How one thing can lead to another...

I must admit, I'm not the most structured costume maker in the world, on the contrary I tend to get distracted easily. I like to go where the flow of my thought takes me. I think that's how my creative process works best. In the end it all seems to come together though and I even get done what I set out to do. Though that surprises me at times. Here's a little example of how one thing can lead to another.

After making the corset, chemise and drawers I thought about what dress I wanted to make for my next EFF event. I bumped into a beautiful dinner dress in de Metropolitan museum ad figured I would try to make that one.

I found some nice fabrics that were acceptably priced, but still very pretty. Some Bordeaux red, black shot, poly taffeta (embroidered and plain), a brocade cotton satin and some trims.

Somehow I felt the satin would make a beautiful corset and since I had ordered an Edwardian corset pattern from Sylphe corsets, I decided I would make a corset with it.

 

While waiting for everything to arrive, I got distracted by thinking about the accessories for my dress. Since I allways wear a keychain attached to my pants, I felt a chatelaine would be the perfect thing to go with the dress and figured I would do something with that.

But when looking online I found them to be way too pricey… so why not make one. I spend a lot of time researching them and trying to find all the bits and bobs that I would need to make one.  

I found several pieces that together would make a nice chatelaine.   a skirt lifter:

a dress clip, a little purse and an aide memoire:

As you can see in the last picture, I made a little pincushion from an old earing I never wear anymore.

and a few more, round as wel as cone shaped...

The next step would be to knit everything together. I didn't have any experience in jewellery making, so I would have to practice with that.

I figured I would make a chatelaine for my daughter and “adoptive” daughter (long story =) ). It took a little practice, but it turned out really nice. Very christmassy I must add =).

>

I also wanted to make a little Aide Memoire for their chatelaine. So I started researching little booklets and how to make those. I found all the information I needed online (now how did we do this before the internet???) and proceeded with making a booklet.

And some more…

And found a technique to apply aluminium foil to objects and age it, to make more booklets…

And boxes… From this

to this

And, well, what not , I still need a lot of Steampunk accessories, the sky is the limit they say =)…

Though that’ll be for another time.

Thank you for watching and have a nice day.

ps: This post was imported from my lifejournal blog about victorian costumes and corsets, as are the pictures.