Home Sweet Mountain Home Air Force Base

In this post I've linked to my Spoonflower shop. I'm not officially partnering with Spoonflower, but if you buy any of my fabric designs I do receive a percentage of the profits as a designer. This money helps me buy coffee, fabric, hats and supports my blogging habit; you all know how it goes!

I've long complained about the uninspired quality of modern military-themed fabrics. Particularly compared to the creative and beautiful patriotic prints of the 1940s, they're pretty icky and there aren't a lot of options.

It was finally time to stop complaining and DO something about it!

In the spirit of the 1940s, I decided to take inspiration from this novelty print vintage fabric and theme it on the base I currently live at: Mountain Home Air Force Base.  Back in the 1940s, numbered air force and other such military-themed prints (like this and this) were common.  And they were awesome, may I add.

So I drew out some of the main features of the base and tried to represent every squadron and unit; I hope I succeeded! I stayed with the primary color theme of the original 1940s version and tried to mimic the illustrative style with markers. I digitized the print, ordered a few test versions from Spoonflower, and finally settled on a version I like.

I ordered three yards of my smaller scale print version, and I used about half of it to make this skirt.  I'm not sure what I'll do with the other half; I'm thinking about a blouse for two-piece dress or mix and match options. We'll see!  (If you'd like some for yourself, you can order it here!)

I like creating meaningful garments. I prefer wearing my memories rather than putting them on a shelf or tucking them away in a book, personally. I also like memories like this skirt because they're easily packed, durable, and they'll be interesting pieces to pass down someday.

Now for a bit of history about the base and explanation of some of the print motifs:

The 366th Fighter Wing currently resides at Mountain Home AFB, and its primary mission is winning America's wars through innovative Gunfighters and combat aircraft, currently through the F-15E (a fighter jet). 

The construction of the base (then called Mountain Home Army Air Field) began in November of 1942, right around the same time the 366th Fighter Group (the ancestor of today's 366th Fighter Wing) was created in 1943. 

Throughout the years, the base was home to bombers, reconnaissance planes, and fighter jets. During the Vietnam War in 1966, the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing deployed out of Mountain Home AFB to Da Nang, Vietnam. While in Da Nang, aircraft maintainers increased the lethality of their jets by mounting machine guns to them, earning them the nickname "Gunfighters," a name still used to describe the innovative airmen stationed at Mountain Home AFB today.

Buy the Mountain Home AFB fabric here

Learn more:
Mountain Home AFB Gunfighters Video
About Mountain Home AFB
Mountain Home AFB
History of the Gunfighters

So what do you think?  Have you seen any other cool military-inspired vintage prints? (Please link to them in a comment! I'd love to see them!)