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handmade halloween 2012: pink elephant costume

you know about Em’s elephant obsession, right? and her love of the color pink, right? so you’re not surprised at all that this was her halloween costume choice, right?

there’s something about four year olds where they just get obsessed with things. any child psychologists out there, please clue me in. it’s like her whole life is pink and elephants (and maybe ballet?). so predictable it’s hilarious.

when we first asked her what she wanted to be for halloween (maybe in august?), she drew this:

a pink elephant sketch for me to sew from. since she drew it, she has not wavered. okay no, ONCE she said she would be fantastic mrs. fox, but the next day she was back to pink elephant. dang! i was kinda hoping my costume sewing would be taken care of with film petit.

i had a hard time fully conceptualizing the elephant. couldn’t figure out my designs - hoodie? jumpsuit? separates but wearable later? very specific and one-time use? i ended up going with separates, and had to do my own sketch because hers wasn’t entirely humanoid (yes i said humanoid).

here’s the pattern rundown. it was all sewn in fleece from joann because halloweens get chilly here and it needed to be cozy.

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Categories costume, kids clothes, oliver + s, sewing

film petit: psycho

25 Oct

good moooooorning/afternoooooon/eeeeeeeeeevening!

it’s film petit time! it’s also October, the spooky month of Halloween. this month, my partner Jessica, our guest Jessica, and i were in the mood to sew something a little creepier than our normal fare. today we present to you outfits inspired by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. we each picked a Hitchcock movie that inspired us, and i chose 1960′s Psycho.

as with all of our film petit choices so far, Hitchcock films hold special meaning for me. my husband and i met in high school, and one of the first things i learned about him was that he is a major movie buff. our school offered Film as an “English” class senior year, and he was one of two students that the teacher actually created a Film 2 class for because he was so into it! his semester-long Film 2 project was an in-depth analysis of the films of Alfred Hitchcock. i went ahead and piggy backed on that when i took Film as a senior the next year, while he was off at college taking “music in film and television” class. movie buff? more like movie fanatic.

so many things make Hitchcock movies great. they’re spooky as heck but not typically gory. the plots have twists and turns, they can scare the pants off you but make you laugh too, and a lot of the creepiness is created through music and camera angles and what you don’t see. the soundtrack of Psycho is one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, and the shower scene is probably one of the most recognizable (and freakiest) scenes in film history (never seen it? well here you go). trust me, it never gets easier to watch! i got all jumpy just putting together this collage!

it was actually my husband’s idea to recreate that iconic scene at the bates motel, showing a mini norman bates transformed into “mother” and then back to clean up the mess she made. the original plan was to have O model the looks, but he refused to wear the wig so I switched my model to Em and retooled a bit.

for mother’s nightgown, i sewed a made by rae pierrot tunic with shirred neckline and sleeves, in 18-24 months extended to 3T. that would’ve fit O just fine but was much too short on Em, so i added a 6″ ruffle and vintage lace trim inherited from my grandma to make it long enough for her to wear as a nightgown. the yarn wig is based on this tutorial from this mama makes stuff (hers is for rapunzel, but i made it the same way).

the felt knife i made up on my own, quilting together three layers of gray felt with metallic silver thread, then wrapping brown felt around it for a handle. i had to starch the heck out of it so it wasn’t too floppy and i’d probably use better reinforcement next time…not that i plan to make too many felt knives in the future!

of course Em has never seen any part of the movie, but when i asked her to act like a “mean old lady” and handed her the felt knife, i was shocked to see her get SO into character!

she called the knife a “sword” and had a grand old time recreating the shower scene.

we all go a little mad sometimes. haven’t you?

this one’s downright GLEEFUL. not sure whether to worry about her or sign her up for acting classes.

for the norman bates outfit, she’s just wearing store-bought jeans and a button down shirt, plus O’s fantastic mr. fox jacket (pattern is the basic blazer by blank slate patterns). it actually looked so good on her i might need to make her a blazer of her own!

here are a few more of the creepy “mother” scenes from Psycho…an attack on the staircase, her spot in bed, and the final reveal, plus one of our favorite lines.

psycho film petit

little mrs. bates has grown tired from her murderous rampage.

while she waits for new victims to arrive at the motel, you should head over to check out what the jessicas made – they both sewed outfits from The Birds but had very different takes on it! their photos are also in color, if you’re currently feeling color-deprived.

our guest jessica from running with scissors sewed an outfit for her son, another four year old that got WAAAAY into his role fleeing from flocks of crows! check out her post right here…if you dare! her photos are a crack up.

my partner jessica over at a little gray made a tiny tippi hedren suit, and it’s SO great – her little gal is far too sweet to be scary, but her outfit is totally spot on!

***

here are the guidelines for film petit:

every month or so, Jessica and i (plus a guest blogger) will sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love. our next guest will be robin from nested in stitches!
please feel free to add any movie-inspired kid sewing to the film petit flickr group. if you sew along with our film petit choices, we’d love to see that too!
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know.
film petit archives: the life aquatic with steve zissou, amélie, fantastic mr. fox

p.s. did you spot the Hitchcock cameo?

p.p.s. AR-BO-GAST.

Tags: "alfred hitchcock", costume

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Categories costume, film petit, kids clothes, sewing

film petit: fantastic mr. and mrs. fox

25 Sep

time for the next installment of film petit! this month, we were itching to do another wes anderson movie. they’re just full of inspiration! we considered a few, but decided that the month of september, with its golden light and cooler weather, was the perfect month for fantastic mr. fox. so that’s what we did!

fantastic mr. fox, based on a book by roald dahl, is about human (fox) nature, love, and family. mr. fox has promised his wife he will never steal from farmers again, but he simply can’t help himself…he decides to secretly do one last big job before he retires forever. he will steal from Boggis, Bunce and Bean – the meanest farmers in the land! the movie is done in stop-motion animation and is one that our whole family never tires of watching. my partners jessica and cherie both sum up the movie better than i do, so check them out if you haven’t already…i’ve got lots of sewing to talk about today!

since i have the oldest girl of the three sewing this month, i got to sew mrs. fox! and because of that, i also sewed mr. fox! i think it is only the second time i’ve ever sewed for both kids and photographed them together, can you believe it? i was worried the photoshoot would be a disaster, but they both played along! yay!

here are some movie stills showing my inspiration for both outfits.

as soon as i looked closely at her dress, i knew the oliver + s school photo dress would be the PERFECT pattern for it. for mr. fox, i sewed the melly sews basic blazer along with oliver + s sailboat pants. there’s a hidden surprise in his jacket…keep reading!

they both got fox masks, totally overboard on my part but worth it. i made them out of felt and just sketched them out while looking at a photo from the movie. i layered the felt together and topstitched, sandwiching elastic in between.

okay let’s talk more about their actual sewn costumes. ladies first, shall we?

Em was so excited to be “mrs. fantastic mr. fox” and seemed to love this photoshoot more than any other! i used michael miller cotton couture in mango as the base of her dress. knowing there was no way i’d find the perfect apple print to match the movie, i stamped it myself!

i carved a wine cork with an x-acto knife to make the apple (a heart with a flat bottom), then a pencil eraser cut into a teardrop shape to do a green leaf, then a pencil tip to add a stem. i really love creating my own fabric, as time-consuming as it is. it’s totally theraputic and satisfying.

the pocket of the dress was perfect for her paintbrushes! mrs. fox is an avid painter.

she also has a tail (made out of minky and felt and pinned onto her dress).

for O, i sewed a mr. fox jacket and pants in a burnt orange thin whale corduroy (all fabrics are from fabric depot).

rather than welt pockets in the basic blazer pattern, i used jessica’s tutorial to add flap pockets. i used leather buttons and lengthened the 18-24 month size sailboat pants to 2T for a full-length pant. his shirt is store bought.

i decided to make mr. fox AFTER he lost his tail. a felt bandaid masks his injury.

the jacket also has a special surprise! mr. bean has a secret cider cellar full of apples he created himself. they look like this:

so the lining of O’s jacket naturally looks like this:

i painted the suns and dots onto kona poppy with metallic gold fabric paint! don’t you love a hidden surprise? i sure do!

while these costumes were so much work, they were so fun to make too! here’s the part where my little foxes say goodbye, but there’s LOADS more foxsperation for you to see!

film petit: fantastic mr. fox

head on over to a little gray to find out what a fox is doing in a grocery store, and to learn the rules of whack bat!

and skedaddle over to check out the adorable outfit our fantastic guest, you & mie, put together for her little gal. it’s truly inspired!!! it was also ~~cherie’s idea~~ (nevermind, it was jessica’s) for all of the kids to wear masks/fox ears – so fun to coordinate that little detail! thanks so much for playing along this month, cherie!!

we hope you’re enjoying film petit, because we’re sure having lots of fun!

****

here are the guidelines for film petit:

every month or so, Jessica and i (plus a guest blogger) will sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love. jess from running with scissors is joining us in October!
if you’d like to play along, please feel free to add any movie-inspired sewing to the film petit flickr group. if you sew along with our film petit choices, we’d love to see that too. we’ll do a round up soon!
if we really like your stuff, we may ask you to join us for a future film!
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know.
film petit archives: the life aquatic with steve zissou, amélie

Tags: "fantastic mr. fox" costume

Comments 66 Comments
Categories costume, film petit, oliver + s, sewing

film petit: mon petite amélie

16 Aug

it’s film petit time, and this month’s film is one that’s been a favorite of mine for many many years (we even had the soundtrack playing at our wedding reception in 2004). it’s…Amélie!

officially titled “Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain,” Amélie is a 2001 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet about a little girl that grew up within her own imagination. she was a lonely child and a lonely adult too, until one day she is struck by the urge to become a “do gooder” and surprise others with small acts of kindness and love. her shenanigans include stealing her father’s garden gnome and sending it around the world, guiding and describing the street scene to a blind man, and setting up two lonely hearts looking for love at her workplace.

as she does these good deeds for others, she chances upon a young man named Nino. Nino is on his own quest to find an elusive mystery man as he reassembles discarded photo booth photos for his collection, and Amélie quickly falls in love…but she knows the way to get his attention is through the photo booth.

so she goes to a photo booth and takes photos of herself…

…and directs Nino to meet her…

…knowing that when they finally do meet, they will fall deeply in love and be together forever.

in the meantime, playing the game is just as fun…

i knew i wanted to sew Amélie herself. as i watched the movie for the first time in years, i kept a notepad near me and sketched out my inspiration for what to sew for Em. i noticed a few things about Amélie’s wardrobe (played by the lovely Audrey Tatou):

as i put these ideas together, i noticed that the design that emerged reminded me of the darling ranges dress (adult pattern) by megan nielsen! i went with that inspiration. mine is a mini version, with short sleeves and fewer buttons.

the button down front comes to a v at the neck (i drafted facings, a feat i’m geekily proud of – this pattern has eight different pieces!). i stitched the facings down by hand for an invisible finish. the sleeves puff slightly at the shoulder, and i made it in a red with white polka dot cotton (moda essential dot) to stick with her mostly-red color theme. it closes with five white buttons.

the bodice attaches to a gathered skirt and has shirring in the back to add some shape while remaining very comfortable for my little gal. i owe my newfound knowledge of facings and shirring to the washi dress, so it was fun to apply those techniques to create this pattern of my own.

Petite Amélie LOVES her red polka dotted dress, and sets out to make the world a better place…

…one traveling garden gnome at a time! now scamper on over to probably actually to check out Gail’s gorgeous gnome dress! i LOVE that she was inspired by the gnome. the dress she made is amazing, you’ve got to see all the lovely details. Amélie was impressed!

and to find out if Petite Amélie’s photo booth charms worked on Little Nino…head over to a little gray for some amazing sewing and a little bit of trickery! Jessica had a genius collaboration idea with this one; you really don’t want to miss it!

it was SO fun planning this month’s post with both my co-host Jessica and Film Petit guest Gail - how great to have three people watch the same movie and be inspired by different parts of it! thanks ladies, this was such a blast!

***

here are the guidelines for film petit:

every month or so, Jessica and i (plus a guest blogger) will sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love.
if you’d like to play along, please feel free to add any movie-inspired sewing to the film petit flickr group. if you sew along with our film petit choices, we’d love to see that too. we’re close to doing a round up, so keep ‘em coming!
if we really like your stuff, we may ask you to join us for a future film!
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know.

PS – i took the indoor photos in the Ace Hotel lobby where there is a functioning vintage photo booth (!!), and the outdoor photos at Cool Cottons, a wonderful local fabric shop you should definitely visit if you have the chance.

PPS – Cherie from you & mie will be joining us in september!

Comments 45 Comments
Categories costume, film petit, kids clothes, sewing

film petit: introduction & the life aquatic with steve zissou

10 Jul

my favorite thing about blogging is getting to be as geeky as i want and having friends online that are right there with me. this was not the case growing up – in grade school and high school, it was never a good idea (socially) to overtly try hard at anything. you were supposed to hang back and blend in, not talk about how you were really into some nerdy niche thing.

i’m 30 now, and i’m finally over that. the sewing blog world obsesses over fabric lines and patterns and new creative ideas. i don’t blog to put out the thing that will get 100,000 hits. i blog because i’m a bit different, you’re a bit different, and we all support and inspire each other.

all of that is to say that today i’m super excited to announce a new ongoing, geeky sewing series i’m co-hosting with my buddy jessica from a little gray. she lives in ohio, i live in oregon, we’ve never met in person…but i consider her a good friend. you may recall i competed in project run & play season 3 last winter. well, jessica won season 4! we had been casual blog pals for a while before PR&P happened to either of us, but became pretty tight during her season. i had a really fun time cheering her on, sharing my mistakes to avoid, hearing about her designs as they evolved, getting photo previews, texting at 1am…

season 4 got a movie challenge, which made me insanely jealous because i LOVE movies. jessica made this drive outfit that totally blew me away. i mean, who has the cajones to sew from a new, violent, not-so-well-known movie like that, the skill to pull off a quilted, piped, satin driving jacket and oh by the way, she also whipped up some jeans?! jessica, that’s who. because she’s awesome.

once her season was over, we started chatting (texting constantly) about how it’d be fun to do something together where every so often, for our own amusement, we make outfits for our kids inspired by movies. we’re not talking about your classic “nice” movies here. we’re talking about kinda weird, indie, random movies inspiring outfits that are hilarious on little kids…and lo, a new series was born.

we’re calling it film petit and we’re just gonna launch right into it!

as soon as i saw the season 4 movie week challenge, i knew i wanted to sew ned plimpton/kingsley zissou from the life aquatic with steve zissou, directed by wes anderson. ned plimpton is a pilot, and steve zissou’s adult son (allegedly). steve tells him “i would have named you kingsley, if i’d had a say in it,” so kingsley it is. a good part of the movie is ned/kingsley and steve developing an awkward father-son relationship with each other (as they hunt down the fabled jaguar shark). i didn’t have time to sew this during the sewalong, but luckily it’s jessica’s favorite too and she was happy to indulge me now!

my husband and i also share a love of movies, including this one. when i was pregnant with Em, i bought a light blue sleeper and red infant hat for him to open at christmas. that was 2007!

now that we have a 19 month old son, i figured it would be most fitting to make him the full zissou uniform. here he is next to the real kingsley zissou, played by owen wilson.

wes anderson is famous for his careful attention to detail. i tried to get my little outfit as close as i could while making a few intentional changes (shorts instead of pants, kona cotton instead of polyester, no gun strapped to his thigh), but i did miss one major detail that’s driving me a bit crazy. i’m sure you spotted right away that their stoplights don’t match. AAAARGH!

i used the oliver + s sketchbook shirt and shorts pattern in the 12-18 month size as the base, appliqueing double stripes to the placket, sleeves, and sides of the shorts using steam-a-seam lite and topstitching them in place. i chopped a few inches off both the sleeves and the shorts to give them a more retro look, and bound the sleeves (and used binding on the shorts hem too) for accuracy and to reduce bulk. i added epaulets at the shoulders and a team zissou patch to the pocket.

his cap is the family sweater hat pattern from handmade home by soulemama, which i cut several inches longer than the pattern and folded it up to create a cuff. i hand-tacked it in a few places, then appliqued the felt stoplight on top. the hat is made out of an old tank top of mine (same one as strong boy).

here’s mini kingsley on a ping island rescue mission…

getting towed into port-au-patois harbor…

and relaxing with a snack at the zissou compound…

i finished hand sewing the collar the night before we left for hawaii…so worth it for the perfect setting, right?

head on over to a little gray to check out jessica’s version of how this series came to be, giggle-out-loud at her steveZ swimsuit, and admire her adorable little crayon ponyfish dress! so, so great. of course she sewed for both kids…that’s the mark of a champion right there.

***

here’s how film petit will work.

every month or so, jessica and i will sew an outfit (or outfits) for our kid (or kids) inspired by a movie we love.
starting next month, we’re going to invite a rotating third blogger to join us! we’ll decide on the movie together, link to each other, and it’ll be fun to have a fresh face sewing with us every time. our friend gail from probably actually will be joining us in august!
we started a film petit flickr group to celebrate the love of sewing inspired by movies, and have added a few of our past projects in there (i know, i sewed a dorothy outfit – i’d only been sewing a few months, gimme a break!).
feel free to add any movie-inspired sewing you’ve done in the past, and if you decide to sew along with our film petit movies, we’d love to see that too! once we get a good number of projects in there, we’ll start doing roundups (or maybe ask you to join us for a future film!).
this is a pretty relaxed series, really the only rule is to make handmade outfits for kids based on films you love. if you have any questions, please let either of us know!

PS – do you ever wish you could breathe underwater?