Steam Fever

No, I was not abducted by aliens or trying to move myself out into a cabin in the woods, going completely off the grid. I came down sick with something that can only be described as steam fever.

I found out two weekends ago that the day we were supposed to go to Ren Faire just so happened to be the Steampunk theme weekend. I am a steampunk nerd (steampunk fiction is my favorite genre). I've had a character built up in my head for a few years at this point. I was practically quivering with excitement. Until I realized that I only had a week to come up with a costume.

So, that's what I did.

Well, what we did.

With my grandma's help, we put together a costume that, while not entirely what I had in mind, would at least serve as a nice base. I can build on it and improve as time goes on.

We made a skirt out of the fabric that was supposed to be a tunic. With the scraps, I swore, yelled, and fought my way to make a sort of faux bustle. Because everyone Victorian lady needs a butt pouf.

I also remembered that I had my crinoline from the wedding hiding in the back of the closet, and let me tell you, it made all the difference to my costume.

I took a plain, black felt mini top hat form and transformed it. And promptly decided that I would never make another hat again. Between the velvet being a pain in the ass to work with, having to dye two-thirds of my trim, and burning myself with the glue gun, I was about ready to shove the damn thing out a window.

Came out pretty awesome in the end, though. Especially because I did the entire thing with craft stash. Yep, I didn't have to buy anything for this other than a comb to keep it in my hair.

I did a bit of knitting, too, because I wanted a pair of lace gloves. The pattern that I had originally picked was just not working, so I did what I am so good at doing and improvised.

I used the lace pattern from the Fir Cone Wrap on Ravelry and went from there. Keen eyed observers will see that I was watching Pokemon while working on them. ( #TeamInstinct4Lyfe!)

I ordered a lovely lace parasol that arrived with a broken handle, but a little bit of glue fixed it right up.

I already had boots and stockings. I had a plan for my hair. John was even going to be kind enough to carry my essentials so I didn't have to worry about finding room in my costume for them. Everything was going to be perfect.

Friday rolled around at it was hot. Stupidly hot. The kind of hot that makes it hard to breathe outside. A feeling of dread hit my stomach. I checked the weather report for the next day. It was supposed to be over 100 degrees.

There was no way I was going to survive in my costume in weather like that.

So, we didn't go.

But all of that work won't be for nothing. We've decided to head up there in a few weeks instead. And I'll be wearing my costume, theme weekend be damned.

Guess that means I can get back to the important things.