Created for and debuted at the 2018 Big River Steampunk Festival.

This was originally going to be the “I Shall Wear Midnight” ensemble, because it was first worn for a midnight seancé the night prior to BRSF’s official opening:

In the above photos, taken outside the Judas & Magnolia vardo after the seancé, it’s bustled only in the back, worn with a single unstiffened petticoat, red floral hair clip, my favourite lace fan, and the green Artifixer corset seen previously in the Steampunk Louise costume – and I’d intended for it that to be the end of it. When I started putting together my outfit for Day One, though – yet another rehash of the Time & Space Hunter – I realized I was getting really tired of it and started playing around with a fresh(ish) mix of clothing and accessories. The end result?

Blackheart Beauty, the steampirate queen:

There’s only one new handmade piece of any real importance here, and that’s the skirt. As usual, it was created using two layers of my standard six-panel pattern. For Blackheart Beauty, it’s drawn up highest in the front and drops gradually to full-length in the back. Because I’d only planned to bustle the top layer, the bottom layer lacked drawstrings, but had been sewn with the channels for them just in case I ever changed my mind – and it’s a good thing I did it that way, seeing as I had to run out at two in the morning to grab another Spool O’ Ribbon and get it done!

The rest of the ensemble features a shirt, stockings, and boots from my everyday closet, the brown leather Artifixer corset seen previously with Time & Space Hunter, and various bits and pieces including my self-made snap’n’strap belt and lace-up armlets, a copper(coloured) mug, one of my ex-roommate’s Nerf gun repaints, the gifted goggles, and a brown-and-cream fan we’ll come back to later!

Both the watch and the cameo are new. The watch, sadly, is a modern purchase – between BRSF 2017 and BRSF 2018, I acquired a beautiful antique pocketwatch that I’d hoped to wear this time around, but alas, it needs servicing – it won’t run for more than a few minutes at a time, and I like for functional accessories to actually be functional when I’m carrying them (which is also why I no longer have my old modern pocketwatch, as that ten-dollar piece of crap has given up all its ghosts). Likewise, the cameo is a charm from Hobby Lobby, which I attached to a cheap black-lace-and-chain choker from Walmart. The choker originally came with some hideous black plastic dangles, which the aforementioned ex-roommate helpfully popped off for me before I arrived to finish the rest.

I’m also wearing my finalist medal from the 2016 BRSF Costume Contest, because srsly, what’s a steampunk adventurer’s costume without medals? (I really need to make myself one for that Heroic Tea Service, too, but I haven’t been able to find the right kind of charm yet.)

In a few shots, you can see the end of my drawers – I may have told a teensy white lie about how much of this set was new and handmade, because they are, too, but I’m not really counting them because they aren’t a primary visual feature (also, they’re getting a post of their own, along with a few other underthings). I did make one small change to them here, and that was swapping out their white ribbon lacing for higher-contrast, better-matching black ribbon.

I met Teddi / Agent Owl after the Time Traveller’s Ball last year, and recognized her immediately as we were both wandering around the Great Midway. And I said I’d come back to that fan, right? That’s because she’s carrying the exact same one! (Which I really hope she didn’t get AT the festival, because I got mine at Dollar Tree, and I’m willing to bet a lot of the resellers tossing them in baskets for $3-$5 paid about what I did themselves. >_> )

Truth be told, I was so frustrated the night I put this together that not only was I not sure how I felt about it, I actually thought I might hate it! And now – well, I’m pretty damn sure it’ll be worn again. So all in all, a good decision on the part of the person who encouraged it, and a good day at the festival!

But that’s not all – this year, I did two new ensembles! Next up: A Little Light Tea.