Transparent Steampunk Vest & Accessories (NO SEW!)

Steampunk: a mix of Industrial and Victorian romance. The perfect match that creates an extra boost of confidence to anyone's wardrobe!

Now, this vest isn't your traditional steampunk vest... It's standout feature is that it's transparent -- which allows for a new take on this hybrid style.

Lets get to it!!!

GENERAL SUPPLIES:

• Hot Glue Gun and Gorilla Hot Glue Sticks
• Tape Measure
• Fabric Scissors
• Regular Scissors
• Sewing pins

TRANSPARENT STEAMPUNK VEST

• 1 pack of 2 - 18" Heavy Jacket Black with Gold Zippers (JoAnn Fabrics)
• 2 yards Clear Vinyl Sheet (Walmart -- the amount will vary based off your dimensions needed)
• Hokus Pokus "It's Time" Furniture Transfer (Etsy)
• 2-1/2" Gold Glitter Ribbon (Walmart)
• 1/2 yard black Stretch Lace Fabric
• 15" long 1/4" silver chain (cut in 1/2)
• 15" long 1/8" gold chain (cut in 1/2)
• Scraper for Transfer (if your transfer doesn't come with one)
• Lint-Free Burnishing Fabric (if your transfer doesn't come with one)
• Wood panel or flat, hard surface for applying the Transfer
• Dress Form (preferable)
• 90 piece gears variety (Hobby Lobby)

OPTIONAL: STEAMPUNK HAT

• Black Fedora Hat (Hobby Lobby)
• Long pheasant feathers (Hobby Lobby)
• Steampunk Goggles (Hobby Lobby)
• Steampunk Owl, Clock, Gears Metal Pendant (Hobby Lobby)
• Needle-nose pliers

OPTIONAL: STEAMPUNK WRISTLETS

• 2-1/2" Black Lace with beading (Hobby Lobby)
• Beaded Black Diamond Ribbon (Hobby Lobby)
• 1/4" sticky back Velcro

Unzip one of the 18" zippers, and hot glue the two open ends at the top together, with one slightly overlapping the other.

Now, drape the zipper over your dress form's neck and pin it in place. This will ensure that the zipper won't move when you attach the clear vinyl.

With your clear vinyl in hand, drape it over the back, being sure to cover the shoulders and neck, as well as the length down the back that you want it.

Then measure, and cut it. Pin it to the form and to the zipper on the back of the form, with the zipper perfectly centered in the vinyl.

The dimensions I used were 13"W x 15" L.

NOTE: The dimensions included in this Instructable are to make a Medium-sized vest. If you wear a shirt size that is different than a "Medium" in Women's, then you will need to adjust the dimensions to fit your size. If you are using a dress form that matches your size, this will help you achieve this easier.

Cut out two 6" W x 5 1/2" L pieces of vinyl. Pin these over the chest so that the inner edges connect to the center zipper, and the bottoms make up the bottom edge of your vest.

Cut out two 6" W x 12" L vinyl pieces. Drape them vertically one each side of the front, connecting them between the top of the shoulders (which is the top of the back piece) and the top of the chest pieces. Pin them in place.

NOTE: overlap is fine. We will cut the excess off in an upcoming step.

Cut out two 6" W x 11" L vinyl pieces. Put them horizontally under the arm holes so that they connect the front chest pieces and the back piece on each side. Pin them in place. (NOTE: the bottom of these pieces should be in line with the bottom of the chest pieces on the front.)

Trim all the excess off to clean up the seams. You will need to keep at least a 1/4" seam allowance where two vinyl pieces overlap.

NOTE: This is not the same as a seam allowance used in sewing...meaning that the 1/4" allowance is NOT on both pieces as extra material. It's the 1/4" allowance of the OVERLAP between two pieces, simply to have somewhere to glue the two pieces together at.

In this step, you will be gluing all the seams together wherever the vinyl pieces overlap.

IMPORTANT WARNING: MAKE SURE your glue gun is on LOW heat. If it is on high, your vinyl will MELT.

I prefer to glue the seams while the pieces are ON the dress form. This allows for the curves in the chest and shoulder areas to stay intact when gluing.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

• When gluing the vinyl to the zipper tape, make sure you don't get any glue on the metal part of the zipper.
• DO NOT touch the glue with your finger when it's drying! If you do it will turn white and be extremely noticeable. Instead, allow it to cool on it's own. If you need to press anything down or together when gluing, either use the tip of your hot glue gun (for example, over the lace or ribbon in an upcoming step), or you can use your finger if the material has no gaps in it (like over the vinyl).

This is a very important step. TRY ON YOUR VEST SO FAR!

You have to try it on because you don't want it to be too tight or too loose. Make sure everything fits just right before moving on.

The easiest way to put it on is to unzip it, put your arms up above your head, and let it slide down your arms as if you were putting on a dress or shirt over your head.

Time for some bling!

Cut out two 8" L pieces and two 9" L pieces of your 2-1/2" W gold glitter ribbon. Glue them to the back (8" ones), and to the front (9" ones) in a sort of V-shape that starts at the center of the shoulder along the zipper, and V's down toward the armhole. Adding these will create a sort of Queen Anne neckline in shape.

KEEP THE ZIPPER CLOSED FOR THIS STEP.

Before you begin, cut off the pull from the second zipper in the package as close to the pull as you can. Now, from this closed zipper, cut two 5" L pieces from it that do NOT include the zipper pull in them. Glue these down the center of each shoulder from the neck to the edge of the "sleeve." NOTE: I glued the zippers OVER the overlapped areas of gold glitter ribbon (as seen in the second picture).

Using the remaining part of the zipper, cut a 6" L piece. Pull this piece open to create two 6" L zipper halves. Then glue them over the seams on the chest (where you originally glued together the two front pieces).

This is OPTIONAL, but it's a fun way to make a statement on the back! And you can feel free to use ANY design you want on the back -- make it personal!

To apply a furniture transfer to your vinyl:

• Start by taking the vest off of the dress form and laying it flat on a table with the back of the vest facing up.
• Place a hard, flat item under the back of the vest (a piece of wood works great!).
• Now lay the cut out part of the transfer that you want to use onto the vinyl (centered), and remove the backing as you gently press it down.
• Using a burnishing tool (I'm using a flat-edged piece of wood), firmly rub the transfer image onto the vinyl, lifting away the transfer paper to check that the image is transferring properly to the vinyl as you proceed.
• When the image is fully transferred, remove the transfer paper, and use a lint-free cloth to rub over it to ensure that all of the transfer is properly on the vinyl.
• You can add a clear wax over the top of the transfer if you want to make it last longer, but if you let it "set" for a couple days, it should be OK too (as long as you don't scratch the image off the vinyl).

Time to gear up! Sorry bad pun lol!

Taking a larger gear, glue it directly centered on the back of the neckline. Then fill in the space on either side of the centered gear (up to the gold glitter ribbon) with a bunch more gears of all sizes! Overlap them even, and have fun with it until you get your desired look!

CHAINS:

Cut the silver chain in half, if you haven't already (each piece should be cut to 7 1/2" long).

Add a hot glue dot on the side closest to the front panel at the bottom of the half zipper seam, and attach one end of the silver chain.

Now put another glue dot on the side closest to the back panel, at the corner where the side and back panels touch, and attach the other end of the silver chain (remember not to touch the glue as much as possible). Also, be sure the chain has a nice droop, and that it's not a straight line (unless that's the look you want).

Take your gold chain and do the same thing, cutting it in half (to be 7 1/2" long each piece), and beginning the glue dots 2" down from the last dots you did for the silver chain.

GEARS:

Take 3 gears (I used three different colors from the package -- one of each: gold, silver, and bronze) and glue them on the outer side of the chains (where the top two overlap the chain ends, and the third one sits on the bottom edge of the vest). Repeat on the opposite side of the chains (so there's gears on the left and right sides of the vest on the front panels, and on the right and left sides of the vest on the back panel).

Now fill in each grouping of gears however you want! They can be of any color or size!

Don't forget to try on the vest after you're done to make sure you like how it looks!

NOTE: It's not too hard to remove embellishments that are glued directly to the vinyl. So if you mess up, simply pull off an embellishment, pick off the glue, and redo it.

Using your black stretch lace, cut out two 2-1/2" W x 10-1/2" L pieces. Then you want to cut curves in them, similar to a scalloped edge. My lace fabric had natural curves around the flowery details, so I used those as my guide.

Glue them onto the front, attaching them to the zipper tape as close to the metal zipper as you can without getting the lace or the glue on the metal zipper itself.

Cut out a length of gold ribbon that fills in the bottom line from the zipper to the gears on the edge of your front panel. Cut this gold ribbon piece in half. Then cut it again to the thickness of your liking, keeping the gold edging intact on each half. My thickness is about 3/8" W. Glue these pieces of ribbon on either side of the front panel on the bottom edges. This will create the look of a "hemmed" edge.

NOTE: You can continue this "hemmed" edge elsewhere on the vest. I only chose to put it on the front.

This was one of my absolute favorite parts of creating this outfit. THE HAT!

First, Cut the stem off of your feathers, leaving about 1". (NOTE: I found my feathers in the floral department at Hobby Lobby.)

Then, you are going to take your goggles and expand them to fit your hat so that they fit snuggly around the ribbon of your hat, but not so snuggly that they pull in on the hat. Glue the back of them onto the back of the hat.

Take your feathers and slide them between the hat and the goggles strap, this is typically done on the right side of the hat (when looking at it) but the left side of the hat when wearing it. Glue them in between ribbon and the hat, making sure that the feathers themselves sit back on a slight angle.

Finally, glue the cool owl/gear pendant (or whatever you want) onto the goggle strap covering up the base of the feathers in the ribbon. Hold the pendant there for a little while to make sure it stays secure.

And voila you have a dope steampunk hat!

Now it's time to create two beautiful (and super simple!) steampunk wristlets.

Cut out two 8" L pieces of 2-1/2" W black beaded lace, and two 8" pieces of the black beaded ribbon. (Your measurements may differ depending on the size you need for each.)

Drape the beaded ribbon around your middle finger (so the ribbon turns around back on itself) and down to your wrist. This will create a ring around your finger. Glue the two parts of the ribbon (the part that goes around the finger, and the part that goes down the hand to the wrist) together on the edge of the middle gem, and hold it for a while to secure it.

Then glue the beaded ribbon to the lace by putting it a little bit off of the middle of the lace. Almost a 1/4" of a way from the middle. This compensates for the placement of Velcro on the back which will cause an overlap (therefore keeping the ribbon on the front down your hand centered).

Now, add two Velcro pieces to the top of the lace at the end, and then the other two on the inside of the lace (you can fold the lace over on itself to match the Velcro pieces up perfectly). I glued my Velcro in place with hot glue because they weren't sticking (with their as-is adhesive) to the lace.

Continue this for each wristlet. And you're DONE!!! :D

Voila!

You're done! You've just created a beautiful, classy, elegant, industrial, creative, and one very confident outfit!

And who knew it could be accomplished with HOT GLUE!?!?!?

I hope you love it as much as I do!

If you choose to recreate this outfit, don't forget to have a fun photoshoot! Trust me, you'll love it!