film petit – Page 3 – skirt as top

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 (affiliate link) 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!

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?