Hi! Welcome to the next stop on the May Mystery Challenge Blog Tour:
People and Moments in Time. I got super lucky when Meriel Aho of
Create 3.5 chose
Amelia Earhart as my topic.
Amelia Earhart was an amazing woman in a time when women weren't encouraged to be strong or amazing. Let me set the scene:
Amelia Earhart, took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921. She worked as a social worker at Denison House, which was like a community center in Boston that enriched the lives of those who lived there with things like job training and counseling and meals. Within six
months, she managed to save enough money to buy her first plane. She bought a used Kinner Airster, a two-seat biplane painted bright
yellow that she named "The Canary" and used it to
set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet.
On June 27, 1928 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. No small feat considering the 3 women who tried before her had died in the attempt. Amelia was strong and she was determined and she stood for her beliefs. In 1931, Amelia married George Putnam, who would assist her in her endeavors.
Intent on retaining her independence, she referred to the marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control." My kinda chick for sure!
In 1932 Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross-the first ever given to a woman.
Earhart felt the flight proved that men and women were equal in "jobs
requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness, and willpower."
Damn straight!
Amelia set many records in her career, including setting altitude records and being the person to fly solo across the Pacific from Honolulu to Oakland, California, as well as being first to solo from Mexico City to Newark. Notice I say
person. Amelia Earhart was a BADASS pilot!
Amelia was determined to become the first woman to fly around the world. Amelia Earhart’s daring round-the-world-flight was cut short when her
Lockheed Electra disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on June 2, 1937. Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939. What happened to Amelia Earhart has been a mystery ever since.
According to Time Magazine, that mystery is close to being solved:
Previous prevailing wisdom had supposed that Earhart and her navigator,
Fred Noonan, ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific. But some
evidence, including the 1991 discovery of a 1930s woman’s Oxford shoe of
the type Earhart wore, and mysterious signals received by nearby boat
traffic in the days after her disappearance, have lent support to the
so-called “Gardner Island hypothesis.”
It's very possible that Amelia survived the crash. I hope she did. She was just exactly the kind of woman I hope to raise my little girl to be: strong, determined, fearless.
The real trick is using my craft, sewing, to pay homage to this amazing woman. I couldn't... so I made items evocative of the era.
I started with Mabel by
Swoon Sewing Patterns. The pattern is free and available
here. Very easy to sew. This was the second purse I ever made. If I can do it, anyone can, I promise.
Buuuuuuut I loved it so much, that I sent it to one of the most amazing ladies I have ever known in my life. She has all the qualities that I admire in Amelia Earhart and it only seemed fitting that she have this bag. It's not perfect, but neither was Amelia and neither am I. Perfection and beauty aren't always the same, are they?
I ended up making
Odette by
Bluegingerdoll. The designer is a very talented Aussie named Abby Horskins, you can find her blog
here. The instructions are brief, which I like, and filled with line drawings. All the Bluegingerdoll patterns are retro styled and I totally recommend them. Muslin first, though, ok? I did and boy oh boy was that muslin UGLY! lol
Without further ado:
I'd like to give a big shout out to my photographer, who is 7 years old. Thank you Gracie Pooperson for helping mommy blog!
If you'd like to see more of the May Mystery Challenge, check this out!
I also really like the way the pattern comes split into 3 files. One file for the top, one for the bottom and the instructions are separate. I was really afraid that so many sizes on one pattern would be intimidating but it wasn't at all because of the way the PDF is "packaged" for delivery. The pattern went together very easily and it wasn't at all confusing . I traced because, of course, I want to make one for my daughter and one for myself. 
