Steampunk Medic

Continuing with Dragon*Con costumes, we've finally arrived at steampunk. 

From what I've gathered, steampunk is this: Imagine that we never went past steam- and coal-powered machines like the train, never broke down science into atoms or made nuclear weapons. Inventions like airplanes and defibrillators exist, but they're based on energy sources permanently stuck in the 19th/early 20th century. Now add that Victorian era aesthetic.

My friend decided we have an airship that flies under the company Von Schifferdecker's Exotic Imports. I wanted to be the medic, because every ship needs a doctor. I bought a canvas bag designed to look like a WWII medic pack with a giant red cross on the front, and some antique WWII red cross pins on eBay.

I wanted to wear one of my petticoats, but felt it was missing something. So I made an overskirt in a dark red/wine color, which I later decided was hilarious because it's probably the best color for a medic to wear so that blood stains don't show. I had no pattern, and it took a lot of tries to get this right, but I finally came up with something I liked.

There are ribbons coming out of the waistband area that I used to tie the overskirt up on the hips, and a secret pocket because I felt it needed one. I wanted the bottom back of the skirt to look like coattails, and I later added white crosses to.

All steampunk outfits have to have some sort of prop, and I decided on a stethoscope. I found a really old pair of headphones (maybe dated to WWII?) on eBay, gears/watch parts, and clock hands. I spray painted the clock hands brass to match, and then glued it all together. The cord to the jack was super long, so I used a brass pendulum from a clock to make the knobby-end, and looped the extra cord around it.

 

Aren't they beautiful? The earpieces swiveled, so the clock hands splayed out, and it was AWESOME. The rest of the outfit were things I already had: a tuxedo shirt, black vest, thrifted red tie, and a cut-off glove without it's matching pair: