film petit: introduction & the life aquatic with steve zissou

July 10, 2012October 31, 201284 Comments

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?

homemade halloween 2011: winnie the pooh

October 31, 2011October 16, 201311 Comments

happy halloween!

i don’t know if i’ve written too much here about the personality of my little guy. we got pretty lucky. he is mellow, almost always happy, rarely cries, and even his “stranger anxiety” consists of simply suspiciously eyeing the stranger, larry david style (versus his sister, who would burst into tears at even the most loving of great aunts). when i read him books, he laughs. he claps when i sing him songs. he’s a joy, and just slightly dopey at times (he usually has a red mark on his forehead from bumping into things). put simply, he’s a tubby little cub all stuffed with fluff.

we were brainstorming his costume this year and throwing out much “cooler” ideas but then thought of winnie the pooh, and it had to be. he’s sweet, he’s got a little belly, he’s winnie the pooh!

you’ve already seen his sailboat pants. i actually made them expecting this to be his costume. the project i tried to get to but never completed for KCWC was his hood, in matching honey-colored corduroy (it’s the oliver + s cozy winter hood from “little things to sew,” lined with joel dewberry woodgrain just like the pants). instead of ribbon, i made a thicker strap of corduroy and attached it with a button.

his undershirt is from old navy, but i couldn’t find a plain short sleeved red shirt, so i decided to make one. it’s the raw-edged raglan from “sewing for boys,” but nothing is raw edged! i sewed it right sides together at the shoulder seams and used a XXL men’s t-shirt (again from old navy, actually about half the price of his undershirt), so i could utilize the finished sleeves and hem. i also double folded the neck binding…so yeah…nothing is raw! also, the pattern starts at 2T, so i shortened the length and sleeves before cutting.

on a last-minute whim, i also made him some coordinating shoes. they’re the cameron baby sneakers from i think sew. i actually had a little trouble with them, but i’m not sure if it’s because i was sewing late at night at the end of lots of projects, or because i decided to use suede from a long-ago thrifted jacket for the soles, but they turned out pretty cute in the end.

since he’s not walking yet, here’s a better view of the shoes. they’re also lined with woodgrain, of course.

and now, winnie and angelina together! i think the fact that he is a pleasant baby really helped ease the transition from one kid to two. his big sister adores him. huge sigh of relief!

she totally did that on her own. i love these kids!

have a happy halloween, and have fun taking candy “fees,” all you parents! 😉

homemade halloween 2011: angelina ballerina

October 30, 2011August 22, 201415 Comments

for halloween this year, my ballet-loving 3.5 year old is angelina ballerina (a ballet-dancing mouse, of course). i had a lot of fun making or adapting her existing ballet stuff, and she was very excited to wear the full costume. ready for the rundown?

EARS:

i covered a headband with white fleece, fashioned ears out of white fleece and pink felt, and attached a big pink satin-y bow. my hot glue gun became my best friend with these!

BODY:

she has legwarmers on as armwarmers, is wearing her regular ballet leotard, and her little things to sew tutu with felt rose clipped on (here are the details on the tutu and rose). because of the fact that it ties in the back, it’s the perfect tutu design for her…

TAIL:

her mouse tail is made out of the same white microfleece, which i stuffed with polyfill and then threaded in a length of floral wire (like you use to make the ubiquitous paper pom poms) so it holds its shape. i just safety-pinned it to her leotard, which is hidden by the bow.

SHOES:

i found her some new pink ballet flats at the gap for $5 on a lucky break (her old ones were super worn out and getting too small). i hot glued lengths of satin ribbon into each for a toe shoe effect, though the ribbons don’t stay up very well. might have to just tie them around her ankles for trick-or-treating.

i put a little cream blush on her nose for these photos because i hadn’t picked up any face paint yet, but that’s been remedied for tomorrow. she has informed me that angelina doesn’t have whiskers, though, so no whiskers.

and now, the reason i have to break the kids’ costumes into two blog posts – the sheer number of photos of my sweet little dancing mouse.

oh yeah, one more thing. at ballet, the girls get to pick a color of scarf to dance around with for a certain portion of the class. Em ALWAYS picks pink, but on saturday she picked the green one! i thought maybe her pink obession might finally be coming to an end, but then…it was time to decorate her pumpkin. wanna take a guess what happened?

yep, a pink pumpkin. 🙂

come back tomorrow for little winnie the pooh plus a pretty darn cute photo of the two of them together! happy all hallow’s eve eve!

halloweens past and a preview

October 24, 2011October 31, 201214 Comments

as i finish up this year’s halloween costumes for both kids, i thought i’d share my handmade costumes of pre-blog years gone by. i started sewing in 2009, so that’s the first year i made a costume for Em. i come from a rich heritage of mom-made halloween costumes, though – my sisters and i were bumble bees, pioneers, vampires, cats, mad scientists, and overworked office women (that was mine – i actually thrifted a jumpsuit in middle school, it was incredible with a crazy wig and smudged makeup). mom also helped me sew a two headed monster one year (two thrifted plaid shirts sewn together and matching masks). that was a fantastic costume to rock with a friend.

i think kid halloween costumes are becoming my favorite thing to sew. it’s really fun to figure out what costume matches their interests/personalities at the time and make them come to life.

2009: TINY DOROTHY FROM THE WIZARD OF OZ

i had been sewing about three months at this point, but i knew what i had to do for her costume – DOROTHY. Em was born with a ridiculous amount of hair (like suri cruise hair) and never lost it like everyone said she would, so by 17 months she could easily pull off pigtails, even after multiple haircuts. she was also waaaay into doggies and shoes.

her blue gingham dress had no closures, and she grew out of it the week after halloween. it was a rectangle attached to a gathered rectangle with rectangle straps. i did sew real buttonholes, though (my very first buttonholes)!

you can kind of see it here, but i wove strips of felt to make her a treat bag that looked like dorothy’s basket. it even had a pocket inside for a mini toto that she carried around. i also gathered some fabric and attached it to a onesie for a ruffled collar look.

we went to a halloween fair at a nearby school, and i believe there were four dorothys there, including one of the teachers. Em was by far the tiniest.

2010: DORA THE EXPLORER

last year, in preparation for O’s arrival, we finished the basement in our old house, taking our living space from about 1,300 square feet to 1,800. livin’ large! however, i sew in the basement, so for a few months i was unable to do that and it KILLED ME. i regained my sewing area about a week before halloween, so i was able to pull her costume off just in the nick of time.

she was super into dora the explorer back then, so it was kind of a no-brainer. i used dana’s tutorial to dye her socks yellow and a pair of too-short pants orange (then i hemmed them into capris, because it’s too cold here for shorts). she had on a store-bought shirt, but i made her beaded bracelet that promptly got lost.

and of COURSE i made her backpack and map. this was actually really fun – it was the first backpack i’d made, i designed it myself (after a 3 month sewing hiatus, mind you) and i feel like i nailed it. it’s made of kona cotton, fully lined, and she still uses it to carry things around, a year later. map is often played with, too. backpack’s face and map are made out of felt.

in action with her superhero cousins. she was a happy trick-or-treater.

2011: SEWING FOR TWO PREVIEW – THE YEAR OF THE EARS

both kids are animals this year, and it doesn’t get much cuter than animal ears, if you ask me! you’ve already seen the bottoms of each costume (her tutu and his pants), and here are the very tops. these are my most involved costumes yet, and i’m excited about how they’re turning out. hers is done and she’s thrilled, but i still have something to make for his…so i’d better get back to it. 😉

halloween is so much more fun with kids around! i can’t wait!