The other day (ok, a while ago actually,before Hallowe’en, this is a scheduled post!) I was in Fabricland and one of the garments on display was made from Simplicity 2172. I have seen this pattern reviewed elsewhere, and while there are aspects of it that are neat, it’s never called out to me to purchase it. Still, I was excited to see that someone had made it up, and thought I’d share some quick iPhone snapshots with you.
Brown jacket with purple bustier, brown and black striped skirt.
The garment is a brown underbust cut coat, with a brown skirt, and a purple bustier. The maker also did a set of goggles, and a bunch of accessories to style the outfit. Very ambitious!
Shot of the pattern, with the pocket trim for the coat.
Simplicity doesn’t have linkable photos, so here’s a photograph instead. Sorry for the iPhone quality!
The 'coat' bodice front with fantastic 'gear' 'buttons. The coat is brown, the bustier under it is the bright blue -it's really more of a purple.
The feature that really caught my eye were the ‘buttons’ though on the coat. When I looked at them I thought that they were a slotted button with a brass-toned ring around the outside. I knew they looked familiar, but I just couldn’t place them. I started by looking at the buttons, but nothing looked correct. Then I went back to the garment and looked again, and realized that the centers weren’t buttons, but extra large snaps. I looked at the snaps – still no luck. None of them were big enough, and they were all silver-tone or black. When I worked at Fabricland years and years ago, we were supposed to use as much of their stock as possible for our display projects – so I wondered about these ‘buttons’ – and then finally while looking at the cloak clasps – I saw them!
Extra-large snaps - two shown with the internal (male and female) pieces, and one snapped to the card.
I was really impressed with this sewer’s creativity! These really do look like cogs, and make big, impressive ‘buttons’. Of course, there is no shank on them, so there’s likely snaps or something behind the fake buttons – but still really creative!
I bought some for the stash of ideas and parts. If you have seen similar ideas (normal items seen in unique ways for Steampunk goodness), share them in the comments below!
Dawn's Dress Diary 
There’s quite a discussion on this pattern on a steam fashion site. The use of snaps here is interesting. When I made the jacket I used La Mode ‘vintage’ buttons.
At Teslacon2 (Madison WI, 2011) there were at least 6 versions of this pattern, and a strictly by-the-pattern version won the costume contest.
There were probably half a dozen versions at the con, each looked different. Mine was constructed from a disassembled grey silk men’s kimono (resale/Ragstock, $6 ?). I added epaulets and left off the ‘wings’ and ruffles. Good with a long skirt, pants, etc.
I’ve seen it in corduroy, it does look sharp in a stiffer fabric.
I don’t think I could ever do something strictly by-the-pattern myself… I always need to fuss around with things – partially to put my own spin on things, and partially just because not everything I like to look at suits my figure!
Good advice on the stiffer fabric though – do you happen to have the URL for the steam fashion site? I think I remember reading a review on the Live Journal group at some point… but when I stopped using LJ, I also stopped visiting most of the groups. 😦