Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

Jema Hewitt shows by example how to design fantastical Steampunk outfits without resorting to the same old clichés.

Overcoming the structural challenges of this project was a breeze for our master milliner Lynn McMasters, but choosing how to finish off the covering to match Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter in the new Alice in Wonderland movie was much more difficult.

Here she shares the details on covering and finishing this fantasy topper, including how she printed her own fabric and made her own supersized hatpins. The result demonstrates how to bend and shape basic, accurate period costume ideas into enviable theatrical, fantasy, gothic or steampunk works of art!

When is a flat pattern not a flat pattern? When is a Hatter sane?

The answer to the second question is rarely: we’re all mad.

The answer to the first is: when you can use a flat pattern to create a hat that looks like it couldn’t have been made with a flat pattern but really was by joining flat shapes together to construct a three dimensional shape.

With a new Hatter due to hit cinema screens soon, we thought we'd ask Lynn how to create his signature topper!

Last year I made a red and gold Pirate Dress of the type worn by Keira Knightley in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

More historically accurate than the Disney version, yet far enough from accurate to be quick, easy and inexpensive, it has advantages for the lucky owner too.

It was designed for maximum wearability in a dizzying array of ways. It has detachable sleeves, an overskirt that can be hooked or gathered up or discarded completely, and separate pieces that can begin to form a versatile mix-and-match costume collection.

It was so much fun and so popular that I did it all again a few months later, this time in black and ivory. The “Black Pearl” gown is to be one lucky bride's wedding gown in 2009.

Just for fun, I gave some details of how the dresses were made at the time on my blog, as well as a few teaser making-of photos.

But as a special treat for readers of Your Wardrobe Unlock’d I’ll reveal, for the first time anywhere, the complete details of how to make your very own Caribbean Pirate Gown!