A Revisit, A Steampunk Halloween and Embroidery

Last Halloween

I made the blouse in this picture last Halloween for a "Steampunk Halloween" with some friends and while I did more of a "proper Victorian lady" than a gal with hiked up skirts, a corset and a gun, which seems to be pretty popular, I still love the costume. Since then I've used it in a photo shoot for the same friend who hosted the Halloween party, for her photography class. In the time since last Halloween I've slowly collected some bits and bobs of brass stampings, some glass gems and some more brass jewelry pieces. I made myself some really cute hair clips and then decided that I should have matching buttons.

Hair clips and fabric covered button

The button in the picture is a fabric covered button with a blue glass stone in a brass setting (which is a little hard to see since it's got beads around it), with a little bead embroidery surrounding it. They all came out great! I used Czech 11's for the beads, in a pearlized white and just bead embroidered around the blue stone using Nymo, which is my personal favorite for anything bead woven or embroidered, although you don't have to use Nymo bead thread. I just happen to have a lot of it since I do bead.

Here is what the whole costume looked like at the photo shoot. Notice that I also have a "parasol". It was really just a blue umbrella that I sewed lace onto in 2 rows.

Photo shoot with new buttons, hair clips and parasol

Once I got home, I had started a little regular embroidery, just to practice. I thought that it would be a great idea to add a little embroidery to my costume. I found some images online (here is a great source, and these are from there) and traced them onto some thin-ish canvas to practice on.

After picking the flowers in blue as my choice I then copied the image to the corners of my collar on the blouse. It took a few days to get done, since I have to take a lot of breaks because of carpal tunnel, but I absolutely love it!

The blue smudges are just transfer paper marks that I haven't washed off yet. They aren't a part of the embroidery.

Close up of collar

I also plan to do some more embroidery on the sleeves or cuffs somehow. But since they are pretty baggy, I'm not quite sure where to place them or if it should be on the sleeves and cuffs, or just the sleeve OR cuff. A conundrum.