Easy Peasey Men's Steampunk Shirt

My son needed new shirts for our various steampunk and Comic con adventures and now that he is 6'1", he's outgrown everything. So, here's a super simple way to alter a men's shirt to make it more 19th century.

We acquired two shirts (a Van Heuson and a Liz Clairborne) at a couple of thrift shops in Barnstable, Ma. One was an ecru/beige and one was a lovely tan weave. Both looked non-modern although we could have tea stained the tan one to make it even more authentic.

First step is to remove the collar from the band around the neck.

The Van Heuson it was fairly simple. Once I got the seam open a bit it clipped and ripped well. Make sure you always clip on the inside of the collar - in case you clip the fabric it won't show!

Now you have an open seam that is already folded and ready to sew.

I found the Clairborne shirt to be a bit of a pain to get started, the stitches were extremely tight and small. I had to work it so much I pinned the collar back together before sewing just so it wouldn't bunch up on one side.

After sewing, of course press, and then go!

Here are shirts in practice. Each boy is wearing a shirt, the middle teen is wearing a top hat, pants and vest we thrifted in Cape Cod. The left teen is wearing a thrifted bowler hat and a previous thrifted vest. The lady is wearing a purchsed hat with self made lace decoration and a owned bustier over her own clothes. Accessorize with derringers, pocket watches and goggles of course!

Vintage Thrift Steampunk Shopping in Cap Cod

We recently wanted to attend a steampunk gathering and I needed so new clothes for my son. He's now 6'1" and has outgrown most of what we've acquired for him.

Luckily we were in Hyannis recently and, if you are on the East coast, I can attest that Cape Cod has some of the best thrift store around. It's a challenge, since at almost every one we find something we have to purchase.

With my son's needs in mind we were able to find two men's button downs in appropriate ecru/tan colors, two pairs of dark pants (one lovely pair in pinstripes) and a fantastic button down vest.

In Hyannis itself we visited Plush and Plunder, a vintage store that is vintage without all the over priced hype we've seen elsewhere. This place has become our new destination shopping venue in Hyannis! We scored a men's top hat, a wool felt round top hat, a black crushed velvet fedora with a leopard print band (think Superfly!) and a pair of Durango boots in used but still good condition. And best of all since it was the "end of season" everything was 1/2 off. Woo woo!

Here's a photo from their website

The entire ceiling is lined with HATS!! Yahoo!

Onto how the clothes were (slightly) altered to steampunk status.

(Here's a link for Plush and Plunder.)