Week 28, vacuum-formed keys and gears

I don't remember if painting them was supposed to be part of the Thing too, but it seems like it should have been.  Therefore, for your viewing pleasure:

However, these were not photographed until the next Thursday, which makes this a FAILURE. . . I think?

Week 17, from inside the machine

Factors working against me: I intended to make a tiny top hat using a spool and a scrap of faux leather. However, when I had sewn this far (see picture). . .

. . . I realized that the edges weren't going to meet.  I really should have figured it out earlier, since I'd been stretching the "leather" to get it to sit right on the spool. So I decided that wasn't going to work and tried glue. Which didn't work either. At this point I was frustrated and discouraged, and I knew I had at most two hours left to work before my dad came home and wanted to watch Buffy with me. So rather than messing about with different types of glue I decided to make something else entirely.

Factors working for me: Right then, my mom called, and we discussed ideas for quick Steampunk Things while I dug though my crafting kit. We agreed jewelry was fastest and easiest (she suggested more cookies, but I never bought replacement ingredients, so that would have been an adventure in improvisation and inedibility). I wanted to do something a little different than what I'd made before, and while considering my options (earrings, necklace, pin. . . not a ring because I didn't have my ring blanks) I came across some chains and remembered a discussion we had at one of the Sacramento Steampunk Society meetings about necklaces with antique keys for pendants.
Results: I knew I wanted to do something chain-heavy, and I didn't want to bite the style of the person who gave me the idea. As I was choosing chains I considered that most of the multi-chain necklaces I've seen have a similar look to them. In order to avoid that I decided to make a choker. Then I attached the key asymmetrically. It still needed something, so I used the leftover bits of chain to attach some pieces from a clock I took apart, and the very last of the chain I used to support the key at its original angle, despite the rest of the stuff weighing it down.

I've worn it almost constantly since its completion, so I think this is one I'm going to keep.

Week 1 done!

Factors working against me: 1.We didn't get home from Steam-Con until 1am Tuesday morning.  2.  It's Halloween week, which means I had to make a costume too!  3. I had trouble forcing myself to get out of bed because it was freezing cold in my room.  Of course, once I did, the sunlight streaming into every other room in the house was much warmer than my THREE BLANKETS + FLANNEL SHEETS.  WTP.
Factors working for me: I had bought the materials for a LOTR elf costume a while back, but before I started working on it, my dad asked me to dress steampunk instead in an attempt to recruit members for a local Steampunk Society. So I threw this together:

I used a plastic shopping bag full of stuffing for the bustle.

Results: I finished my Thing of the Week about 11pm on Saturday.  I made a pair of gogglies similar to the ones I made for myself last week.

For comparison purposes: the top pair is mine, and the bottom pair is my Steampunk Thing of the Week (which is for sale at the Steamtopia Etsy Shop).

Also: This didn't get done in time to count as a Bonus Steampunk Thing of the Week, but about 15 minutes after midnight I finished this:

A while ago I got sick of having so many white socks and decided to do something about it. So I'm hand-painting them all with different patterns. This way I don't even have to worry about finding a matching pair!