One-of-a-Kind Wedding

Just came across a really interesting post about a wedding dress made in 1947.  Sounds pretty run of the mill until you find out the dress was made using the parachute that saved the groom's life during WWII.

Here's the story-

This wedding dress was made from a nylon parachute that saved Maj. Claude Hensinger during World War II. In August 1944, Hensinger, a B-29 pilot, and his crew were returning from a bombing raid over Yowata, Japan, when their engine caught fire. The crew was forced to bail out. Suffering from only minor injuries, Hensinger used the parachute as a pillow and blanket as he waited to be rescued. He kept the parachute that had saved his life. He later proposed to his girlfriend Ruth in 1947, offering her the material for a gown.
Ruth wanted to create a dress similar to one in the movie Gone with the Wind. She hired a local seamstress, Hilda Buck, to make the bodice and veil. Ruth made the skirt herself; she pulled up the strings on the parachute so that the dress would be shorter in the front and have a train in the back. The couple married July 19, 1947.  The dress was also worn by the their daughter and by their son's bride before being gifted to the Smithsonian.

Talk about a dress a mother would want to pass down!

Source

Fascinating Fascinators

In case you don't already know...I create sewing tutorials for youTube.  One of my most popular tutorials is for a fascinator made using only items you can find around the house and your craft room.

This comment was left on one of my videos about the fascinator- 'You were making them, before they were well know here in North America.'

*Sigh*  It sounds as though the commenter doesn't know the long history of the fascinator.  I decided to do a little research and share some fascinating fascinator history today :)


The first fascinators can be dated back to about the time of King Henry VIII (which is fun since he is an ancestor of mine).  They were made mostly of feathers but were often adorned with jewels or precious stones.  Fascinators were purely decorative in nature unlike normal hats.  In the late 1700s the trend traveled to the U.S. and became a hit among higher society colonists. Although styles continued to change fascinators managed to evolve enough to stay 'trendy' until the 1960s when their popularity started to decline.  However recent events such as royal weddings have helped bring a legacy of elegance back to life!