Victorian Swimsuit Musings

I will be attending the Steampunk Empire Symposium in April. It's a new convention in Cincinnati and I'm really looking forward to it. (Shameless plug: The hotel rooms are CHEAP and passes are only $35 until April 1st!) One of the scheduled events is the Victorian Men & Women’s Swim Suit Pageant. I've been wanting to make a Victorian swimsuit so this seems the perfect reason!

The next issue becomes (1) finding a pattern and (2) finding a fabric. I've done some research, and swimsuit patterns are just too expensive for me to justify purchasing. So I'm set on basically winging it from patterns I have in my stash.

This one is my favorite, I think. I have a couple waist cinchers I could wear, I'd just need to make the 'dress' and bloomers.



Or there's combinations, worn with or without a skirt.



As for patterns, if I just do a dress and bloomers, I have several options. I've used pajama pants shortened for bloomers before, and I have Simplicity 3677, which has bloomers with it. The dress could be made using almost any dress pattern, I think. Actually, the Simplicity driving coat pattern may be adaptable into a dress...

As for fabric, I'm not sure. One of the cinchers I could use is black and silver, so I should probably go black, but could maybe go with a color. I have some turquoise corduroy with a silver stripe that might make an interesting swimsuit. Or the lilac linen. The latter is a good option, if there's enough of it.

Another option: black or white combinations worn with my Keeper of the Keys skirt and a matching waist cincher.

Whatever I end up with, I'll wear tights or stockings and granny boots.