Ladies, especially steamy ones, wear hats

I'm into hats lately. This may be part of my steampunk addiction. I'm quite in love with hats other than of a Victorian/steamy bent, though, since I think the little 40s-era fascinators are adorable too. I don't usually wear them, because I'm pretty lazy on a day to day basis about my appearance and tend to wander around in a t-shirt and jeans. I blame this on having kids. I was pretty stylish before the twinadoes came into my life. I hardly ever get to bust out my heels anymore, because I have to be able to chase a pair of four-year-olds at the drop of, as the apropos idiom goes, a hat.

So, I made a hat this morning, thanks to the Eddie Hat Tutorial (going to make a pair of them for the boys later - need to dig around for fabric, I'm sure I have a Thomas the Tank Engine fabric in the shed and they would love Thomas hats). I sized it up an inch, and made the cap itself a bit larger (14 inch square instead of 12) and it's nice and roomy, the way I like my hats. I probably could have worn it with just the measurements given haha... Heads don't grow that much once they hit the 3-4 age range. My boys can wear all my hats. Anyway, here's a pic:


Yep, that's my lovely Janome in the background. My serger (also a Janome) is on the other side of my sewing desk. And yes, I'm wearing a Harry Potter shirt (Dumbledore's Army!).

My next project, which is cut out and I'm going to work on for a bit here before the twinadoes come home (yay preschool!) is a steampunk skirt. It's a brown suede skirt I found at the thrift store that is being steamed up for the purposes of the Birthdaypalooza in t-minus 18 days. The rest of the outfit as planned:
*Leg-o-mutton (? or full and with ties) cream-colored cotton voile shirt
*Mauve cotton waleless cord corset-y vest (won't be a full corset, more corset-inspired, because I plan to drink at Birthdaypalooza and I know from experience that corsets+booze=trouble, at least in my case)
*Dark purple silk Victorian jacket
*ridiculously over-the-top skirt with details of lace, pearls, brass, a draped satin overskirt and separate bustled piece of brown and cream pinstriped fabulousness.
*spats/gaiters and my brown granny boots. And stockings.
*peacock & brown feather fascinator

I'm debating on adding bloomers as well. Might not get around to that, though. Need to whip up the shirt, the corset-y vest (must buy some featherweight boning, I don't want to do full metal ribs on this one so I can sit comfortably in the Party Bus), the jacket, a pair of wool and buttoned spats, and the skirt and bustle and overskirt. And the fascinator hat. It's going to be fun.