Eagle Field Fly In; Part One

I love an event sew! In case you didn’t know that by now! A big event was happening in my small town, and I needed to be ready for it. The Eagle Field Fly In was happening for the first time since 2020!

Eagle Field is a training facility built in 1942, and was used to train pilots during WWII. The information I got about the history of Eagle Field, from eaglefieldmuseum.net, says that the flight school was only open for 30 months, but trained approx.5000 pilots. Quite an achievement for a little air field!

Each year Eagle Field, which is now privately owned, holds a fly in. Private planes and WWII planes come, land on the airstrip, and then guests enjoy a dinner and dance with a live “Big Band”.

The owner of Eagle Field has worked very hard to restore and preserve this piece of history. There is a museum and many WWII vehicles at the little airbase.

They host other events too, like the Eagle Field Drags, where people can take their cars and, of course, drag race them.

Fun fact about Eagle Field, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had some scenes filmed there.

I knew the fly in would be a perfect backdrop for a 1940’s pattern, and a fun night out! I got to work on this reproduction pattern from 1942. I chose this fabric that I call “Bubble Girl” for my dress. It is a reproduction fabric, which features a print that would have been on flour sacks back in the 1940’s. I adored this fabric and have been hanging onto it for a very long time!

Quick fashion history lesson. During the 1930’s, women were using flour sacks to make clothing, since the depression made it hard for women to afford a luxury item like new fabric. The flour, and dry goods companies caught on and began printing cute and fun prints on the fabric that they used to package their product in. Thus women would buy a product not only based on their need, but on their desire for a certain flour sack print. When WWII started most goods went to the war effort, so this trend continued.

Today, most flour companies don’t package their product in fabric anymore. There is still one company that I know of that does though. The Lacey Milling Company, located in Hanford, Ca still packages their flour in fun fabric prints. Yes, I have bought their flour and in bulk to get flour sack fabric. There might be other companies that still do it too, but this is the one I know of.

The front of the bodice had some interesting tucks to it, and needed to be cut on the bias of the fabric. I was going to be doing something new!

Marking the tucks on the bodice.

Sewing it all up!

BUT I hit a bump on my sewing road! The pattern piece for the skirt was missing! I looked at the directions and saw what the skirt should look like, and decided to go it alone, and make my own pattern for the skirt bottom. After all, I couldn’t go anywhere with the bottom of my dress missing!

I used the bottom of the bodice to get the arc of what the top of the skirt should be. I needed my Great-Grandmother Sophrona’s curved ruler to get it right.

I’ve saved the old pages out of a desk calendar, and used them to make the pattern. They are much bigger than regular white paper, and I like the idea of being able to make use of something that I would have normally thrown away.

It worked! It might not be exactly what the pattern looked like, but I wasn’t going to have an unfinished dress!

I was also going to get to wear my new shoes to an event. What new shoes? You might be asking, well I’ll tell you. So here’s the story….

My cousin James was born on my birthday, and has been my best birthday gift to date! James and I were very close, he was more a little brother than a cousin to me.

For fun, here’s a picture of me and my little birthday present, a new cousin!

But, James passed away in April of 2020, and our birthday was only a couple of weeks away. I wondered how I would be able to have a birthday without him. I didn’t want our special shared day to be one of sadness, so I thought about what James would want me to do. Which led me to think, what would James do? Well I know exactly what he would do! He would spend money on something that he really didn’t need, but really, really wanted!

I decided that each year on our birthday I would do the same and buy myself something frivolous and impractical, that I really, really wanted. Doing this reminds me to live life to the fullest, and enjoy the silly, impractical things that make you happy. James spent a lot of time not feeling good physically, but he always lived his life on his terms. He never let what was going on with him physically control his life. He made the most of his days, and lived them to the fullest. And he most certainly enjoyed the silly, and impractical things in life, and indulged in the things that he really, really wanted!

For this years birthday, I decided to buy myself an expensive pair of shoes. Not just any shoes. These are historical reproduction shoes. The specific pair I bought were the closest I could find to some shoes I had admired for a long time.

This picture is of my Grandpa Bert, his dad, Great-Grandpa James Bert, (who my cousin was named after), and my Great-Grandma Sophrona. I always study the clothes that everyone is wearing in old pictures, and Sophrona’s shoes have always caught my eye! I really, really wanted them, so they would make the perfect impractical gift for James and my birthday!

So shoes and dress made their debut at the Eagle Field Fly in!

Fun fact, the plane in this picture is not a real airplane, but is a prop plane used in the movie Pearl Harbor!

The Administration building, which is now home to the Eagle Field Museum.

Resting my feet in the Administration Building. I though a lot about Sophrona, how did she wear these shoes as a casual, everyday thing like the picture implies? My feet were killing me, and she was out in a field in hers! I guess people were made tougher back then. But I wasn’t going to let foot pain get in my way!

Back out to the airstrip to see the airplanes that flew in.

This one was in active use during WWII, you can see how many planes it shot down, and bombs it dropped, and whatnot on the side of it. Also, looks like the Pacific Princess lost a lot of the pieces to her dress pattern, and didn’t bother to try to draft her own! HA!

My personal favorite branch of the military, but I’m married to a Marine.

The wind was threatening to blow my dress, and take my hat! But we still managed to get a good picture!

Inside a makeshift NCO Club.

Lots to see, and a lot of great places for a photo op!

So much of the airfield is still there, it was lots of fun to be part of our local history.

Acting casual by some WWII era vehicles.

Time for a quick selfie with the stage behind me. People were getting seated for dinner and the festivities were about to begin.

We had a good time, not only taking pictures, but having a nice dinner and watching people dance. I predict swing dance lesson in my future! If I can teach myself to sew, then the sky is the limit!

Of course I wasn’t there alone, but the pictures of my dinner companions will be in the next few blog posts. As you could probably guess, I wasn’t the only one with a custom outfit for the occasion!

My take away’s from this sew and experience are;

~don’t leave the house without the bottom of your dress.

~honor those you love and have lost by making the most of your time here.

~even if you don’t feel good, don’t let it stop you from living your best life.

~turn something sad into something special.

~buy yourself something that you really, really want.

~the future generations might be looking to you for influence.

~my Great-Grandma’s feet were tough! HA!

As for me, onto the next!