diff --git a/library/LuaApi.cpp b/library/LuaApi.cpp
index 1d127930e..b1dc3de0b 100644
--- a/library/LuaApi.cpp
+++ b/library/LuaApi.cpp
@@ -2365,6 +2365,7 @@ static const LuaWrapper::FunctionReg dfhack_filesystem_module[] = {
     WRAPM(Filesystem, getcwd),
     WRAPM(Filesystem, chdir),
     WRAPM(Filesystem, mkdir),
+    WRAPM(Filesystem, mkdir_recursive),
     WRAPM(Filesystem, rmdir),
     WRAPM(Filesystem, exists),
     WRAPM(Filesystem, isfile),
diff --git a/library/include/modules/Filesystem.h b/library/include/modules/Filesystem.h
index bc7a02337..bc0953d27 100644
--- a/library/include/modules/Filesystem.h
+++ b/library/include/modules/Filesystem.h
@@ -149,6 +149,7 @@ namespace DFHack {
         DFHACK_EXPORT bool chdir (std::string path);
         DFHACK_EXPORT std::string getcwd ();
         DFHACK_EXPORT bool mkdir (std::string path);
+        DFHACK_EXPORT bool mkdir_recursive (std::string path);
         DFHACK_EXPORT bool rmdir (std::string path);
         DFHACK_EXPORT bool stat (std::string path, STAT_STRUCT &info);
         DFHACK_EXPORT bool exists (std::string path);
diff --git a/library/modules/Filesystem.cpp b/library/modules/Filesystem.cpp
index 430e6351e..373b403c8 100644
--- a/library/modules/Filesystem.cpp
+++ b/library/modules/Filesystem.cpp
@@ -82,6 +82,37 @@ bool Filesystem::mkdir (std::string path)
     return fail == 0;
 }
 
+static bool mkdir_recursive_impl (std::string path)
+{
+    size_t last_slash = path.find_last_of("/");
+    if (last_slash != std::string::npos)
+    {
+        std::string parent_path = path.substr(0, last_slash);
+        bool parent_exists = mkdir_recursive_impl(parent_path);
+        if (!parent_exists)
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+    return Filesystem::mkdir(path) || errno == EEXIST;
+}
+
+bool Filesystem::mkdir_recursive (std::string path)
+{
+#ifdef _WIN32
+    // normalize to forward slashes
+    std::replace(path.begin(), path.end(), '\\', '/');
+#endif
+
+    if (path.size() > PATH_MAX)
+    {
+        // path too long
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    return mkdir_recursive_impl(path);
+}
+
 bool Filesystem::rmdir (std::string path)
 {
     int fail;
diff --git a/plugins/CMakeLists.txt b/plugins/CMakeLists.txt
index 3dc461ee9..678b7eec2 100644
--- a/plugins/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/plugins/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -93,8 +93,7 @@ if(BUILD_SUPPORTED)
     dfhack_plugin(automaterial automaterial.cpp)
     dfhack_plugin(automelt automelt.cpp)
     dfhack_plugin(autotrade autotrade.cpp)
-    # stdc++fs required for std::experimental::filesystem; once we move to c++17 this can be removed since it's in the STL there
-    dfhack_plugin(blueprint blueprint.cpp LINK_LIBRARIES lua stdc++fs)
+    dfhack_plugin(blueprint blueprint.cpp LINK_LIBRARIES lua)
     dfhack_plugin(burrows burrows.cpp LINK_LIBRARIES lua)
     dfhack_plugin(building-hacks building-hacks.cpp LINK_LIBRARIES lua)
     dfhack_plugin(buildingplan buildingplan.cpp LINK_LIBRARIES buildingplan-lib)
diff --git a/plugins/blueprint.cpp b/plugins/blueprint.cpp
index d7ce19334..4653b469c 100644
--- a/plugins/blueprint.cpp
+++ b/plugins/blueprint.cpp
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 //Translates a region of tiles specified by the cursor and arguments/prompts into a series of blueprint files suitable for digfort/buildingplan/quickfort
 
 #include <algorithm>
-#include <experimental/filesystem> // This is just <filesystem> in c++17, but we're currently compiling with c++11
 #include <sstream>
 
 #include <Console.h>
@@ -11,6 +10,7 @@
 #include "LuaTools.h"
 
 #include "modules/Buildings.h"
+#include "modules/Filesystem.h"
 #include "modules/Gui.h"
 #include "modules/MapCache.h"
 
@@ -35,8 +35,6 @@ using std::pair;
 using namespace DFHack;
 using namespace df::enums;
 
-namespace filesystem = std::experimental::filesystem;
-
 DFHACK_PLUGIN("blueprint");
 
 enum phase {DIG=1, BUILD=2, PLACE=4, QUERY=8};
@@ -562,13 +560,11 @@ string get_tile_query(df::building* b)
     return " ";
 }
 
-void init_stream(ofstream &out, filesystem::path basename, std::string target)
+void init_stream(ofstream &out, std::string basename, std::string target)
 {
-    filesystem::path out_path(basename);
-    out_path += "-";
-    out_path += target;
-    out_path += ".csv";
-    out.open(out_path, ofstream::trunc);
+    std::ostringstream out_path;
+    out_path << basename << "-" << target << ".csv";
+    out.open(out_path.str(), ofstream::trunc);
     out << "#" << target << endl;
 }
 
@@ -576,16 +572,21 @@ command_result do_transform(DFCoord start, DFCoord end, string name, uint32_t ph
 {
     ofstream dig, build, place, query;
 
-    filesystem::path basename = "blueprints";
-    basename /= name;
-    basename.make_preferred();
+    std::string basename = "blueprints/" + name;
+
+#ifdef _WIN32
+    // normalize to forward slashes
+    std::replace(basename.begin(), basename.end(), '\\', '/');
+#endif
+
+    size_t last_slash = basename.find_last_of("/");
+    std::string parent_path = basename.substr(0, last_slash);
 
     // create output directory if it doesn't already exist
     std::error_code ec;
-    if (!filesystem::create_directories(basename.parent_path(), ec) && ec)
+    if (!Filesystem::mkdir_recursive(parent_path))
     {
-        err << "could not create output directory: " << basename.parent_path()
-            << " (" << ec.message() << ")";
+        err << "could not create output directory: '" << parent_path << "'";
         return CR_FAILURE;
     }