The Roots of Conscious-ness. Jeffrey Mishlove, ph.d.

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Are you strapped for ideas? Full of self doubt? Just don’t know what to do for All Hallow’s Eve???

Okay, you probably aren’t, since most people don’t start planning their costumes ’till the week before Halloween. (shame! I’ve usually started by August at the latest…)

But, if you are at all interested in costuming, (or have read this blog for any length of time) You’ve probably heard the term ‘steampunk’ mentioned. Here- let me google it for you! The subculture is a ‘hot new thing’ right now (depending on the crowd of people you’re in.) which means that you should dress that way for Halloween!

(Okay, no. That’s is actually a really bad reason to dress steampunk. If that is why you’re dressing up like a robot air ship mechanic this year I can’t stop you, but I can tsk at your motives.)

But, to cut a long intro short, this blog post is going to be a tutorial on how to make a pair of the most cliche steampunk pieces- the goggles. (And I mean cliche in the most loving and happy way possible.)

A quick side note before we get started- I made these goggles for decorative purposes, so if you actually want something that’s going to protect your eyes I suggest looking up a pair of suitable welders goggles or some such, and bedazzling them with cogs and velvet to your hearts content.

Now. Starting time!

The first thing I started out with was a pair of dollar store binoculars.

Supposed Dollar store binoculars- actually cost me one twenty-five!

Next I snipped off the string (which I’m sure you guys can figure out without the help of a picture.)

Then it was unscrewing time! You see that little screw in the middle? That is what you want to get out- I suggest  a sonic screwdriver   butterknife. Once you’ve done that everything should just sorta topple apart- it depends on how your binoculars were made, since I don’t expect them to be completely the same depending on where you live- but the basic concept is that dollar store things are cheaply made, and so it should fall apart after a little tugging.

Wanna see the wreckage that one little screw can create?

In order, there is: one plastic piece, with the glass you look out of, the two glass eye pieces you look into (still conected) and the other side of the eye piece you look out of.

Bam! Okay, now take one of your eye pieces, and begin to play a game of tug o’ war with the rubber/glass piece where it connects to the plastic body of the binocular eye piece.

It should pop out after a little twisting. No need to break out the hacksaw…Alright, rinse and repeat with the other side. Then play with your new monocle set!

Okay, fun time over, now to turn to the other side of this looking glass…

And break it all apart!

See the carnage you've created?

Pick up the looking in bits, and top them off with the looking out bits. (leave the little plastic arms on them if you can- those are going to come in handy a couple of steps later!)

One...

...two!

Now hot glue that bad boy to keep it that way. (I found it best to glue around the outside rim of the smaller piece before pushing it into the larger piece, and then removing any glue that seeped out with my finger nails once it had dried.)

A quick aside before we move on to the strap: When I broke apart the looky-inny bit one of the arms broke with it- so I just hot glued the circle back in place, to make it look like the it's twin, and to give my strap something to hold onto.

Strapping time.

I found a bit of leftover fabric that made me happy, and cut out a rectangle that had gone pudgy in the middle…

Rectangle needs to try a diet...

I wasn’t being very exact at all with my measurements, (and I couldn’t find my tape measure! Rage!) plus my head isn’t going to be the size of your head…in other words, find your own measurements!

Now then, if you’re happy, it’s time to fold it in half, sew up one side and the bottom, then turn it inside out.

Okay. Take one goggle, and one end of your new strap. Insert strap into goggle like so:

Fold the fabric over (see! I told you those arms would come in handy…even I can be right sometimes…) and either sew or hot glue it down. If you sew it down be very careful that you are only sewing the tail plus one of the layers of strap- otherwise there will be ugly stitch marks in your nice strap.

Sewed-ish side..

Pretty side.

Rinse and repeat on the other side- now it’s time to make the bit in between. (remember- decorative goggles, so it’s not going to be strictly nosebridge size.)

You can make this out of elastic, but I just made it out of some more fabric. (I was going to use a closure from a old bra, but then decided it was too much work. To bad too, I’m sure I could have squeezed a couple of ‘underwear on head’ jokes out of it.)

Just a skinny (no pudge) rectangle sewn in half, and turned right side out.

I sewed the in between bit to the straps, and then hotglued it over the goggles (pretty much sealing the ‘decorative only’ deal.) to secure it. Hopefully the pictures explain what I mean a little better…

Sewing the not-strictly-a-nosebridge piece to the strap.

Hot glued down. Oh hot glue, how I love you.

And you are D O N E, stick a fork in it style. (unless, of course, you choose to add some steampunk doo dads into the mix. In which case, bring back the hot glue gun for another round…)

Picture time-

And a quick sneak peek of my costume:

– I want to mod a gun to go with it, and maybe do something a little different with the skirts, but on the whole I’m pretty happy.

Any ideas as to what my ‘character story’ should be?

All right- so that’s it. Easy peasy (ish) goggles. And you want to know the best part? One Dollar and Twenty Five cents for the binoculars and everything else I used to make them was stuff I already owned. Am I happy? Oh yes.