Tag: Steampunk

Steampunk, 7 years on.

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This Lincoln Asylum event was, as Facebook helpfully reminded us, 7 years since we first attended, although due to the missing Covid years, it was the 5th time of being in Lincoln.

We loved the new activities such as the trinket swap and the 30 blue plaques to find, celebrating those who have contributed to the events.

As always we had an excellent time. We participated in the Fashion Show on the Friday night at the Assembly Rooms, which are a gorgeous reminder of Lincoln’s Georgian past.

I wore my Glories of Bombay jacket, and Ellen her House of Worth dress. She had a new tiara for the event which made her look very regal.

She also had a completely new outfit for the weekend, her Monster Hunter one, complete with Stitch in chains and Grogu in a net!

This is the same pattern she has used before and the bolero jacket and skirt look great with leggings and her Nu Rock boots. She embroidered the arm patch herself and bought the monster alert device and the hat cogs at a previous event. She even has Grogu earrings!

I wore the tablecloth jacket again on Saturday, but with the seamstress hat.

Sunday there was a Steam Trek meet up so I wore my Captain Jane way outfit and hat. Forgot to get any close up pictures though. There were some brilliant costumes at the meet up.

This trio were my favourite, so cool!

I will leave you with some of the other amazing outfits, as always such creativity. I am definitely tempted by a Slyvanian families one in the future!

There was definitely a bookworm theme going on and one lady had the, ‘What Katy Did ‘ books on her hat!

Love the Wonka family above, they always have amazing outfits.

I am currently staying on a site with no WiFi, so things may be a bit quiet here for a while.

I have lots of lovely more Trust property visits planned this week and next, and then am on to Suffolk for a week where I am looking forward to more pretty villages and coastline.

Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Welcome to the Asylum!

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The long awaited return to Lincoln for the Steampunk Asylum weekend did not disappoint. This was the first weekend we had stayed over just for the event, rather than having a re-enactment event as well and we had great accommodation at The Swan in the Brayford Marina area.

We had a full Saturday and Sunday there. The outfit for the Saturday was my new Egyptologist outfit, a simple and cool one which I was able to add a pistol and a hammer to. I picked up the wonderful necklace in a charity shop in Whitby a few years ago and the hat braid came from the last Whitby market. Ellen was an Edwardian butterfly/ fairy.

I have tried to group the outfits we saw in themes. There was definitely a Britannia theme and we saw many red white and blue but this couple below were amazing, especially on a warm weekend. I loved the red and gold and wings on the outfit in the second picture.

Sunday was the return of the Glories of Bombay outfit while Ellen did Harry Potter. There were so many wonderful outfits to see, it really seemed like people were pulling put all of the stops after a three year break.

There was a Superhero costume display on Sunday so I was able to get pictures of them all together. We also met this Captain America in the most stunning gown.

This couple were stunning both days, amazing head dresses.

One of my favourite women, Rachel, was there, I have admired so many of her previous outfits such as her big top and octopus Queen and this Rememberence one was beautiful.

Huge congratulations as well to this Japanese warrior and this Knight as it was a very warm weekend to be wearing this much costume.

There were so many peacock inspired outfits on Saturday and this was one of my favourite.

There were some amazing group outfits, I think the ones in boats were my absolute favourites, incredible creativity.

I just love the fun and the total bonkersness of it all. In a world with so much sad it is just a wonderful fun and inclusive environment to be in. Thank you to the Ministry of Steampunk for all your hard work, we have already booked our accommodation for next year.

I will return soon with the Anglesey pictures, it has been brilliant to catch up with my work colleagues. I am so glad not to have to do my job any more but miss these wonderful people. Hope that you all have a good week ahead, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Back to the future

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The Steampunk weekend at Whitby was the third time that we have been, the first was during 2020 when, although when we went there were no actual events on due to the pandemic. We had non refundable accommodation booked so went anyway, and had a lovely time, albeit socially distanced and wearing masks!

It is brilliant to be able to go to events now and to chat to people about the future in more confidence and we are looking forward to Lincoln as well in August. Although there did not seem to be as many people there as last year there were still lots of gorgeous outfits.

The new hat had its debut and I am very pleased with it, partly as it stayed put during our windy walks on the seafront. I also wore several of my older ones. I do need to remake the jacket for the cream outfit though as although I love the braid I am not as happy with the fit of it.

Whitby was beautiful as always and we had a lovely weekend just visiting all our favourite places, going on a boat trip and having a good rummage through all of the charity shops. I bought lots of books as I now have space to carry them. Much as I love my Kindle it uses a lot of power and as I am on non electric pitches when camping have to ration what I use.

We met up with one of my favourite hat makers, I have forgotten her name but we first met her at the Clumber 1940s event and she told us she had about 40 hats and there were two new ones put this weekend. I am keen to make more hats for myself, if my lovely daughter will allow me more storage space in her house as all the Steampunk and re-enactment kit lives with her now.

We will not be at Whitby next summer as there is another festival that I want to go to that weekend, a van life one which will be very exciting. I am so thrilled to be able to do all this and will post more about my adventures in my van next time. We did see a very cool Steampunk camper at Whitby which was very well done.

My sister and I are currently having a brilliant time reliving our youth at the Rebellion punk festival in Blackpool. Last night we saw The Stranglers which was amazing. Tonight it will be various delights such as Gary Numan, who I was very much in love with as a teenager.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and having a good time doing something fun or relaxing. Whatever it is have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat?

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I now have a lot of Steampunk hats and decorations for them but this is the first one that I have made from scratch. I was taught how to make medieval headwear by the very talented Kat a long time ago so I have used the same techniques here.

I was aiming for a small pill box type hat so first cut out buckram stiffening then lined it with wadding before sewing the outer fabric on. The lid was also lined with felt to give it an edge to help sew it into the top of the hat.

The blue embellishment was made in the same way with stiffening and wadding and then sewn to the hat. The ostrich feathers came from Ebay, they are just tucked in at the moment but will be pinned in when I wear it.

The lace came from stash, I think it is some my Mum may have bought here in Spain and I have embellished it with seed beads. The hat has been sewn to a headband covered in lace so I can easily wear it without pins.

I have blogged about the outfit pattern before but realised I had not specified which one it is. The pattern is Butterick B6305 and is part of their history collection, dated 1870-1880.

I have modified it a lot, as you can see the original pattern has a very fitted front with a bow at the back and an apron front. I am not very good at making fitted items, I blame my generous bust 😉

As I was quite short of time have opted to leave the front as fold over reveres, embellished with some lovely lace that I think I bought from a Steampunk market. I have a cameo brooch to keep it closed.

I just made my own pattern for the cuffs as the ones on the original pattern are very complex but I think they look pretty and showcase the blue fabric really well.

As it is a looser jacket it did not look right with either apron or bustle so I have just made a little drawstring bag in blue to complement the outfit. I still have a complete jacket minus sleeves cut and sewn, as I was going to use the same material to line it.

I also still have the front jacket facings in blue and additional material so may come back and make a more fitted blue and cream one when I have more time. Saying that I don’t have any time do I, even now I am retired and I still have two more lots of material to make outfits with that I haven’t even started, but you never know!

The skirt is very simple but I am pleased with the neat pleats and darts. I had to cut the skirt much narrower than in the pattern, the material is very stiff and so it would not drape with that amount of width.

The material is beautiful, but as it is very stiff I have had to hand finish most of the jacket seams so that they won’t rub but it should be fine to wear now. I do so love the fabric, and am so pleased that it has finally been used after a mere 16 years in stash! It will be lovely to have a new outfit for Whitby.

I have also finished some little felt and Liberty flowers that I am intending to add to my purple top hat for decoration for Steampunk and re-enactment events. I like to wear a top hat in the evenings when we go to the beer tent.

The templates for the flowers are free ones from here and I used the same ones when I was making my 1940s felt flower corsages.

I backed the Liberty with iron on interfacing so that I could use the flowers raw edged.

I am looking forward to some lovely celebrations here this week as it is my 60th birthday 🙂 We are going for afternoon tea on the actual day, one of the bars here does a gorgeous afternoon tea and they even do a really lovely gluten free one! We tested it out a couple of weeks ago with my sewing group and it was delicious.

shall miss Spain but my 90 days are nearly up so until I return will be thinking about the epic sunsets like this one the other evening.

The sky was an amazing colour and I was out for quite a while taking pictures. We haven’t had one like that for a while but they are always amazing in autumn.

I will be having an epic adventure in Katy though, so won’t be too sad. I will be back as soon as I can from the road via the miracles of the WordPress app, with hopefully some great pictures from our re-enactment events. Fingers and everything else crossed!

Have fun until I see you all again, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Weekends when you can be a flower fairy one day and a mermaid the next!

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The title of this post comes from something Ellen said as we were walking out on Saturday at the Whitby Steampunk weekend and just really sums up why we do this. She got the chance to debut two completely new outfits, one of which was the flower fairy one which she made during the first lockdown when she was furloughed.

The other, Ariel the Little Mermaid, has been in the pipeline for a long time, the wig having been bought about 4 years ago and the tiara last year at Kelham.

When she was little she had the mermaid outfit from Disneyland and loved it so she was very pleased on Sunday when she got asked for photos with so many little girls. She is of course, and always will be a Disney princess at heart.

I sadly did not get chance to complete the cream outfit, just too much to do with sorting the house but did manage a new ensemble for the Friday night 1920s themed ball and a new hat. I also bought a new skirt in a light pink, in the same range as all my others, so had some new things to enjoy.

We stayed at a wonderful apartment on the cliff side, a fantastic location only 10 minutes walk from both the town and the seafront where the pavilion is. It was beautifully decorated with everything we could need, so we have already booked if for next year.

This year’s trip was for four nights so that we could have a day at Saltwick Bay fossil hunting and a leisurely trip back on the Monday. The bay was amazing, the cliffs are so impressive, though sadly eroding fast and we had a lovely time looking in rock pools, paddling and finding some very impressive fossils.

Both days over the weekend we visited the market, not much was bought but we had a lovely time and really enjoyed talking to all of the stall holders and again admiring all the wonderful possibilities for future outfits (Ellen does keep reminding me that I have three to make already though so I can’t buy anything else until those are done).

The Friday night ball was such fun! There were people and a band and dancing, just like the good old days 🙂 Ellen already had a 1920s dress that she created from a sari set from Bombay Stores and I went for a Marlene Dietrich theme with my dinner suit and top hat, plus a bit of bling with some marvellous earrings from Bombay Stores, and a lovely new cane.

Ellen had another evening outfit which was an ensemble of previous ones, with her new hat.

We didn’t take many other costume shots, partly as we were just too busy talking to people and the inside of the market was quite crowded but met one of our favourite Steampunk couples again, what a wonderful Adam Ant, one of my teen heart throbs!

This Mad Hatter’s tea party hat was another lockdown project, all the felting was done by its creator and it is probably one of the best of that theme that I have every seen.

This was our last Steampunk for this year, we have been very, very lucky to be able to go to three this year and are so very grateful to the organisers who have had to overcome such hurdles to get everything to go ahead within all the restrictions. It has been wonderful to see people and be out and about again.

Fingers crossed there will be a re-enactment event soon as well, don’t want to jinx anything as we didn’t actually get to go to the last one due to a change in the rules last minute but here’s hoping.

I have hopefully got an exciting week ahead of me and will be able to share those plans and the re-enactment event in my next post. Until then have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Blist’s (aka Blistering) Hill wonders

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Our recent Steampunk event at Blist’s Hill was a lovely, if rather warm day out. It is of course very sensible when the UK is having a heatwave of 28 degrees, which is far too warm for the likes of us pale people more used to downpours, to dress in many layers, and a top hat.

It was a beautiful venue, one I definitely need to return to as there are many more museums there to visit. I loved the little shops, particularly the chemist and haberdashers and the sheer scale of some of the artefacts of engineering such as the replica of the first steam locomotive and the brick kilns and the winding wheels. It just makes you wonder at the changes that era experienced and the reactions of people to those changes.

There were some splendid costumes as well, though many people were very sensibly in hot weather costume so not as many amazing creations as usual. I loved the three people who came as Alice, the Mad Hatter and the caterpillar, the latter costume was so wonderfully constructed.

This peacock hat was very splendid indeed, putting my few feathers to shame and there were some very lovely top hats like this purple one, again a Mad Hatter theme.

We saw this beautiful costume at the end of the day, the woman who created it looked stunning but it must have been so hot to wear.

James looked amazingly cool all day despite wearing a coat and hat, whereas Kerry and I were mainly modelling very pink faces but it did give us the excuse to stop in all the nice cafes for drinks and ice cream.

There were other newer wonders as well, I had never seen this marvellous airship/boat before. The ingenuity and creativity of the Steampunk community is fantastic, a true testament to the creativity of all those who made the Industrial Age happen.

Following on from Blist’s Hill was the wonderful Whitby, we had a fantastic time and will post again soon with all the lovely things we saw there. In between was another week of getting rid of possessions and booking future adventures which I hope I will be able to share with you soon.

Tomorrow marks my official last day at work…ever. I retired on the 25th June and have been on leave since then but have still been going in some days to tie up loose ends and do some late marking, but as of 5pm tomorrow it will all be over. I hand my laptop back, finish clearing my office and loose all access to e-mails 🙂 I think that will be the best bit actually knowing I can relax and not have to worry about students any more. It has been a tough year for us all and I am very glad that for me it is over. I wish all my students and colleagues the very best of luck for the coming academic year.

It has been raining here all day and the sun has just come out so I am looking at the beautiful moors, I am so lucky to have spent time here and am looking forward to more of the UK’s lovely countryside in the coming months.

I hope that your weekend ahead is good, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Steampunking ahead!

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We had a splendid time at Kelham Hall, a couple of weeks ago. We got the chance to go inside as well this time, and it was beautiful. We are going to be lucky enough to be visiting again later in the year for another event, so are very excited about that as well. We also have two other Steampunk events confirmed, Blists Hill Victorian Town and Whitby in July so I had better get cracking with the outfits for those.

I have already started one of them, it is still in its formative stages but all of the fitting has been done so I am hoping to get some time to work on that this week before Ellen comes up. Then we are going to Bombay Stores to try and get some fabric for the other outfit for Whitby. This will be loosely modelled on the Princess Meera ball dress from the Aquaman film. Ellen is making an Ariel outfit so we are going to have a sea princess theme. More about that in a later post.

We did not have the chance to take many pictures of other people, it was quite wet when we first got there so we were all under umbrellas and a lot of the inside time was social distanced and not really appropriate for asking people to pose.

However we did get a couple, of this wonderful purple outfit and this very creative big top inspired one, I particularly loved the top hat. The elephant that had been in the middle had run away as Nellie the elephant did. Actually it was too heavy with the elephant so had to be removed. The creativity of Steampunk always amazes me and I have seen this woman’s wonderful costumes before at Kelham.

We did a little photo shoot of us inside. I had very little time for a new costume so just went with the embellished dinner jacket and red skirt and a new hat. I went for a memento mori theme, and a Victorian undertaker inspired look. Luckily I had lots of the lace left over as I originally ordered 5 yards for the velvet jacket that was abandoned. I also got chance to use my bargain handbag from last year’s Retford charity shop haul at only £1, and my new walking stick which has a very cool dragon head on it.

The interior of Kelham is beautiful with lots of gothic features and painted ceilings. It was built by the same architect who designed the St Pancreas Station hotel and is an amazing place. I am so excited to visit again and spend more time there. The website has a whole gallery of wedding pictures including some wonderful Asian weddings. I have been to one once many years ago and the guests’ outfits were so stunning.

We were able to attend an exhibition of Star Wars inspired work and a brilliant talk on building a droid. There is a Steampunk Star Wars group called Rebel Steam, so at some point Ellen and I wish to make costumes based around that theme. We loved this steam powered mobility scooter as well – so creative!

This week marks my last full week of marking, ever! I also have a lot of meetings finishing off the year and then it is the final countdown. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but it looks like we have a re-enactment event on the weekend that I retire. So fingers crossed I will be able to spend that Friday evening around a campfire with some of my very best friends, who I have not seen for so long, celebrating that! I am very excited and hope it all gets to go ahead.

Meanwhile I am on the final stretches of small animal construction, there has been lots of things to do around the house this week, and I have been having a social life 😉 so progress has been slow, but hopefully they will be done soon.

I hope that you are having a good weekend, whatever you are doing. Take care, have fun, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

A wintery walk and the makings of a new hat!

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Last Sunday I went to the reservoirs, inspired by the snow on the hills. I had a lovely icy walk, lots of beautiful scenery as always, but also some amazing ice formations that had formed, some from the drips on the cliffs and others around the grasses and brambles.

I amused myself taking some arty shots of the frost on the moss and the reflections in the water. It was so lovely and strange to think that in a few shorts weeks we will be back to having lambs on the hills and then all of the rhododendrons in bloom. It doesn’t seem that long since all the walks last year and here we are at the end of January.

In some ways it has been a long year but in others it seems to have flown by. As of tomorrow I only have 150 days left at work. I bought myself some little countdown chalkboards at the start of term last year. In August the first day was with 305 to go, and I am now over half way through! Exciting times indeed. Now I just have to sell the house, pack everything up, learn to drive and try and leave the country, negotiating Brexit on the way 🙂

Ellen came up again this weekend and did the first fitting on the jacket, it is not too bad size wise so the next task is tacking it up fully and another fitting in a few weeks. I am so glad she is able to help with this. Having the mannequin is great but she is not the same shape as me and does not move, so is not good for proper fittings.

We also made a start on the hat to go with the outfit. I have been trawling Pinterest again and had added these two lovely examples to my Steampunk board.

I wanted to make a miniature version and after many trials decided on a 4″ high with a 4″ diameter hat that will be attached to a headband. We made a little mock-up with cardboard and making tape.

I had ordered some embellishments for the hat this week, I was so pleased with the cameo, which I found on Ebay. It goes brilliantly with the blue material.

The gold lace was from my stash, no idea where that came from but may have been a present from Mum from Spain.

The ostrich feathers are so soft and fluffy and look brilliant. I do need to source some more trim for the top and brim edges of the hat. The real thing will be buckram covered in felt. The trim will be useful to hide the joins as buckram can be quite difficult to sew with. I found this very useful tutorial so am using that as a guide to making the top hat, but am just intending to do a flat brim.

I have just found a perfect pair of shoes as well, second hand, which just need a bit of lace adding to them as well. I will also make a handbag, possibly with a clasp and chain but we will see how that goes!

I hope that you have all had a good week and are doing something nice this weekend. Next week I have what will hopefully be my last Saturday teaching session ever so will be very excited to have all my weekends free from then on.

Take care, stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

A very productive week!

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I have had not only a very accomplished week work wise, getting through a huge pile of marking and admin and the start of a new term, with a brand new masters module to teach, but also a very productive week with other things.

Ellen came up this week, she took me shopping, which was very useful as I am now stocked up with toiletries and things for about the next four months so will not have to go to town for a long time. I found that during the first lockdown last year it was sometimes difficult, or more expensive, to source specific things that I needed so at least I am prepared for the long haul now as I doubt I will be going into work before Easter.

Then we had a lovely day yesterday of baking, and cooking and cutting out the new Steampunk dress, aided by lots of tea of course!

Thank you very much to Leigh, who commented on my last post telling me that the dress is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was able to find the details of it here. It was made in 1885 by an American company and is an evening dress. That quite surprised me as I thought it looked more like a winter walking ensemble with the jacket bodice and the fur.

The fabric is a delight to work with, very easy to cut and doesn’t slip about or fray. I think I am really going to enjoy making this outfit, unlike others where I have been wrestling with slippery satin or velvet that sheds everywhere 😦 It did take a while to do the pattern matching though, it is big repeat and it is not an exact repeat all over the cream fabric. I have not yet manged to cut the sides of the jacket or the skirt as it took a while to get the other pieces accurate.

I did not have as much of the blue so I am going with a blue front panel and collar, cuffs, apron and possibly the bow. I am modifying the pattern to use a more pointed back to the jacket, as in the original, and a smaller bow than in the pattern. I am also hoping to use some of my vintage lace collection to embellish the sleeves and bow. I really love the motif on the fabric, it has that gorgeous mix of Victorian and Indian influences.

It was slightly easier to use the pattern as I have already made it once, with modifications. It is listed as ‘plus difficile’ but since the last time I used it was to make the tablecloth jacket, which involved pattern placement on three different embroidered tablecloths looking for the right combination of motifs, it felt a lot easier this time. The last one turned out very well and is still one of my favourite makes.

This version will have a different front as well, it is a faux button front with a placket behind it with hooks and eyes so that will save me actually having to make buttonholes, some of my least favourite things!

Hopefully I will finish the cutting out this week and then tack it together for a first fitting next week. Ellen is coming up again for a bit (hurrah for support bubbles) so hopefully I will be able to start putting it together after that.

I was looking though previous posts about the pattern and I had found this gorgeous image where someone had used the pattern to produce this stunning outfit.

I did a search to see if anyone else had used it but apart from two of my pictures didn’t find anything else yet but will keep looking on pattern review sites as I love getting new ideas. I did find this beautiful original dress, which is very similar. No idea where from again but love these colours.

I am so pleased that I have got another project underway, I love the creativity of putting together not just the outfit, but the hat and all the embellishments, lots of lovely research to be done over the next few months. I am currently looking for shoes, gloves and a parasol to go with it.

I hope that you are all having a lovely weekend, and are tucked up safe and warm if you are in the UK. It has been quite a week, weather wise, with dreadful floods and snow and sleet. Thankfully it is only the roads here that were flooded but there have been some really bad ones elsewhere.

Have fun, take care and stay safe. Thanks, as always for visiting and commenting and I will see you all again soon.

What the well-dressed Steampunks are wearing this season

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The Kelham event showed just how wonderfully creative Steampunks are when it comes to their masks as well as their costumes, and there were some beautiful and very unusual masks on display. Even though we did not have to wear them all the time, just in the toilets, bar and at stalls, most people kept them on all day.

I wore mine all the time, hopefully this is the only time I will have to wear it but was very pleased how well it went with the outfit and I even got featured on the event Facebook page for having a lovely mask which was very nice 🙂

As usual there were some stunning outfits, lots of bright colours and detailed work having gone into all of them.

I particularly loved this sea themed outfit, Ellen and I are going for this type of theme for next year at Whitby.

It was nice to meet up with people from previous events, these in the above pictures are the people we met at Whitby Abbey.

We also met this lovely lady again,we first met her at Clumber during the WW2 event and then at Lincoln. She had a gorgeous bee hat and sunflower bustle.

I was very pleased with how my whole outfit came together, I wore the same purple skirt and top as at previous events .

I was also very pleased to find this fabulous little purple handbag the day before when we were charity shop browsing in Retford. How cute is this!

Ellen had a wonderful ringmaster outfit, she used the jacket she made for Steampunks in Space a couple of years ago, and a skirt adapted from a charity shop find.

The hat decoration was part of the same set of tunic fabric that I used from Bombay Stores.

This is one of my favourite pictures of her, even with the mask you can see her smiling!

James and Kerry looked equally lovely, James had a new waistcoat for the event, with matching mask. His Mum made these and the waistcoat is stunning, such beautiful work.

The hall itself is amazing, we are hoping to go to other events there. We didn’t get chance to go inside but had a lovely picnic just outside, using the new basket.

A wonderful chance to have fun and here’s to many more normal weekends in the future.

I hope that you have enjoyed the costumes, I will be back later in the week with an update on the knitting progress. Meanwhile, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.