Does this steam make me look fat?

I'm coming up with ideas in my head for a new steampunk ensemble. I got some new leather the other day that I'd like to make into suspenders of some sort, with a belt and pockets, and I'm going to re-purpose some caramel-colored duck cloth canvas into a skirt. With boots, a work shirt, and a cap, it'll be a cute adventure-mechanic sort of look, I hope.

Scribbly handwriting is just part of my creative process.

I've been clicking around the internet looking at pictures for inspiration and I've met up with a few problems. It's hard for me to determine if something I like will look good on me because I have a very skewed internal picture of myself. For one thing, I think I'm much younger than I actually am. Costume events are a young person's game, it seems, and at 47 I don't want to make myself ridiculous. The other thing is that there's about three inches in variation throughout my hips/waist/bust so I rather resemble a tree trunk. The steampunk trope of corsetry seems to be the answer here, but I have learned to my regret that putting a corset on me just makes my thick middle look more fancy, rather than creating a waistline.

Click back and see my purple and gold equestrienne outfit, and you'll see that I managed to look very steam-y without a corset or goggles (amazing!).  A jacket with a peplum can do wonders for creating the illusion of a figure.  But I'm struggling to work out a way to wear a shirt/skirt combo that looks hardworking and not too fussy, but doesn't make me look like a big fat load, either.

I'll keep thinking on it, and let you know what I come up with.  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to read them in the comments! Thanks!