Using the goggle ingredients, numerous bits and pieces, and the online tutorial, I put the goggles for my steam punk costume together.

I removed the elastic, and then masked the center of the goggles, so that you could see through them if you wanted to.   Then I spray painted them silver.   They are a little sticky, even after the paint dried (which was also a complaint mentioned in the tutorial) and I think that is just the way spray paint behaves on dollar store goggles.   If you plan on repeatedly wearing the goggles on your face, you may want to find a different solution.

I also cut down the salt containers (along with lots of other things) to make tubes, and mocked up the goggles repeatedly, putting different “lenses” on the various cylinders until I got a combination that I liked.   One “lens” was always the lid of a metallic tin, so that I could actually see out of the goggles, if I wore them.   The other was often obscured by different perforated or textured metal (or metal painted plastic).    I kept trying different cylinders of different lengths, and various lens until I was happy with the result.

Once I had a good idea of which pieces were going with which, I spray painted everything silver or gold or copper.

 

The next step was using hot glue to put it all together.  You should try to be as tidy about this as possible, but I found that strips of leather, or the corrugated headbands off the tiaras, could be wrapped around the goggles afterwards to hide the hot glue joint between the cylinders and the goggles.   You’d do that in two steps – first the glue joint that holds the pieces together, then later hiding the joint by gluing something over it.   In the pictures below, you can see the sloppy hot glue seam between the gold cylinders and the goggles, and then how I’ve covered it over with leather strips that I’ve “bedazzled” with rivets.

Then, I added various finishing touches.    I replaced the elastic strap with a strip of leather.   I drilled holes for the thumb tacks and them glued them on.   I took strips of leather, added studs to them, and used that to mask the messy hot glue joints.   I did the same with the tiara head bands, after cutting them in half.

You can also cut up cheap eyeglasses and add them as loupes.  I didn’t have much success with this – and ended up concocting loupe-like bits using some curtain hardware and window screen.  You can see an example of that in the finished goggles above.

Other parts of the final steam punk costume include hats, bracers, and weapons.

A steam punk costume just isn’t complete without goggles, hats, guns, and bracers.  I started with the goggles.

I went looking for a steam punk goggle tutorial online and found a whole bunch – but I was looking to put one together on the cheap.    You can find the tutorial I ultimately used here, unless time has gone by and the link is broken.  (If so, I’m sorry.)    I made quite a few modifications, but true to the original tutorial, most of what I used was procured at the dollar store.

Some of the dollar store items that I picked up include:

Chemical goggles (for $1!  Wow!)

Salt:  The original tutorial used plastic orange juice containers, because the top fit snugly onto the cylinder.  I don’t drink OJ, but found large salt containers that had screw-on tops with a nifty perforated pattern on part of them.  I didn’t end up using the tops – but did use the perforated flap as an extra element.

Magnetic tins:  These were suggested, but not used, in the tutorial.  The tops of the tins fit well over the salt containers, were metal colored, and already had a plastic “lens” in the middle of them.   Perfect.

Tiaras: A fantastic recommendation from the tutorial.  The corrugated headband of these children’s party favors worked very well to wrap around the salt-container cylinders and hid any hot glue mess from the assembly of the goggles.

Thumb tacks:   These serve as good, cheap, fake rivets.  I bought both silver and gold.

Reading glasses:  For $1, these were a good addition.   The thrift shop had some “better” ones – rounder and more antique-looking.   But those screws were hard to get in and out, and the temple pieces of the dollar store glasses were straighter, and easier to manipulate.  I ended up using both kinds in different ways.

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I also had some interesting odds and ends lying around.

I had an empty jar of jewelry cleaner that included a lifting-basket.   It turned out to be just the right size to fit onto the end of one of the goggles.   Same goes for the pickle-lifter from the empty jar of gherkins that I had.   I looked for a metal steamer – the kind that opens up like a flower – thinking that I could use one of the “petals” somehow.  But I couldn’t find one.

I stumbled onto a big box of small springs at an estate sale, and pulled some window screen out of the garage.

Finally, I had a box of curtain hardware lying around that had some round curtain clips that I used, with the window screen, to craft little accents that looked like loupes.

I also used a hot glue gun, a ton of spray paint, and leather cut from a cheap pair of leather pants I bought at a thrift store.

Once I had all the goggle ingredients – plus various bits and pieces to add as accents – I was ready to assemble the goggles.