Vintage Dress Restoration Project-Success!

The much anticipated pictures of my dress project have arrived!
I wanted to wear this to a dance later this week so I had a motivation to get to work on it and not let it languish in my sewing to do box..
The pictures of the finished dress and story of how I found it are below too!

The supports through the bodice were poking through their casings and the fabric was shredded in places.

I found some scrap fabric that was tough and canvas like -may have been the seat of an old folding chair. This was what I used to make a new casing for the supports. It was slow going and all done by hand, being careful not to go through to the front of the dress and avoiding the fraying areas.

There were also several seams where the mesh/lace like fabric on the outside was coming out of the seam and fraying.

I was able to fold them under and sew them back into the seams with the help of my bottle of permanent fabric glue to keep the fabric from fraying/disintegrating in my hands while I sewed it in.

Here it is!

and you probably want to know the story of this beauty.

Well, I found it on Craigslist believe it or not. A lady was having a yardsale for her stockpile of vintage treasures she had accumulated over the years from estate sales. I asked if I could come take a look at the clothes and, among other things, came out with this authentic vintage 1950s/60s dress!

What a find!

I am...

I was inspired by Cortney at www.themommyhoodproject.com blog to write an "I am.." list.
I will inject it with pictures of Gaston to spice it up a little, hehehe!

First and foremost,
I am ...momma to little Gaston. OoO look at that little tongue peeking out! {yes, I am cooing over all his sweet pictures right now, like any good momma would}

 I am ...wearing a pair of size 00/0 jeans that I found for $.99 at the thrift store this morning and I still can hardly believe that I fit into!!! This is very exciting!

I am ...definitely silly and cheerful.

I am ..a lover of all things vintage especially 1920s-1960s

I am ..restoring an old dress from the 1950s-60s era that you will be seeing pictures of soon!
and
I am... currently embroidering a pair of old jeans, which you will also be seeing but I don't know about the soon part cuz it's definitely time consuming. lol

I am ...strong and healthy.

I am...creative and frugal, which, when combined, can turn out some wicked cool stuff!

I am.. enjoying the summer!

I am..looking for my next good read but not sure what it will be yet. Just finished reading a bio on George Jaques Danton-Giant of the French Revolution. Any suggestions?

SO...What are you?

If you post an "I am.." list, post the link in a comment or link back to mine so I can check it out!

American Pin up girls and Vintage Planes

I went to an airshow and USO hangar dance last weekend and had a great time! There were some great photo opportunities that I snatched right up too :)

Don't these fellas look like they came out of a time machine?

We talked with them for awhile and it was nice to see that kids so young are so knowledgeable and interested in our history. They have both been involved with reenactments since childhood!

They even did a parachute drop! Can you imagine dropping out of a plane?

There were so many vintage planes there. This is the location of the project I blogged about previously where they are working to build a memorial to Leland Pennington the local Tuskegee Airman killed in WWII.
Check out that post here if you want to learn more: Keep Em Flying

All the parachutists wanted their picture taken with Richard "Red" Falvey an actual veteran of the 101st airborne paratroopers of WWII(aka Band of Brothers).

You can see Red in the light blue jumpsuit. He is in his 90s and sharp as a tack! I am so glad I had the chance to meet him while he is still living. What an honor!

and we got to see the Memphis Belle (the one they used in the movie "Memphis Belle") before she goes on tour.

but of course we had to get some good photos in before she leaves us.

My friends and I came all dressed up for the hangar dance after the airshow.

Perfect.

Fourth of July Cookies- 5 ingredients!

We made these little firecrackers for 4th of July this year.
They were so good we couldn't stop eating them!!
Are you ready for this?

All you need for this sweet treat is:
1 box white cake mix
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cp canola oil
sprinkles!!

So first, mix the cake mix and baking powder.
Then in a separate bowl, combine the eggs and oil.
Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture until combined.

Now you have a choice to make: You can stir in sprinkles in the batter now or you can add the sprinkles to the tops after baking(a little messier).

Drop spoonfuls of batter 2 inches apart ( they will spread out as they cook) onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for 10 minutes or until the sides brown a little.

When they are done, you can eat them as is or you can cut them into stars with a cookie cutter!