I made a steampunk costume

Every couple of years I actively participate in our version of mardi gras and dress up in a costume. It's usually something mundane like dressing up as a living statue or a girl or whatever.

Full costume

This year, however, I decided to go full out. Finally, an excuse to make a steampunk costume!

I'm not the handiest person in the world so the whole thing was a bit of a mess - not a single straight cut anywhere, parts of my room are now gold and there is trash everywhere. But I had a lot of fun working manually for two days. It's remarkably refreshing to do something in meatspace now and anon.

All the manly work even made my fifth chest hair grow! Score!

I'm quite pleased with the result, the costume turned out pretty decent and only cost about 30 euro in parts and another ~300 euro in time. Plus whatever old crap I found collecting dust around the house; like for instance, bits of my high school death metal outfit.

It begins with a pile of junk

Regular welding glasses from a store, just added the fluff

First stage of shoulder armor - an old belt, strip of cloth and leather tied on with aluminium wire

The hat is actually something I always wear

Normal welding gloves and some wire

Took several tries to make symmetric wings

The trick is to apply copper paint with a sponge

Armor panels

The finished shoulder armor drying

The gloves turned out quite well

Manliest my desk has ever looked

Slightly bigger picture of full outfit

Unfortunately the costume did not prevent me from accidentally getting way too drunk at the party. Lost my real glasses, the hat, my keys, even my moleskine.

All in all, the most expensive party I've ever been to ... but at least the costume is cool :)