Proper attire for a child.

[Slackratchet]

My 8yr old girl takes a keen interest in all of my activities and Steampunk is no exception, to that end she wants a Steampunk costume. My little girl is a rough and tumble girly-girl, she might begin playing football before she realized she was wearing a dress so whatever I get her has to be durable or it would never survive its first outing.

Talking to her about what she liked after looking through what Steampunk galleries I found and after explaining to her they probably didn't make corsets in her size she agreed an 'adventuring' look would be good.

I've seen precious few kids in Steampunk attire and my research into kids of the Victorian era has not provided much I can use. I guess I am looking for pictures, suggestions, patterns, anything that can get me broadly searching in the right direction.

[Jasper Illusian]

Well, personally, I think a tomboyish steampunk look would work pretty well. That is, if your daughter doesn't mind not having a nice fancy dress. I would suggest a pair of trousers, a button-up shirt (could be tan--tea dyed, or something--so it would look less bad if it got dirty), and a vest (could be of a nice bright color to up the likability). I don't know if she'd like that look (girls that age tend to go for more of a girly look). Alternately, you could make a dark colored skirt to go with a vest and shirt.

I don't know if that would be exactly the look you want, but I hope it at least helps. 

[ForestB]

I've seen some historical patterns in the Simplicity books at Joann's. They were more "little house on the prairie" type outfits, but I think that's from the same time period... Those type of styles might hold up better to a tomboy type.

[lolliTragic]

My daughter, who's a similar age, loves frilly dresses and has fallen in love with Lolita fashion. She simply climbs trees, rides bikes, and plays rugby in her dresses. But, much like in the Victorian era, she has play dresses. I made them from an easily cleaned and reasonably strong fabric, patterns and colours which hide any future stains, and they don't have anything delicate attached that would be guaranteed to snag on a branch. She'll often wear them over a t-shirt or blouse (depending on the dress style), sometimes with tights or bloomer style shorts or pants. She also has pieces from the Ouji/Kodona style, for the rare occasion that she wants to wear pants.

I would suggest looking up Lolita sites as many of them have references to sites with suitable patterns or lots of photos to give you ideas from which you could make your own patterns.

[Dr von Zarkov]

Think about bib-and-brace overalls (bib overalls) worn with a flat or newsboy cap.

[Gin-Shakespear]

There are some super cute finds on etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/33093380/circle-skirt-in-black-stripe-perfect-for?ref=v1_other_2

http://www.etsy.com/listing/46568238/baby-dress-and-bloomers?ref=sr_list_6&ga_search_query=victorian&ga_search_type=category&category=children&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Knee length bloomers would be adorable for play as well.

[ValancyJane]

My 8 year old is also very into the whole steampunk thing thanks to me and is also a bit of the rough and tumble type.  We went over several options together both.

Option 1 that she eventually went with is an air pirate (since Castle in Sky is one of her favorite movies).  You can see a pic of what we put together here.   The jacket, tank top, and pants came from a second hand store and were total $16.  The boots are her new hiking boots and the belt she already had.  The goggles are welding goggles I got off of Amazon for $5 and the scarf I just found on sale today a Mejier for $5.  We also have an aviator cap from an old Halloween costume.  So for $26, she has a great, play friendly costume that she can be comfortable in.

Option 2 was more "period correct" frilly dresses as she also really likes Scarlett from Steamboy and Samantha from the American Girl Collection.  After looking around, I've found that pageant dresses might work and can be had for around $30~$50 off of ebay.  When I was younger, American Girl carried period just like you dresses for the historical dolls but they no longer do.  I've seen them on ebay but they run upwards of $60.  Still Kristin, Addy, Samantha, and Rebecca all fall under the periods considered Steampunk and could be a great inspiration.  Recollections also carries some children's dresses, but once again they are all $60 and up.

[Springheel Jack]

Depending on the childs general demeanor either ruffs and petticoats
Or bars and reigns.
Individuality is the key, a child should not be clothed in the image of the parent but the child should have a modicum of free choice.
Let them choose but you guide and between you the perfect blend shall be forged.

[Slackratchet]

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions, I'll run them by Shiva tonight and see what flys.... then we go shopping. I know she wants goggles and a sidarm but those are the easy parts for me.

[Sir Robert]

OMG a little girl who wants brass goggles?

Take care of her she sounds like a keeper.

[Slackratchet]

I bought a pair of welding goggles to convert for her use... at least I will when I can get her to take them off.

[Dave the Troll]

This is what I ended up with for my five year old for our outing to the Steampunk exhibit in Oxford.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Started with a velvet party dress and accessorised.  Adding the cravat made a big difference.
I pinned the dress back, so that the bulk of the skirt was held at the back to give the impression of a bustle dress.
I have since purchased a grey, double breast jacket that adds to the outfit perfectly.

[Mr Addams]

Once again, I find myself recommending PATTERNS OF TIME for Victorian costume patterns.
They have an extensive selection of HISTORICAL CHILDRENS PATTERNS. They are listed with the Dated patterns in more or less chronological order, with the Victorian patterns starting HERE. The Undated patterns are at the end, in Alphabetical order, and start HERE. This includes a number of period patterns for corsets for young girls, but I have my doubts about the advisability of putting a corset on a growing child.
I don't know what your personal image of steampunk is, or how important autenticity is to that image. But for an adventuring girls costume, one idea that comes to mind would be to use a boys suit pattern, but to substitute a skirt in matching fabric for the trousers, and perhaps dress it up with a pretty blouse.
There are also patterns for girls Jackets.
One word of warning, many of these patterns are by "Ageless Patterns" They are based on original patterns and come with only the original Victorian sewing instructions, so it helps if you know a bit about how to put a garment together

 

[Polaris]

What ever outfits you make her, might I suggest upholstery fabric? It's a little more work to sew, but more sturdy and durable, and often times stain resistant. Plus you can often get a lot of Victorian-esque prints. "Jacquard" and "chenille", I believe, are the best suited.

[Kelley]

I would be careful with the upholstery fabric, especially with a child.

Upholstery is much more likely to be chemically treated in a way making it undesirable for clothing - they may be more flammable than fabric made for garments, or melt worse - causing great injury should an accident occur. They can also be very uncomfortable to wear, especially over much of the body - you might get lucky, you might not - treated or plasticy (by which I don't mean a vinyl substance) backing can make a garment completely awful to wear in the heat.

It's like why they tell people not to wear nylons on an airplane - when exposed to great enough heat, they will melt, and adhere to the flesh, leaving very bad burns. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I would never dress a child in a true synthetic (rayon, as regenerated cellulose does not melt). Upholstery fabrics tend to have a notable synthetic content unless they are fairly high-end (and thus something a middle-income person probably wouldn't clothe a child in if they're worried about getting their money's worth).

Natural protein fibers are at least resistant to burning - they will go out by themselves and they take some encouraging to start to burn, especially the thicker kinds. They also tend to be much more comfortable to wear.



I would suggest identifying the qualities one likes in such fabric, and finding a better alternative since they do exist.


For a child, my suggestions would depend on the time of year. For fall and winter, thicker wool can be very durable - as can suiting-weight velvets. For the summer, linen is quite durable (but known for being wrinkly), and I've found a 50-50 linen-cotton blend to be great for a hard-wearing garment.

[Wilhelmina Frame]

I think bloomers could be a nice split between fancy and rough and tumble, especially how you trim (or don't) trim them. I think 8 is too young for a corset but if she likes the look you could compromise with a corselette which is a lightly boned "belt". Truly Victorian has a pattern for them and I think it is very easy.

[lolliTragic]

I have to agree with Kelley about the potential dangers of making clothes from upholstery fabric, especially for children. I have heard/read about curtain fabrics which have extremely low flammability but excellent durability, however, I've been unable to identify this in a store so have never personally used them. I usually use more durable cotton blends or wool for play clothes.

I really like Wilhelmina's idea of a corselette, I might have to look into that for my daughter.

[ValancyJane]

While looking for something totally unrelated, my daughter and I can across this site, Chasing Fireflies.  While the clothing is very pricey, it could be good for inspiration.  In the costume section, the can-can dancer and  vampire  look like something one could use for childs steampunk dress with a "corset" look.

[Slackratchet]

So we went thrift store shopping and found most of a reasonable outfit. She picked out a few things I would have completely passed on but ultimately worked together nicely, seems she has an eye for this sort of thing. I'll get a picture up but she's at school now and I work until midnight so that shall be tomorrow.

For all of the wonderful sewing related suggestions my current sewing skills can be summed up under the title 'knows how to hem things' and that's about it though I am investigating a class on learning more. Thank you all for the suggestions and links.

[lolliTragic]

My sewing skills aren't anything impressive, I can assure you of that. But, it's like anything, the more you work at it the better you get. I found doing little pinafore dresses or pantaloons with ruffles helped build my confidence and skills, and from there I simply tried other things. There's a lot of information online about sewing, many video clips if you're more of a visual person. Don't sell yourself short by saying you can just hem things

[Slackratchet]

So this is where we stand so far.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We're still hunting up a nicer shirt and I have some work I want to do on the goggles to make them less plastic and more fitting and she can hardly lift that gun so we've a bit to do there but so far she is very happy to dress up and pose.

The part that impresses me the most is she picked out the vast majority of what she is wearing. I am proud of my little girl

[Gin-Shakespear]

I'd love to pinch those little cheeks...

[Grumfoss]

She looks great my 6 year old loves her outfit

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I will have to sort out a firearm for her as well, I do like the one your daughter has, very nice.

[Slackratchet]

Love the bowler, wonderful outfit she has there. I do feel odd making a 'shoots people' sort of gun for my daughter so after talking to her about it we've settled on a grappling gun. It'll be a fun project. The one she has in that photo is my Gatling Pistol. It's a nice prop but weighs a bit over 4 lbs