film petit: psycho

October 25, 2012October 31, 201231 Comments

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!

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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.

film petit flickr group roundup

October 23, 2012October 23, 20127 Comments

our spooooooky october edition of film petit is currently under production, so jess and i thought we’d take a moment to each pick a few faves from the flickr group to highlight! i get such a kick out of seeing at what people have added there, and thought you’d like to see too! sound good? okay.

i’ve got the sweet, the brave, and the downright creepy.

*if you’d like to pin any of these images, please click through to the original sources so they get proper credit – thank you!*

the sweet:

our very own film petit guest Cherie from you & mie made this adorable Mei-Chan costume from My Neighboro Totoro for the Season 4 Project Run & Play movie week sew along. isn’t it just perfect?! if you’re a Miyazaki fan and you’ve never seen Cherie’s Totoro costume from last year, go check that out too. you’re in for a treat.

there’s also a cute little Ponyo in the group!

the brave:

the Hunger Games books and movies are a colossal hit, and i love that a couple talented ladies made mini Katniss Everdeens. tara from true, pure, lovely made a blue “reaping dress” by extending a figgy’s ayashe blouse (look how excited her little gal is to volunteer as tribute! totally cracks me up).

meanwhile, love assembled made a fantastic hunting outfit complete with bow and arrow and game bag! check out her post; she made a costume for little sister prim, too!

the downright creepy:

i’ll leave you with this. the girls from the shining by flickr user glow planet. yipes. just…yipes.

that should set the tone nicely for our Halloween edition of film petit, i think! if you’ve made (or are making) any movie-inspired costumes for your kids this Halloween, please add them to the flickr group! we’d love to see it continue to grow! and check out jess’s favorites right here!

check back soon, we’re planning to scare the daylights out of you (not really…we’re aiming for a little creepy but totally want to make you giggle too. nothing TOO scary, guys. we’re sewing bloggers for pete’s sake! how scary can we be?*).

*SUPER DUPER SCARY! OOOOOOOOOO!

pleated bundt pillow tutorial

October 18, 2012November 7, 201210 Comments

bringing home this pleated bundt pan pillow tutorial that i wrote for laura’s sew yummy series over at craftstorming. she had baking-inspired sewing and sewing-inspired baking – it was a fun mix of creations and a really fun series to be a part of! check out her roundup of all the projects here.

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hi, i’m kristin from skirt as top and i love this sew yummy series! what a great idea! i sew much more often than i bake, but baking is something i am trying to get better at, especially now that my daughter is four-and-a-half and a great helper in the kitchen. frankly, it’s usually her idea to bake something! i’m just along to read the recipe, crack eggs, and operate the mixer.

when laura asked me to participate in sew yummy, i knew my inspiration right away – this amazing bundt pan. i’ve used it for my son’s first birthday cake plus a few other times, and it creates a really beautiful, sculptural cake. the shape lends itself perfectly to sewing inspiration, too!

i knew the pan would be best reflected as pleats and i’m actually lacking in throw pillows around my house, so that’s what i decided to make. i wrote up a little tutorial for you too – it’s the pleated bundt pillow tutorial!

in this tutorial i created a cover for a 20″ x 20″ pillow insert, though the method is easily adaptable to any size. for mine, you’ll need about 1.5 yards of fabric, disappearing fabric pen (or tailor’s chalk), and a straight edge. my fabric is a really nice hemp blend from bolt that acts a bit like linen but has a little more texture to it, but i’m sure this would also work well with quilting cotton.

Continue reading →

guest posting at oliver + s

October 16, 2012October 16, 201217 Comments

i don’t think it’s any secret that i love oliver + s patterns. i showed a partial stack of my patterns and explained that love in this guest post. since then, my pattern repertoire has grown by two (i now own and have sewn the school photo dress and the field trip raglan)!

though my mom can sew anything, i didn’t have much of an interest in sewing myself until i got fed up spending more than i wanted to on the simplest cotton toddler skirts and asked for a sewing machine in 2009. at that point, i was married with a daughter of my own and no longer lived at my folks’ house to learn from my mom directly (bummer!). i started sewing in our basement during Em’s 4 hour monster naps, when i was stuck at home but couldn’t make much noise. i credit oliver + s patterns and the online sewing community with teaching me how to sew, building my confidence and skill, and making me fall in love with handmade. i think it was always in my blood, i just hadn’t discovered my passion for it yet.

here’s my first sewing/oliver + s project! Em was just 15 months old.

today i’m guest posting on the oliver + s blog, and i’m over the moon about it! when i took two hours to sew that first little lazy days skirt three years ago, there was no way i imagined it leading to something like this – that the designer of the pattern would notice my work and comment, that she’d notice and link to other things i’ve made with her patterns over the past couple years, and now that she’d approach me to write a post for the company’s blog. i still can’t really believe it, frankly.

check out my post for the oliver + s blog here!

i rounded up some of my own projects and mixed them up with a bunch of lovely autumnal inspiration from the ever-bustling flickr group, to show how even the more summery oliver + s patterns can be easily adapted to fall sewing.

thanks for reading, guys.

PS – for even more fall sewing inspiration, caila has a really wonderful series going on this week with some of my favorite bloggers sharing their favorite fall patterns – you can find that right here!

kcwc fall 2012: day 5: neon dinosweater

October 14, 2012October 14, 201234 Comments

sew off challenge: make a catalogue-inspired garment

i feel like i’m late to the mini-boden party. i’ve heard the name, knew people loved it, but hadn’t REALLY browsed through the catalogue until gail posted her awesome hedgehog pants in meg’s weeklong KCWC lead up. that same day, i think, we got our mini-boden catalogue, i browsed, and i was inspired.

neon dinosweater

i was inspired by a neon dinosaur t-shirt!

so i made one – only mine’s a sweatshirt…and a different dino.

there were a few things i really wanted to do with my final project for KCWC and the sew off – sew for O again (really loving making clothes for him these days, it’s a fun challenge to push my aesthetic with fun details like jess says, but still keep it boyish), use the new oliver + s field trip raglan pattern that i won in a giveaway from sewn studio (thanks ladies!), and knock down some of my upcycle stash once again.

oh and i’ve also been wanting to use a touch of neon on something.

the gray sweatshirt material is my husband’s old j.crew sweater, a soft, heavy interlock. i used the existing neckband and sewed it all on my serger, preserving the existing hems (my tips for how to do that here). i folded the sleeves and bottoms of the pattern up 1″ to allow for the lack of hemming.

i decided i wanted to put a “nice dinosaur” on his shirt, since he’s so little…an herbivore, perhaps. i found my template by googling “brachiosaurus line art” and browsing images until i found the one i liked best. printed it, traced it onto steam-a-seam lite, reversed it. including tracing and cutting the pattern and appliqué, this whole sweater took about an hour and fifteen minutes to make. really not too shabby at all.

the acid green was a shirt of mine from H&M; i got it thinking it’d be fun as a pop of color in my wardrobe but it was just too bright for me. as an accent against gray, though, it’s perfect.

i cut the notch a little too deeply in the back, so added a bit of twill ribbon to cover it up (and to help keep the neck binding from flipping out). i like the extra detail. i sized the sweater up to a 2T instead of 18-24 months, since he’ll be wearing it over another shirt. the fit is great, it was a quick and satisfying sew, and i KNOW i’ll be making more of these as t-shirts, sweaters, maybe even extended to dresses! i’d been on the hunt for the perfect raglan pattern and i think i found it in the field trip raglan.

that’s it for our sew off; this catalogue item was sort of a “bonus” to me when we nailed down the challenges, and i’m not sure if Rae has a project coming…we’re only humans with tiny humans to take care of and normal lives to live and jobs to do and sleep to get, right? i only got this done because it was fast and easy and i really like crossing things off lists. really, though, i’ve got to get cracking on some other pressing projects (film petit, halloween costume, flower girl dress…fun stuff)!

anyway, though, thanks so much for getting me through my KCWC block, Rae! i had a really fun time and i loved pushing myself more than i would’ve without the sew off. it was also fun to see that Rae’s “mental to do list” was just as long as (or longer than) my own!

i’ll leave you with O putting on some gloves with eyes, wearing boots with eyes, as tigger watches: