Making and modification of weapons for Steampunk gear.
So far the lab has produced two hand held weapons that are unique and original in their formation. A couple of others still on the work bench, are incomplete and will be written up later. The first is Madame von Hedwig needle gun, a pistol out of brass lamp bits and hobby supplies. The second is a modification of a toy cap rifle with Adolphus.
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Madame, being a women at ease with plants and their uses desired a weapon that could deploy her practical knowledge at range. Thus a weapon that could rapidly fire needles containing a selection of sedatives, poison or toxins seem the best choice. Being that Hera dislike bulky gear that distracts from her normal peaceful social interaction with the world a pistol was ideal.
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This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which we find out how Herr von Hedwig came to be dancing with La Belle Capitaine.
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An hour before, in the office of the Commander…
“Oui, oui, Monsieur von Hedwig, she is a remarkable flier. And I must admit, a natural-born leader. Men would follow her into hell itself.”
The Commander of the Armée Aeronautique in Saigon stared at his brocade curtains as though they might tell his story for him.
“I would follow her into hell,” he muttered.
Behind him, Herr vonHedwig silently riffled through the papers on the Commander’s desk. He didn’t have time for reminiscing.
“Why then did you not promote her? Because she is a woman?”
“That is a complication, but not the reason, though that is most likely what she thinks. No, Monsieur, it is because she is American. She has served most loyally, yes, but how can I give a foreigner authority over so many French?”
Herr vonHedwig sighed, running a hand through his hair. His fingers got caught. The hot Saigon night was curling his already thorny hair into brambles. He extracted them, and captured his wild mop under his hat.
“Where is her racer berthed?”
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By Madame vonHedwig on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
I have a pouch on my adventure belt for a field observation notebook, but alas! none of my existing notebooks fit in my pouch. To remedy this I spent a snowy afternoon making myself a notebook to fit. I copied a wonderful technique from Meredith Scheff who blogged about it at Steampunk Workshop but did not include process photos. I took way too many process photos and have created a tutorial in the von_Hedwig Flickr photostream.
This is a great project to do with kids, even young kids, especially if you start with an existing notebook and cover it with this technique. I only had to buy one supply item, everything else came out of the recycling!
To cover a notebook you need:
clear gesso (art suppy shop, craft store – look in the painting aisle)
crumpled brown paper (paper grocery bags or shipping material)
watercolor paint
notebook
To make a notebook:
corrugated cardboard
paper
sturdy fabric scrap
stout needle
button thread
The tutorial shows the making of a notebook. If you want to cover an existing notebook, start here with h-glue paper to outside of notebook.
By Madame vonHedwig on Saturday, February 27th, 2010
This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which our distraught parents race for help, and Madame and Chef reach an understanding.
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Only the Schöneluft had the fuel stores and engine power for a run from the Himalyas across southeast Asia to the French capital of Vietnam. She could fly nearly 80 miles an hour under the right conditions, but those conditions had not been met in years. The more children they acquired, the more comforts the von Hedwigs had deemed desirable, and the slower the great airship had become.
With their children’s lives at stake, the von Hedwig parents took no chances. An hour’s work here, in the shadow of the mountain that had swallowed their offspring, could save them hours in flight. Ulrik was securing the Schmetterling inside the tunnel’s mouth to keep it safe from storm and avalanche in their absence. Herr von Hedwig plotted their course to Saigon, and Madame was in the Galley, negotiating with Chef.
They spoke in French, a language Madame spoke fluently, although despite rumors she had carefully started, it was not her native tongue.
“Monsieur, we leave within the hour, and the galley stays here. We need sufficient food supplies for two days brought into the ship in the next twenty minutes. And coffee. Lots of coffee.”
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By Madame vonHedwig on Saturday, February 20th, 2010
This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which, although the circumstances are dark indeed, a beacon of hope shines from afar.
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Madame took off the moment her husband was on board. Although she was agitated, her flying was steady, and they soon arrived at the mouth of the tunnel that had swallowed their children. There was no place to land. They anchored, to a stalactite above them and a stalagmite below. Herr von Hedwig rappelled down to the site, bathed in the Schmetterling’s searchlight.
Madame paced between the hatch and the controls, wringing her hands. A dozen times an anxious question leapt to her lips; a dozen times she quelled it. Her husband examined the cave mouth, called for more line, and then went deeper, out of her view. She stayed at the line, alert for any signal from him. At length, one came – again, more line! He was descending. She focused the spotlight down into the blackness. Although her beloved was lost from her sight, she hoped the light would be of use to him. He carried the lantern as well.
At last, the signal to wind in the line. At last he returned.
“The ship was here; they went into the tunnel. There are scratch marks along the floor.”
“Why did they go in there?” Madame’s voice strained with the effort of control.
“The blackguard must have forced them. He must have a yeti or two with him. The children would have overpowered him otherwise.”
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By Madame vonHedwig on Friday, February 12th, 2010
This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which the Fearless Fabricator and his intrepid wife find disturbing evidence.
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Herr and Madame vonHedwig made their way from the mad scientist’s underground lair, trudging toward the surface. They were tired, and mired in thought, but alert for any sign of Montesanto or yeti.
A distant throbbing broke the silence of the cave. Exchanging concerned and puzzled looks, they hurried toward the sound. Suddenly, bright white light flashed against the tunnel wall ahead of them as the throb became a roar. They ran pell mell toward the fading sound, skittering to a halt at the mouth of the volcanic tube they had discovered on their way in. The engine sound that had shattered the underground silence was only a muttering far below them.
The Fearless Fabricator listened intently. There was something familiar about the engine sound, disturbingly familiar.
“What’s that?” Madame pointed down the wall of the volcanic tube. “Was that there before?”
Her husband cupped their lantern in both hands, focusing the light. There was a tiny smear of white clinging to the rock wall, its charred edges blending with the dark rock. When at last he spoke, he could only utter a harsh whisper.
“It’s a marshmallow.”
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This entry is part of a series, 12 Volt Power supply» aka
Swanking your jank
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Working hard in the lab, the corset post and exploring the world with the family have distracted me from posting the project I have completed. While I don’t apologize for my priorities, I do make an apology to those who have been checking in.
Not only did I finish the case for the ATX Power supply for myself, but I built a second for a good friend who is a fabulous tinker himself.
The wooden part of the cases themselves are simple wood working – plywood with the edges covered in oak veneers. I used luan was used for the grills, hand cut with a coping saw. While unfettered ventilation is important, but not wanting to sacrifice aesthetic, I brass painted some window screen and glued it behind the grill to help obscure internal components. The mark II has a black painted baffle halfway between the grill and the internal components to further aid this concealment. Wood stain and tongue oil help to give the wood parts a quality look.
Brass corners a dress up the edges of the vertical unit. Some sheet tin is sufficient to mount the power supply in the rear on the unit. I used some tin ceiling scraps for one and flashing scrap for the other. Screw holes for mounting are best made with a nail punch, instead of a drill, because the flanges re-enforce the holes a bit.
The name plate, terminal plates and switch plate were electro-etched using the power supplies themselves. If one looks closely at the horizontal unit, it can be observed that the terminal plates and switch plate and switch plate are in negative image. Mistakes do happen when one is in a hurry! This is my lab power supple, and being dyslexic, I thought I would leave them this way to help me remember to check the orientation of my etching resistor transfer in the future.
All tubes and coils were made for the project. Painted window screen, plastic from water bottles, construction paper, old phone wire, thin sheet copper, painted steel wool and metallic tape were key components in this process. Each is internally lit with an LED, in series with a resistor power by the un-used 5 volt capacity of the ATX unit. Simple and effective LED tools can be found at http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz to help with resistor value selection. My favorite tubes were not the ones I tried to made like vacuum tubes, but the ones where I got creative and just did my thing.
More pictures of this project can be found here.
This is a contenuation of the:
This entry is part of a series, Construction of Custom Corsets» Part -1
Constrution Corset, square neck brown canvas corsets
Part 2
This is part three of a living document on making custom corsets. It will be edited, revised, and have new information and links added as readers post comments. So please post your comments, questions and tips so that other can learn from your experience as well as mine.
This is one of those projects in which precision is your friend. The more precise your work is, the easier the project will be. Deviation in this kind of project seems to multiply, causing more and more problems as you work. I over build corsets a bit, so I am going to show a heave duty method, that with one modification can be used to make a corset in which the boning sleeves don’t show on the outer layer. This one’s edge will be finished with homemade bias tape, but later I’ll try to show other edge finishing methods.
It’s time to choose boning to stiffen your corset. Traditionally, wood and whale bone where common, with upwards of a hundred staves in a single garment. Today’s cheap corset, bustier and merry widow have light wieght narrow plastic boning in them, often leading to structural failure, even with the first wearing. Perhaps if used in the hundred plus numbers still they might hold up, but in truth they’re a waste of petrochemicals. You can buy corset bones in a variety of lengths and thicknesses from companies like Farthingales. While they have nice round rubber end, their lenth selection is limited, usually comes in only half inch and they are kind of pricey.
What I normal use is steel lumber-packing band, free on the floor of the lumber yard near you. It is strong, flexible, and commonly comes in 5/8 and 1 ¼ inch width. Trim to length with metal shears, round the end and cover with a bit of electrical tape (perhaps some spray paint if you’re that kind of person) and there’s your custom boning. These days, more lumber is coming in plastic packing band, so this corset is a mix of the two weights of plastic packing band I from laying around, with a double stack of the heavy weight inside of the grommet area. The heavier weight was also used as the boning between the breast. So far so good. Thus an occasional hand washable corset.
Set aside the cover layer for a while, once your have sewn it to match the tailored backing layer.
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Measure the width of your boning, and add and 1/8th inch for sewing variance. (5/8’ for the boning + 1/8’ variance = ¾’ inch) Now starting on a straight edge of a single layer your backing fabric, working with your grain start marking out your boning sleeves. For example, 5/8’ inch seam allowance, the ¾” for the boning, 5/8’ inch seam allowance, repeat for each piece of boning that will be in the corset. I mark every six inches up the fabric for consistency until they are about four inches long than I think I will need them to be. I also draw the cutting lines as I connect the mark in a different color, then the sewing lines around the boning. On this particular corset there is double boning in the front center, so I made a double sleeve by skipping the center seam allowance. (figure 2)
figure 03
The boning inside the grommet, under the lacing, the back edge in this corset doesn’t really need a sleeve, but the extra sleeve you cut gets sewn in to the backing layer to re-enforce the grommets. In figure 03 you should be able to see the seam allowance markings, a space for the boning and then the grommet re-enforcement strip. The rest of the sleeves are laid out on the backing layer where the boning is desired, then pinned into place. If in doubt, look at other corsets, the picture of the corset yours is modeled after, or a pattern for inspiration. Most of the time the sleeves stop at an edge, but sometime one must make an educated guess as to where to end a bit of boning. For example, when does the desire for support end and a shoulder strap begin? On this corset the boning is in a slight fan on the front. On a simple corset, most follow the seams. I often zig-zag down the edges, for strength.
Basting helps on this step. Quick and broad hand stitches not only let the seamstress precisely align the sleeves, but also do a better job of keeping the layers’ seams aligned and maintaining the position of various pieces while machine sewing. Sadly one of my sewing weaknesses is a failure to baste when it’s optional, so I have no examples to show.
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Instead I just preceded to sew down the sides and top of each sleeve, leaving the bottom open. Better to make the sleeve a bit too wide than too narrow. With the right sides of the backing layer and outer layer the together, sew the grommet edges, then turn right side out. Be careful to push out this seam (with a pin or a ruler from the inside), and press, to prevent making a pocket. (figure 04) Sew down the edge about an 1/8” in from the edge. Then sew a parallel seam in from the width of your boning plus 1/8”, and a third parallel seam in from that based on the width of your grommets plus 1/8”.
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figure 07
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At this point the easiest thing to do is to line up and pin the seams of the outer and backing layer across the top and arm holes . Don’t finish the bottom yet. Sew the two layers together 5/8” from edge. (figure 05) Trim to a scant ¼ inch.
A design choice for this corset was to have boning stiching show on the front of the corset. When sewing though all layers it is important that they line up. At three points along each seam a pin was pushed straight though to check the alignment before they were pinned together. It is best that the layers’ seams are with in a 16th of an inch of each other. (figure 07) Once again basting would help.
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figure 09
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Because this is a waist-altering corset, the addition of an internal canvas belt was put in for support. (Ideally this would be between the top layer and outside of the boning for maximum effectiveness.) (figures 08 and 09) It is important the belt run from grommets to grommets, and preferably has at least two grommets in each end. This was pinned at each boning sleeve. On this corset, because one of the boning stays ends where a shoulder strap starts, the stopping point of the sleeve was double checked and marked on the backside. Sewing carefully and accurately, the boning sleeves were re-sewn, through all the layers, still leaving the bottom of each sleeve open. (figure 10)
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Now I made matching bias strips into matching tape, and sewed them onto the top and arm holes, in order to finish those edges. Now I marked 5/8” on the inside, from the bottom of the corset for each stay sleeve. Each boning stay should be a ¼ or an inch shorter then from the top of the sleeve to this mark. Once all your boning is in place, then it is time to sew shut the bottom, being careful to not sew over the boning. Safety glasses are not out of place during this last few steps. (That’s right, time to USE those goggles!) Trim down to a scant ¼ inch and finish with bias tape. (figures 11 , 12 and 13)
Grommet Time – but first a soapbox rant. The common fabric store grommets I have found to be an abomination. Most are light duty, made out of thin metal. Typically the two parts of these cheap grommets both have a notched barrow that fit one in another. (Good grommets – one side has a solid barrow and the other side is a washer.) They don’t fit tight, once set, so the force of the lacing is not defused and fraying is not checked. Sometimes their edges are even sharp and will cut the fabric as you put them in. After all the hard work you have put in so far, don’t start cutting corners now. If you are in a hurry, maybe your local hardware store has heavy-duty grommets. Better yet plan ahead and order some and the setting tools from a corset notions supplier.
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The grommets for this corset were set 1” on center and just about a 1/8” in from the first stay. Mark them in chalk, double check their alignment, then punch the holes for them. A hammered punch into a piece of hard wood works better for fabric than a hand punch. Set your grommet. Lace it up with ribbon, shoe laces or parachute cord (it comes in almost as many colors as thread from online sources) and its finally done. (
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figure 14)
Some other notes, for the curious:
A modesty panel is a 2-4” wide double sided strip of fabric running down the length of the corset behind the grommets and lacing. It is sewn only down one side. You can add a ¾” modesty panel behind the button side of a busk as well.
An alternative to re-enforced boning sleeves is to sew the back and front together to form a sleeve between the out and the backer later. This is a method I would only use for a limited wear corset, and it has to have a heavy outer layer.
Another way to finish the top and bottom edges is to sew the outer and backing layer faces together at all but the grommet lacing edge and turn the piece right-side out for hand sewing and grommeting. Topstitching will crisp the top and bottom edges, but be care about breaking needles when you sew over instead of around boning.
If people are interested, I’ll posted some examples of the other finishing variations, making you own boning, or making your own bias tape. Homemade bias tape is the bees knees, and isn’t hard to make.
Farthingales is a reliable but pricey source of corset making supplies.
Folkwear Patterns has the best pattern paper I have found.
By Madame vonHedwig on Friday, December 11th, 2009
This entry is part of a series, Voyage to Antafrica» In which our hero is prepared for a romantic emergency.
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Not much farther along, the tunnel reached the extreme point of its width, and drew narrower again. It continued, however, to lead the travelers down. After another mile or so, they could no longer walk abreast, so Herr vonHedwig took the lead, lantern tucked into his belt.
“It’s a tight squeeze ahead, my dear,” he whispered behind him. “If this is a trap, it’s an excellent one. I think we’d better move by feel and sound, at this point, just in case.
He darkened the lantern, and they crept silently into the darkness. They moved forward guided by feel and sound, but it was the smell that stopped them. A musky, hairy, animal stench stopped them in their tracks. They stood absolutely still, listening. When quite some time passed without any sound but their own breathing, Herr vonHedwig whispered the question on both their minds.
“What big hairy thing lives here and what does it eat?”
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