Back in October when I did the talk on Steampunk fashions for Aethercon I really wanted to make something to illustrate the introduction of aniline dyes in the late 1850s. It’s one of the things that has always confused me about Steampunk fashion.  Why do you see so few chemical brights in Steampunk attire, when the discovery of aniline dyes was THE big textile innovation of the Victorian era? The problem with talking about aniline dyes is well…me.  Or, more precisely, my stash. I don’t know if you have noticed, but it tends to be on the muted/colours you can achieve with natural dyes side.  The only aniline-accurate colour that I have in any quantity is black, which isn’t very exciting. So I had a massive search through my ENTIRE stash (this is quite an undertaking), and found the single other piece of fabric in an aniline hue that I own – a 3/4 length kimono jacket in self-striped mauvine-ish satin. Since I only had a 3/4 length jacket to work with, I was …