1930's Aviatrix | Costume Photo's

Paine Field Aviation Day

May 20th, 2017

Earlier this year I posted some of my inspiration of women's aviation wear from the early 20th century. Since then I've put together a 1930's Aviatrix ensemble consisting of a pair of jodhpurs, leather flight helmet, and knee high lace up boots, which I premiered at Paine Field Aviation Day in May. This outfit was really popular and it was so comfortable. 

Usually this event has terrible weather. It's always rainy, windy and freezing, so I was excited to finally have an outfit I could wear that would be warm and still fit the era. However, this was the first time I think in the history of this event that it was actually warm. Go figure. But this outfit was still surprisingly comfortable, even in the warm weather.

The event itself was fun, as usual, and it was a great day of volunteering and hanging out. At the end of the day I was able to get some pictures with one of the biplanes. The sun was really bright, so I'm squinting in most of the pictures, but they still turned out pretty nice.

I had a lot of people tell me I looked like Amelia Earhart throughout the day. As I walked by parents would point to me and tell their kids "look, there's Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot!" She wasn't the first, but she's one of the most famous. It was fun being Amelia for a day though.

Details about this costume:

• The jodhpurs/pants - made by me using Butterick pattern B6340. This pattern fit right out of the bag (which never happens), but it was a beast to put together. The instructions were so confusing and it has a lot of pieces and pockets. The mockup nearly drove me insane.
• The helmet and goggles - these are authentic British issued from WWII that I found at a local antique store. It was a great find and it even came with a picture and name of the man who originally owned them.
• The jacket - this is a modern jacket I found in a lucky stop at my local Goodwill.
• The boots - the boots are modern, purchased from Amazon and I love them!
• The rest of the items are modern pieces I either found at local stores or purchased from ThredUp. I was very specific in the modern pieces I used because I wanted to make sure they looked authentic. The piece I was most specific with was the sweater though. It was a little challenging to find something with the right knitted pattern and neckline that fit the vintage look I needed.

My plan is to replace most if not all of the modern pieces with authentic vintage pieces as I'm able to find them. But for now I'm happy with what I have.

Hangin' with Grumpy, the B-25 Bomber.

Not the greatest photo, but it's the only one I have without the helmet on.

I'm so proud of my hair. I set it in foam curlers the night before and that morning when I was trying to style it I just couldn't get it to look good, so I put in in a low ponytail and tucked it up underneath to create a faux-bob and it actually worked. It looked pretty good, if I do say so myself, and I got a ton of compliments on it.

Victorian Hairstyles

As I'm getting closer to finishing my 1871 dress I've started thinking about things like accessories and hair. Earlier this year I chopped my hair off to a nice long bob, which is currently just above my shoulders. While it's technically long enough to put back in a ponytail, there's not much else I can do with it right now.

Now, it's no secret that all throughout history (but especially in the mid to late Victorian era) women used fake hair pieces. With that in mind, I've started to come up with a plan for some historically accurate hairstyles.

First off, I purchased some extra hair. It sounds kind of weird when I put it like that, but that's essentially what I did. For a while I thought about investing in some good clip in human hair extensions (the one's I was looking at were from Luxy Hair), but since it would cost between $200-300 to get a good length and thickness (I have very thick hair), I ended up with a different plan.

I purchased clip in bangs and a curly clip from Arda Wigs. Since I've purchased wigs from them before I already know that the color Spanish Brown is very, very, very close to my natural hair color. I just placed the order the other day, so I should be receiving it in about a week.

One of the limitations of using extra hair pieces, is that unless you hair is already long and you're just using it for thickness, you cannot do any sort of updo.

With that in mind, here's some of my hair inspiration. I'd like to note that some of these hairstyles are from the later 1870''s/80's (and even some 1860's). But that's okay.

Here's my plan. 

I want to do a half updo, with the hair pulled away from my face, but use the clip in bangs to do the frizzy/curly bangs (I'm not sure what that style is call or if it even has a name), and have the curly clip used in the back to create the illusion of long luscious locks.

I came across THIS tutorial while doing some Victorian hairdo research, which I think I'll use for a base and build off of. It's going take a bit of experimenting, and hair is not my strong point. So it'll be interesting to see the end result.

The Making of the Sunshine Blouse

For Aviation Day a few months ago I made a new blouse to go with my 1940's trousers. This post is about how I made the blouse, which I have lovingly named the Sunshine Blouse because it's made out a fabulous yellow cotton!

I had been looking around for a pattern for this style of bodice for a long time and finally found Sense and Sensibility Patterns' Swing Style Blouse pattern about a week before Aviation Day. Because I was short on time I decided to get the e-pattern, which worked out fine except for some reason I had some sizing issues that I think may have been due to that, but I'm not sure.

Here's my mock up cut down to the size I ended up doing against the pattern. For some reason it was really wide. It was an easy fix, but still.

My pattern pieces all cut out...

The next step was to cut out collar and front button lining part. Since this was on the pattern piece for the front piece of the blouse and I didn't want to cut it I marked it out by placing pins along the line and turning it over and marking where the pins were with my marker. After it was all marked I removed the pins then traced along the lines with my Dritz Styling Design Ruler, basically playing connect the dots.

Next I marked the front darts. Normally you would also sew these at the same time, but I waited until the bodice was sewn together to make sure I wouldn't need to make them a little bit bigger than the pattern called for.

At this point I also marked out the button holes and where the buttons would go.

I decided to serge (or actually zig-zag since I don't have a serger) all of the edges, which I'm really glad I did because this cotton ended up fraying pretty badly and it just makes the blouse feel much more professional and sturdy.

It went together easily, the most difficult part being the collar. But the nice part about this pattern is that the collar is built in, so it's all one piece!

This was my first attempt to sew the collar. Because of the awkward points it was difficult to stitch without catching the fabric. I ended up having to do it again but the second time turned out much nicer.

 There's still a little bit of a pucker here, but much better than the first attempt!

After I stitched the second piece to the collar and the button hole lining to the bodice I understitched it along the front. This technique was new to me at the time, but it's something I'm going to be doing a lot more often! It's basically stitching the seam allowance to the lining which gives it a straight edge.

Since the instructions to the pattern didn't show how to do this I had to look online, and I found a great tutorial HERE.

 This is what the inside looks like after it's been understitched...

And from the right side of the fabric...

 After that was done I folded the edge of the lining under twice before sewing down.

Back to the collar... The next step here is to roll the edge of the lining twice and stitch down on the inside. The instructions said to just top stitch this part because it won't be seen when the collar is folded outwards, but I decided to do a Stitch in the Ditch instead just as an extra measure.

Here's what it looked like from the inside...

And this is what it looks like on the outside. You can't even see the stitches! I'm really glad I did this instead because when I wore it the collar didn't quite cover it all the way.

 After that I pressed out the corners of the collar. I'm not sure why, but there was some extra pointy parts in the pattern which made the collar pretty difficult to sew. If I were to make this pattern again (and I probably will) I think I'm going to try cut it down to make it a little easier.

Next is the sleeves!

 The first step was to run a basting stick along the top between the marked lines.

After that I stitched it together at the seam before gathering it and sewing it to the bodice.

When the sleeves were sewn on I tried it on and went to work on the darts. The original size ended up being perfect!

 Then it was time for the button holes. I've had my sewing machine for somewhere around five years now and I just learned how to use the button hole setting on it! It made making these so quick and easy!

When the holes were done I stitched the buttons on.

All that was left at this point was to finish the sleeves. I wanted to do a rolled hem, but the instructions don't tell you how to do them even though they say you can do them. My only dilemma was that I wasn't sure how to stitch them.

In the end I just rolled it up about half an inch, ironed it, rolled it up another inch, and ironed it again without stitching anything. It seemed to stay just fine, although I was wearing my coat all day on Aviation Day.

These are the only photo's I have so far. It was too cold on Aviation Day for pictures without my sweater on so I didn't get any, but I did snap a few on my phone when we got home. I also wanted to show my hair, which I'm kind of proud of. :)

Since my hair is longer than most girls hair in the 1940's and it refuses to curl I have get creative. This ended up being a really easy do and it was nice to not worry about it getting messed up in the wind. I think I'll make a tutorial for it soon.