Costumery - Steampunk Goggles

I will attempt to explain in absolutely terrible detail how I made my lol-goggles.


Tutorials I've found on the interwebz:
http://mtani.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Goggles-Tutorial-105778289
http://fenris-the-red-wolf.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Goggles-A-Tutorial-91226763
http://raegar.deviantart.com/art/Steampunk-Goggles-168441815
These all looked great, but...

Yeah, okay. So while I wanted leather and metal, the whole nine yards (or at least four and a half yards would have been nice), I didn't have many things on-hand to futz with. I did however have a pile of polymer clay, some spray paint from my NERF gun repaint, and some old aprons and felt. ...And a toilet tissue roll. The heck did I do with this crap?

Pile of junk.

I cut two pieces from the cardboard roll the be the base of my eyepieces. Maybe an inch wide. I reinforced these with masking tape so they wouldn't be so flimsy, before rolling a sheet of polymer clay around the outside and trimming it to fit. (I ran the clay through my pasta machine so it'd be uniform.)
The fronts of the eyepieces still had to be made. I rolled out more clay and used something (in this case, an old salt shaker cap) to cut out circles from the middles, where I would later put in clear plastic for lenses.
Around the opposite edge, I poked holes through before baking where I'd later stitch.

Or something like that.

I don't care how the inside looked. Baked this per package instructions. Let cool, then applied a few coats of spray paint. I spent the time it was drying to dig around the house for some kind of fabric to use in lieu of leather.

This one was a huge ugly "No."

My wonderful mother however pulled up a pile of aprons she doesn't use for work anymore. Essentially black canvas (And an adorable red one I'm keeping) just waiting for me to decimate it.   I cut a rough "Whale" shape (As I saw it described in one of the aforementioned tutorials - I think that sounded adorable.) and trimmed it down how I wanted for comfort. I DIDN'T THINK THIS WAS ENOUGH THOUGH! It needed more color. I managed to dig up my old collection of craft felt. I cut a matching piece from it and put them together. I wrapped these two pieces around the now-dry eyepieces, and using the previously poked holes, I stitched (repeatedly) through the fabric and eyepieces to secure them together.

Like this.

Repeat for the second eyepiece.

I managed to find some clear plastic from some product's packaging. I cut circles from it to use for lenses and trimmed the edged down until they sat inside of the eyepiece snugly (from the inside. This is why I previously stamped out circles, leaving a place inside for the lens to rest).

As for the rest of the goggles' assembly, I used a scrap to join the eyepieces in the middle as a noserest or something. I cheated by using the adjustable strap from the apron as the strap for the goggles.



These look freaking goofy if I actually wear them on my face, but my main intent in making them was to wear on my hat.

HURR HURR HURR DURP DURP