>Finished Project- WWII Factory Coveralls

>Yesterday was one of my favorite events of the entire year, the Los Angeles Air Raid at Fort MacArthur.
It was a very wet and windy day for Southern California, and we made a not-too-bad trip up in my husband’s 1939 Plymouth, but once there it started coming down and was quite chilly.  I am SO glad I made these for tromping around outside in the wet!

The pattern I used for this was Butterick 2047– which  I actually sold on Ebay last week.  It was quite difficult to make, but I finished it in time for the event. Yay! It had a LOT of buttons.  There were three on each side of the pants, four hidden at the back under the belt (for a drop seat), three up the front, three at the button fly, and one at the inside of each pant leg so you don’t get caught in machinery.  Instead of full length sleeves I opted to make them have short sleeves.  I also got the fabric for my head scarf custom printed at Spoonflower, but need to do it again as it came out more of an orange red than the red I had wanted (note to self: next time order a swatch).
These coveralls were actually quite fun to wear.  I could wander all over in pants and shoes and not worry too much about the cold and wet and mud.  It was perfect for outside wandering.  Unfortunately it was too chilly and wet to actually wear them as in these photos and the rest of the evening found me bundled up with a Pendleton coat underneath my Ahwahnee Coat– which, let me tell you, I was SO glad to have.  That hood is darn handy!
For the evening I changed into a vintage angora bolero over a knit top and a cute bias cut 40s wool skirt I made *cough*the night before*cough*  but I neglected to take any pictures of that outfit OR any of most of the lovely friends we saw yesterday.  I do have pretty much all of my pictures up now on Flickr, but I’m really hoping to post a few here after recouping from yesterday’s fun.  A lot of the outfits yesterday were positively inspired!  I am so sad I didn’t take more photos!