Evolution of my brown steampunk costume....

I am attending Wild Wild West Con in Tucson Arizona in March and I am in the process of getting my costumes completed.  I usually stay away from the generic brown, which is the most popular color for steampunk.  Heck, there is even a saying that Steampunk is what happens when Goth's discover brown.  I have one outfit that started off as a thrift store alteration, that I keep evolving into different versions of the costume.  Here is the representation of what has happened to it so far:

The First Version:
I first wore this at Wild Wild West Con 2 in 2013. My first few steampunk attempts were more European Victorian styled and I wanted to create some that would be more wild wild west themed.

I found a brown business suit at a local thrift store for about $10.00.  I used this as the base to my costume.  First I cut the brown skirt down and added a ruffle and trim to the bottom.
                                                                           

                            Next I added an apron and a bustle.
  













The White shirt was a goodwill find and I made the holster and modified the Nerf Gun.  The overall outfit was ok, but I wasn't thrilled with how it looked on me, so I decided to go for a new version.

Version 2:

The first thing I did was remove everything from the base skirt and added more fabric to the skirt ruffle.  Then I added red lace, which I promptly took off after this picture!  I also removed the black trim around the ruffle.  It just didn't look right to me.   

   

I had originally used the show girl skirt and bustle pattern from Simplicity 2851, but decided I wanted more to my bustle so I added the 14 inch fabric ruffle. I added my pretty red/copper trim to where I joined the ruffle to the bustle.

                         

For the final step, I added the short red lacy trim seen in the final version and added the red/copper trim to the top and bottom of the ruffle!  The white shirt is one I have had in my closet for a few years and the waist cincher was bought from the corset-story website.  

So now on to the final piece of this version, the boloero. I used the brown thrift store jacket that matched the skirt. I stripped off the arms and collar pieces.  I then cut the jacket off to make it look like a bolero.




                                                       

 
I then made sleeves using some extra fake leather material that I had left over.   I followed the double puff tutorial found on thiswebsite: http://romantichistory.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-double-puff-sleeves.html Finally I added the brown ruffled trim and more of the pretty red/copper trim.

Here is the full version 2:                          
                                

 I wore this costume to a local event, Steampunk Spectacular in Madrid, NM 2013.  Here is a pic of me from the event.

While I do like this version of the outfit, it doesn't quite fit me anymore.  I am in the process of coming up with a 3rd version and will be posting my progress in the next month.