-level history survey classes - the entire Victorian system was built on the notions of colonialism and empire, and has deep roots in a systematic treatment of colonies (and the colonized people) as raw material for the industrialization that is almost fetishised within Steampunk. Problem is, I'm one of those who has trouble just turning off the frontal lobes and enjoying things mindlessly (unless I'm whacked out on cold medication). I resent the anti-intellectualism that got me labeled a "nerd" back when the term was still one of approbation rather than celebration. I believe, along with Socrates, that “The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living.”

And so, with all this in mind, I'm trying to be very careful about my upcoming trip to SteamCon in Seattle. See, they have an event known as the Wayfarer's Brunch which is promoted as an opportunity for people to break out of a purely Western perspective on Steampunk, and celebrate "wonderfully colorful and diverse cultures" by donning "non-British steampunk ensembles" while having Sunday brunch. “How is this problematic?”, you may be asking yourself. After all, isn't this exactly the sort of thing I should be happy about, that there is recognition of a world beyond the borders of Great Britain, and even Europe as a whole within the alt-historical if not outright fantastical world of Steampunk?

More on that in a bit...

Upcoming Events

Boy - once I got B. into a full outfit, things have taken off! She was initially a little reluctant about the convention scene, not having quite realized that I was already exposed and quite enthusiastic - but after last year's MileHiCon, she started to understand that we really do fit in with the SF/SP crowd, and that made getting her to AnomalyCon that much easier. And she really had a blast on the steam train ride at the Mensa AP, so now there seems to be no end in sight...

We spent much of last weekend ordering additional patterns, getting the sewing machine serviced, shopping for a second machine with embroidery features (a lower-end one for now while we save up for a pro-grade machine that can handle leather...), and getting tickets and reservations made for several events over the next few months. We're committing to MileHiCon (can't miss Cherie Priest as GoH!), then SteamCon the following weekend, then a break, then the Steampunk Cruise in March, followed by AnomlyCon the weekend after.

I've got a couple of new canvas waistcoats and a banded-collar "tux" shirt that will accept detachable collars - just need to remove a sleeve button and replace it with a buttonhole and I'll be ready to find some nice, steamy cufflinks. Shepler's down in the DTC carries the period stuff on the men's side, though the pants were not my size (will need to order online, I suspect - and/or make my own, once I learn to sew).

Gaiter Progress

The front seam worked out just about as well as the back seam, and the toe kick was less problematic than I'd feared (although some trimming turned out to be necessary). I've got pictures taken, but I need to upload them before I can do a full-on picture post.

The side that I expanded wound up needing a small dart put in so that it fits more smoothly, but the buckles are going on reasonably straight so far. These will definitely wind up looking like a Mark I project, so I'll need to get some additional leather and start designing the Mark II.