It’s official — I love Worbla thermoplastic because this shit is da BOMB. I deliberately wanted the crown to look a bit rough and organic (twisted spines between the fins, etc.) so I didn’t worry too much about smoothing out the surface apart from a layer of wood glue. If you do want a smooth surface you can use wood glue, gesso, or air-drying clay (NOT SCULPEY — you bake this and the entire thing will melt), or apply some craft foam instead. Tried it on and loved it. Loved it even more when I put on a layer of gold paint in the garage and it looked like gold foil. Yay!

If there’s another costume event next year, I’m going as Lady Amphitrite again, but I’m going in her battle gear. Hee, hee, hee…

Okay, for those of you following along at home, this is the chemise, skirt, corset, and bustle of my Steampunk Mermaid costume, plus trident (the pole will be painted gold tomorrow along with the crown once I finish it). And yes,that’s my cello in the background.

I couldn’t put on the whole thing (wig and makeup) because the cats picked that moment to go completely apeshit and start hissing and fighting all over the place, but this gives you an idea of what I’m working with. It’s not very clear unless I spread the skirt, but those are sparkly blue tulle fins on either side, and the white and gold rope trim close to the bottom of the skirt covers the marking line where I was supposed to put a bottom ruffle before I found out that 1) I didn’t have enough blue satin material and 2) the bustle material simply wouldn’t work that way (note for costumers — if you ever work with a foil material, be aware that you’ll need to stabilize it somehow, either by using a lightweight iron-on interfacing or doing a zigzag stitch along the edges, because that shit will tear apart at seams at a harsh word if it’s not reinforced). Que sera, sera. At least the trim looks nice, and I have pretty white fishnet stockings and gloves that will finish off the piece.

Shoes? Pewter granny boots. Totally steampunk.

The corset, by the way, will be covered in a teal hologrammatic scale fabric (shown below), but I’m literally just tacking it to the corset so I can do that any time between now and Friday. Now that I have the actual clothes done I need to get a move on and finish the crown tomorrow so that I can vacuum up the metric ton of blue glitter that’s been shed all over the house from the tulle trim (I found some in my eyebrows this afternoon. I ask you).

The bustle, despite being made in that shreddy foil material, turned out to be gorgeous. There was a drape section in the pattern that went across the front of the skirt, but I didn’t make it because 1) I ran out of time and 2) I didn’t really want to add more mass to that particular area of my body. I’d like to take a crack at doing a proper bustle skirt and matching jacket one of these days, especially now that I have the pattern for it. And I pointed out to Ramón that my corset comes in three other colors, including maroon. Seeing as he loves me in a corset and we just got our tax refund, I may be getting some pressies soon, whee.

• I’d completely forgotten the hell that is slippery/synthetic fabric and the pain in the ass that it is to pin and cut accurately. The chemise at left had me channeling curse words from Sumerian.
• Speaking of the chemise, it’s actually off the shoulder, but I had to pin it onto the hanger in order to get the picture. It looks better in person, I swear. Not thrilled with the sparkly tulle trim — I wanted it to be puffier and more drag queen-esque, but couldn’t figure out how to do that.
• Sometimes you have to say “hell no” to a pattern and go your own way. I do not need three rows of ruffles and a ruched front on this skirt. I’m going to be sweltering as it is — I don’t need to add “passing out from heat exhaustion” to the evening.
• Especially since I will be wearing (from skin outwards) a bra, panties, nylons, fishnet stockings, the chemise, bustle skirt, corset, wig cap, wig, and crown. And pewter granny boots. I suspect I will need someone to pry them off my feet by the end of the evening.
• Since I’m not making extraneous ruching, however, it means I can use the extra fabric left over from the bustle fabric to make a single ruffle around the bottom, mainly because it turns out I don’t have enough of the skirt fabric to do so.
• Do you know what’s the easiest way to gain a cat’s attention? Rustle paper. Do you know what sound you make when cutting out patterns? I swear, half of my day was spent turfing cats off the cutting table.
• Glitter is indeed the herpes of the crafting world.
• All the skirt sections sans ruffle have been cut out and will be sewn together in the morning. With any luck I may finish both skirt and bustle tomorrow night. Then I just have to do the crown, paint the trident pole gold, tack down the scaly fabric on the corset, and we’re ready to rock.

What I have purchased so far:

• 5 yards of pale teal crinkled poly fabric (chemise)
• 1 yard of silky white poly fabric (chemise)
• 5 yards of metallic teal and gold striped fabric (bustle skirt)
• 5 yards of deep teal satin fabric (bustle skirt)
• gunmetal underbust corset
• 1 yard teal hologrammatic fish scale fabric to cover underbust corset
• golden trident
• Worbla for crown
• blue/green long curly wig
• brilliant blue contacts
• white fishnet stockings
• white fishnet gloves
• false eyelashes
• Maybelline eyeshadow set in Shimmering Siren
• Nyx thick eye pencil in Milk
• Nyx single eyeshadow in Turnt Teal
• Nyx thick eye pencil in dark blue (have no idea of the color name)

What I still have to get:

• wig cap
• wig head for styling wig/creating crown
• white sparkly tulle for shoulder poufs, damn you RuPaul’s Drag Race
• flat side pearls and paua cabochons for crown
• craft foam for crown

On the plus side, I will be wearing this costume again to various cons and events, I can assure you. But man, that’s a lot of stuff for one evening.

So, yeah, I kinda changed my mind about what I wanted to wear to Cirque du Punk at RT’16. Since I write a lot about sea gods, water mages, mers, selkies, and the like, i thought it would be more appropriate if I showed up as a steampunk mermaid (Lady Amphitrite, Queen of the Seas and one of the big draws on the circus midway).

Thanks to the ease of internet shopping I purchased Worbla thermoplastic, a blue-grey corset, and a golden trident last night. Today I picked up sixteen yards of assorted fancy fabric for a frigging steal (and also for my costume). Then I went to the Dallas Vintage Shop (oh, my God, it’s where good costumers go when they die), came a little, and bought the nifty wig shown in the picture. I was going to get an Ariel long curly red wig, but then I saw this beauty and simply couldn’t say no. In my heart, I think I may well be a drag queen.

The rest of the evening was spent sorting through two different pattern packages and cutting out the pattern for a pale teal off-the-shoulder chemise that will form the base of the costume. My underbust corset will get an outer layer of shimmering turquoise fish scale fabric, and sometime this week I’ll be making a deep teal steampunked mermaid skirt with a metallic striped gold and teal bustle. And when the Worbla gets here I’ll be making myself a spined golden tiara encrusted with pearls, paua shell cabochons and rhinestones.

Why, yes, I go a bit overboard when it comes to costuming. But by God you are not going to be able to miss me at RT this year.