In Progress

     Hello everybody! It's been a few weeks since my first post- and I've gotten a few designs down- though they all need some work. I have found the sticky notes are my best friends for my journal- they let me add in information later on, record assignments in without making them permanent, and put side notes/reminders in that I can remove when they are no longer applicable.

     I've decided that I'm not going to be working on Modern Renaissance design; this means I will be focusing exclusively on Steampunk. This seems like a better decision to me because it will allow me to aquatint myself with the genre better, instead of switching back in forth between the two. This does not change any of the due dates or requirements- it just means everything has to have an element of Steampunk in it.

    I've been working through different design ideas and concepts- but I find that my favorite designs start from an already existing piece that I copy.

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Above is one of my first designs- just a simple combo of  a pair of shorts, sleeveless shirt, and a (short) short sleeve jacket. The only things is that I like my clothes ling and loose- a short jacket would probably get on my nerves.
The shorts wouldn't have pockets- and to make up for that I would use a belt bag (made of leather/faux leather). I got the idea for this design from a bag on ETSY

 Leather Round Possibles Bag (original inspiration)

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This outfit is also based off of something I found on ETSY- this time it being a shirt that made me think of corsets. The detached sleeves look very cool- and I have ended up incorporating them in my other designs. There are two possible differences in this outfit- revolving mainly around the two different coat/jacket styles. The design on the far right is my favorite of the two. 

Detached sleeves shirt (Original)

This leads me to the second design idea on the page- Goggles

Goggles are such an crucial part of Steampunk that I wouldn't be doing the culture justice without a pair. The thing is- goggles restrict your peripheral vision. You can't see anywhere but ahead of you- and that would bother me a lot.

So- my friend Helen came up with the brilliant idea of putting little triangles of opaque film on the sides- giving me a little bit of peripheral sight. 

This lead me to think about what I could do to further this idea- and I came up with making camera goggles- which means taking old cameras and recycling the parts to create my goggles!
Not only that- but if I use old film for the lenses- I can make them sunglasses of a sort, giving them a practical purpose on top of them looking really cool!

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I know that there are two designs in this section- but I don't like the one on the far left (it has a lot of technical problems and I'm unclear I how I would make it work, even if I wanted to try and make it)  So I won't go into it.

This design, though, I like a lot. 

It's basically a knock-off of the mini web series Riese: Kingdom Falling's main character's outfit- but that's okay. It looks really cool. But it would be more form fitting and constrained due to the fact that it does have a corset as part of the major design; meaning that it wouldn't be something I would automatically think of as comfortable- which is a major part of this project.

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The above shows three designs, I was just sort of trying out different styles, but nothing too fancy. The design in the upper left hand corner is my favorite of this lot. The hand in the lower right corner is due to stumbling a crossed the Tailor's Assistant on Etsy.

This design is a combo of a shirt and a dress- giving me the length and freedom I love- but without the bother of it being too long. Keeping the pants is also nice- just because it would allow me to stay within my comfort zone. (Any dresses/skirts will have shorts under them)

I would definitely want to have at least three different belt bags to go with this outfit- because I feel like it has an 'adventure/exploration' feel to it.

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I was trying to design more outfits with squirts, seeing as I have a dirth of such outfits, and they are so critical to the steampunk genre. The top two designs were also exploring vests/jackets.

This design was experimenting with the look of a jacket that could be worn loos, but also pulled and tied at the sides for a more fitted look. It has a sort of office worker vibe to it.

I was trying to integrate a swallowtail jacket, a garment that shows up frequently in steampunk outfits. 

I'm not so sure if I really like the look of it though.

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That's if for now, I'll be back later with more updates on my progress. Until then!