Or more accurately.
Proof that you can make a cheap steampunk costume that still looks great.
Earlier this year, DH and I decided to go to a fan con that was 3 hours away. Yikes! His cousins had a booth there, and we thought it would be great to see them and go to our first con. We decided to make steampunk costumes.
Other than a quick Halloween costume, I haven't had much experience in costume making. And I haven't tried to use my sewing machine yet. And besides making a steampunk inspired sketchbook for a friend's son, I had no experience in the steampunk world either.
With some ingenuity and a couple trips to the thrift store, I made both our costumes for around $30.
This is not a normal "how to" tutorial. You can't make the exact same costumes for the same price. But in true steampunk fashion, you have to be inventive. This is just how I used what we had and made it work. You don't even have to order gears online. You can use what you have and what you find.
Here's what we used that we already owned:
(Some of these I planned on using, some were last minute solutions)
Pocket Watch- one of DH's grandfather's
Vest & Tank
White collared shirts
Slacks
Shoes (DH actually bought some for the costume, but they didn't fit right)
Old and broken jewelry that my mom had given me awhile ago
Bra (yep, this got a lot of laughs, I used the straps for DH's goggles)
Purse (one that the dog had eaten)
Spray Paint
Soda Bottle
Compass
Hot Glue
Needle & Thread
Here's what we bought, mostly from the thrift store:
Leather Jacket-$6
Old Clock-$2
Hats-$8
Sunglasses-$6
Eye Shadow-$1 from the dollar store
Belt- $3
Misc Toys that we hoped had some gears- $4
Apron-$3
Technically I also bought Velcro dots for $8 from Walmart. That was because I waited until the last minute and didn't have time to sew things. I hated how they worked, and they have been replaced with hot glue.
We got some encouraging feedback from people at the con. While some of them had been doing it for years, and put a lot of money, time and talent into their costumes, they still liked what we had done. It's the thought you put into that shows.
Here's what we started with:
We wound up not using the binoculars, but this was the look I first imagined when we started the costumes.
The hat cost $4 and was actually for a woman. The sunglasses cost under $2 and were actually baseballs.
The most comments I got were about DH's hat.
We were going for a bowler hat, and I think this wound up looking pretty close.
There's the last minute bra straps that I added to his goggles (don't worry, it was on its way to the garbage anyway). The leather strap around it is from my dog-eaten purse. The thing people really liked was the gold details on the side. The bases were from a belt I bought for $3. On top, I glued some springs and nuts I found in the bottom of the toolbox. I spray painted a few plastic gears and car wheels and added those too. Then I just hot glued everything to the hat.
DH also teased out his hair, and I painted on grey eye shadow on his face to look like soot.
I also put some old jewelry to good use.
I broke up a chain into segments, added some painted plastic gears, and stuck them onto the brooch from my mom. I also took a small heart locket from my mom and added an old, cheap, beat-up chain.
I wanted my 'persona' to be a tinkerer. With short hair, pants, and soot on my face, I thought a little feminine touch to my hat would be nice.
Here's DH. The apron actually had something like "kiss the cook" on the front. So he wore it backwards. You could still see the writing a little, so I cut the pocket off the leather jacket and sewed it to the front. Since I can't sew that well, it wound up not centered. So, I added another little strip to the side. One of the Steampunk panel presenters actually liked how I had off-centered the pocket. ( I totally pretended like it was a well-thought decision after that) We tucked a compass and a pocket watch into the apron pockets to show they're practical. The jacket was made of 2" leather strips, so it was really easy to rip apart and make these no-sew bracers.

I love these boots! I actually bought them for $1 a few years ago for a costume, and they keep coming in handy. I tucked my pants into my boots of course. The 'practical bloomer' as someone said. Remember, pants weren't the norm in the Victorian era. So I didn't want to wear them like a boy would. I pinned my shirt open because, well why not? The bracer on my right hand is a leather strip from around the sleeve. It was already pointed, so I wrapped it around and sewed a ring of chain to it. That way I could slip it over my finger. I wear glasses, so it was important to have goggles that I could wear. I painted the sunglasses and popped out the lenses. Then I cut replacement lenses from a 2 liter bottle. I hot glued my purse straps to the back. I also found a 3-chain choker in my stash of vintage jewelry, so that got pinned into my vest. It gives the illusion of a watch.
Sorry this isn't a detailed how-to. I didn't think the costumes would come out as well as they did. We met some other long-time Steampunkers there-the con actually had them do a panel, which was great.
They were very nice, and so encouraging. But when someone asked how much it costs to get started in making a Steampunk costume, the veterans (who hand make their very nice costumes) went into a lot of detail. So, I stood up and said, this is our first time doing costumes, and I spent about $30 for both of us. That got some "oh wow"s and "really?"s. Then we had to stand in front of the class while the speaker went over our costumes. Some of the things he mentioned were nice touches:
the soot on our face, DH's hat, my tucked in pants.
I think we only got away with spending so little because of our personas. If we were trying to portray the upper-class, our costumes would have needed more pomp and circumstance. Everything that got comments were the little details, which made me feel great. A tip I picked up is to make one central piece of interest, and make the rest of the costume backdrop. I really want to make some kind of tinkerer's glove in the future, so that will be my central piece.
We've joined a Steampunk group in the area, and I'm excited to further develop our costumes and characters.
-DearLadyDisdain