Vintage Aircraft Weekend 2017

I hope you all are enjoying Labor Day! This weekend was Vintage Aircraft Weekend, which is an event I've been going to and volunteering at for the last 5+ years. The weekend always kicks off with a big band dinner dance on Friday night, which has a live swing band, fantastic food, and of course lots of vintage dresses and uniforms. On Saturday there's an air show and more live music. This year we had a Bob Hope impersonator as well as an Andrew Sisters tribute group perform Friday and Saturday.

For the dinner dance on Friday night I wore my new 1940's dress, which I finished up the day before. Whew! I'm usually one who tries to have everything ready to go at least a week before an event, but with my busy schedule I wasn't able to to get the materials I needed for the final piece (a matching belt) until a few days before. The dress itself came together pretty quickly, and I had it done in a couple of days. I'll write up a post with more details soon.

I paired my dress with a pearl necklace and bracelet, and also wore a vintage velvet cap I've had for several years now. I'm not sure if it's more 40's or 50's, but it's a dark chocolate brown and matched the outfit so perfectly I had to wear it.

On Saturday I wore my 1930's Aviatrix outfit, but since the weather was so hot I opted to leave off the sweater and coat. Even so, it was a little too hot to be comfortable. I styled it in a slightly more 1940's fashion with my hair and makeup since my hair was already curled from the night before. Which works, because this style of outfit was pretty much the same from the 1920's-50's.

I didn't bring my good camera with my to the dinner dance on Friday night; I was determined to look as period correct as I could, and I didn't want a giant camera hanging around my neck all night. But I did make sure to bring it out a little bit on Saturday.

From the dinner dance on Friday night.

From the dinner dance on Friday night.

From the dinner dance on Friday night. My dad (to the left of me) with the "Andrew Sisters" and "Bob Hope". 

  

  

 At the end of the day one of the pilots took me out to his bi-plane to take some pictures.

  

  

How did you spend your holiday weekend?

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.

June Updates

It feels like I haven't posted in forever. I've had a lot of things going on in my life recently that unfortunately have been keeping me from doing much sewing and I've been procrastinating on writing up blog posts because, frankly, I've just been too tired and lazy to get it done.

So finally, I'm writing something up. Today's post is going to be a catch up post so I can share a few things that have been going on, some costume related, some not so much. Here we go...

Last month was Aviation Day and I premiered my 1930's aviatrix outfit. I want to do an official post about it soon, but for now here's a few details.

While I'm really with how this looks, most of the pieces are modern clothing items. The helmet and goggles are authentic WWII British, which I found at a local antique store. I made the jodhpurs myself, but the rest is all modern. I plan on replacing these with authentic pieces as I find them, but for now they fit the part.

This was a really fun and really comfortable outfit to wear and people responded really well to it. Most people thought I was dressed up as Amelia Earhart, however it's not intended to be anyone in particular but rather to represent all women pilots (known as Aviatrix at the time) from the era.


May the Fourth came and went, and I'm still not close to done with P19. I got most of the bodice embroidery done, but I got tired of all the embroidery and had to put it down. It's sitting in my UFO pile, but I want to get back to it soon.

I didn't end up having any special Star Wars day party like I usually try to do, but I did celebrate by watching a few of the movies with my siblings. We had a bit of a thunderstorm that night which made it an interesting night.

I landed my first Costume Design Internship! I'm interning for the Village Theatre's Summer Stock production of Beauty and the Beast and I'm so excited! I'll be meeting with the cast and crew at the end of this month and production goes through August.

Not costume related, but I got my wisdom teeth pulled. I was pretty much incapacitated for 4 days, but I'm back to normal now.


Well, that's about it. I'm planning on getting back to my regular blogging routine and should have the last post about the Grey Gown up soon.

1930's Aviation Outfit | The Inspiration

Why hello there, it's been a while hasn't it? I've been busy this month but sadly I haven't had anything that was really blogable and so I haven't been able to post... All year. Sorry, I had to make the joke. It's still close enough to the new year that I can do that on occasion.

Anyways...

I've begun work on a new project that I'm really excited about, a 1930's aviation outfit. I've always had a fascination with jodhpurs, mainly from seeing them in Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and I think they're rather fabulous. And this will be the perfect outfit to wear at Historic Flight events because 1) it'll be vintage. And 2) because it'll be warm. The majority of airshows I attend are cold and windy, so I usually shy away from wearing vintage because that usually means skirts. Skirts+cold+wind=a disaster. So this is a great solution.

My original inspiration came from this picture of Elinor Smith on Pinterest.

I did a bit more research and found that not only was this a common style for aviation but also for other sports such as horseback riding, golf, hiking, etc. from the 1920's through the 1940's.

At the moment the only thing I'm making is the pants, and I'm hoping to find a vintage top and scarf or tie and I'm planning on buying the rest. I purchased Butterick pattern B6433 and have just started the mockup for the pants. I'm really excited for this project and can't wait to have more to share.