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.

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.

Aviation Day {2015}

Saturday was Aviation Day at Paine Field, which I mentioned in my last post. My family and I have been volunteering for the Historic Flight Foundation (HFF) for the past 5 or so years. I'm in no means an airplane person but I always like helping out.

I'll be writing up a separate post about what I wore and the making of my new blouse, but for now here's some pictures of the event.

The weather was, as always, cold. But this year it didn't rain, which was nice, and it wasn't too windy. We started out working on the East side representing HFF and around 1 we packed up and headed back over to the West side where HFF is.

The "Kings of Swing" were there and they're a really good group that does... wait for it... swing music! They play at a lot of the events at HFF, which is awesome having live swing music. A couple of us did a little dancing throughout the day, which is always fun. I only know the basics for both East Coast and West Coast swing, but I always have fun doing what little I know.

After the flying was done (which was around 1:30) we packed the booth up and headed over to the west side to get some lunch and check everything out at HFF. Since Alina and I aren't really into airplanes and we like doing retail, we usually end up helping in retail for the rest of the afternoon. Helping out at HFF usually includes dancing, kettle corn, lots of laughing, and more food.

These guys are awesome! They're part of  HAG Living History, which is a group of living historians typically representing WWII. They come out to all of the big events at HFF and at Vintage Aircraft Weekend in August they set up a huge camp. They have everything from tents to military jeeps.