Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Introducing Film Petit- The Life Aquatic



So here's the story. Kristin and I have read each other's blogs and been friendly for a long time. But when I told her that I was about to compete in Season 4 of Project Run & Play, (she was in season 3) we really kicked our online friendship up a notch. Once my competition started, we must have emailed each other an average of 3 times every day. Finally we just started texting all the time and found out that we like all the same awesome things and should really just be BFF's that live in the same place. But alas, I live here in Ohio and she lives in Oregon. Sad face. 

During the sportswear week in PR&P, I couldn't decide what to embroider on Hendrix's shirt, (ended up being the wolf) and she just sent a picture of Ryan Gosling's scorpion jacket from Drive as a suggestion. We had never discussed our shared and strange love for that movie before, but it was my first sign of how awesome she is. Later, during the actual movie-inspired challenge, my husband suggested Drive again and I knew I had to make that jacket. But she was the first to plant the seed!

That was definitely one of the best challenge topics PR&P had ever done, and the sew-alongers had a lot of fun too. But my Drive jacket got crushed in the voting that week. Obviously, it did well enough to go on, but I knew it wouldn't win that week because most people don't know that movie. (Well, that and Kiki's amazing dresses really deserved the win that week.) 

Anyway, the point is, I made that outfit mostly for my own amusement. So Kristin and I decided we wanted to keep doing that with the weird movies that we love and get way too excited about. We are just gonna be total geeks about it all, and combine our movie and sewing geekery into powerful ass-kicking awesomeness. Ok, so we will be the only ones who think of it that way, but we don't care.




First on the list: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Of course. This took zero deliberating for us to decide on. It's our favorite. I could describe it to you, but that would be dumb and annoying, so just see it. Go ahead and see all of Wes Anderson's movies while you're at it, because this surely won't be the last one we do. 





I made the speedo version of Steve Zissou. Well, these aren't really speedos, they are made from the fantastic Euro Swim Trunks pattern by Jessica of Running with Scissors. I know some people at our local pool may think they are weird on a kid who is obviously not European. But when else in life can a boy pull this off if not at three? I think his tiny butt is about the cutest thing ever in these. Plus, they are actually really practical for swimming and playing. His old trunks were always sagging off of him and weighing him down. Really, every boy five and under should wear these.

The hat I didn't need to make, since his father already owned one from dressing up like SteveZ for a Halloween party years ago. It's a family tradish now.





Elsie's outfit is inspired by a couple things in the movie. Steve's wife Eleanor (the brains behind the Zissou team) is always wearing very relaxed breezy clothes, often in white linen. So that was the fabric I chose for this little bathing suit cover-up/ dress. I love white on a baby. This is the basic pattern, I shortened the sleeves and hem. 





The gorgeous Anjelica Huston as Eleanor Zissou. (She's always smoking a black cigarette in the movie, which I used to do in college every night after work at Ruby Tuesday's. Classy.) 






I also embroidered a "Crayon Ponyfish" on the dress. It's one of the many fictitious oceanic species from the movie. I drew my seahorse shape on some Wonder Under and fused it on using a print from the Velocity Line by Jessica Hogarth. Then I embroidered around it a couple times and added some doodle stitches. (Thanks for the floss donations Jacey and Maureen!)  This embroidery inspired me a lot.





My kid, as Bill Murray, as a depressed failure of a father hunting a jaguar shark. These kinds of things make me smile.




Now go see Kristin's amazing little Kingsley Zissou. She really got the more challenging sewing on this one, and nailed it. Hard.





So what else can you expect from this little ongoing series?


  1. The two of us are going to pick a movie we like each month and make clothing for our kids inspired by the art or characters in that movie. 
  2. Each month we are going to invite a new guest to join us in our Film Petit adventures. 
  3. We probably won't have a set schedule for our posts, but we'll let you know when they are coming. It's a relaxed thing, not a blog series that we are putting a ton of work into to get page hits. We are mostly just entertaining ourselves and anyone else who enjoys this sort of thing.
  4. But you can join in! We have opened up a Film Petit Flickr group and would LOVE to see your pictures of movie-inspired kid stuff you've made. Blockbusters, classics, indie stuff, foreign stuff- whatever!
  5. Kristin and I will be doing regular round-ups of our favorites from the Flickr group, and we just might find our next special guest there. As long as it's movie inspired and handmade for a  small person, it's game. 
  6. Next month we'll be joined by Gail of Probably Actually. This is an adventure. 



Alright, I'm off to listen to some David Bowie. Haven't decided if it will be regular or Portuguese version. 














31 comments:

  1. LOVE it! I've seen all the Wes Anderson stuff except the latest one. It's still a huge regret in missed timing that he & Owen Wilson graduated from my film school 3 years before I started attending.

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  2. Love it! We watched LA last night! I have a fun idea for a painting from it too :)

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  3. Now I remember the movie! I wasn't connecting the dots at our retreat, but of course I loved this movie (but not as much as I loved The Royal Tenenbaums). Actually this is my favorite kind of movie humor. Ridiculous, but I'm pretty sure with a point (I'm pretty sure?).

    Also, you're right about the speedo being practical. Hmm....

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  4. You are awesome, girl! This is a seriously cool idea -- looking forward to seeing future months. Elsie's hat reminds me that I need to make a new one for Julia...yours goes perfectly with the little seahorse (which turned out great, btw!).

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  5. Oh my gosh, I am dying of laughter right now! You're so great Jessica, as are your littles! Oh, and thanks for the shout-out! ;)

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  6. brilliant! your Drive jacket goes down in history as the most amazing PR&P entry EVER and i love that you guys are carrying on with the movie theme! can't wait to play along!

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  7. I love love love this idea so much! But then we clearly have the same movie taste! I couldn't agree more about little boys and euro trunks, I could care less what other people think they look adorable and work better! Thanks for helping to change the image of sewing moms as a bunch of squares!

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  8. Ohhhh, I already LOVED you when you made the jacket from Drive and NOW I am lost for words. I saw that movie in a half empty cinema in Denmark and I was the only one laughing.....You are amazing!

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  9. <3
    I adore you and Team Zissou! You rocked this, and I'm off to see Kristin's work!
    And your seahorse turned out so lovely!

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  10. love this collaboration, you guys are the cool kids. I'm not a movie buff, or much of an anything buff actually. Oh well. Looking forward to the fun and your creativeness!

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  11. YESSSSS!!!!! Quirky film geekery meets sewing. I loves it! I've really been searching for a reason to sew some hobbit clothes for my kids....lol.

    Your kids look despicably cute in their aquatic outfits.

    Somehow this all makes me remember with a smile that my first sewing project was a companion cube from portal. Lol!

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  12. I love everything about this! You guys are freaking rad. And I agree about these little trunks being more functional than shorts. Plus they are darling.

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  13. i just can't put into words how awesome you are. i love how the seahorse turned out. can't wait to see what else your amazing brain cooks up!

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  14. I love both outfits but your daughter's seahorse dress in particularly divine--great interpretation!

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  15. OMG your little Bill Murray cracks me up, what a cutie! This series is such a good and fun idea, it's gonna be awesome. Just saw Moonrise Kingdom last night... I've got crazy Wes Anderson outfits on the brain. But now I'm gonna have to re-watch some of the older moves, too.

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  16. Awesome. Simply awesome. I am so going to be waiting for these each month.

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  17. I could copy my comment from Kristen's blog to here, but instead I will just add that Hendrix is an amazing model and is rockin those trunks!

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  18. AhhHHHH!! I've been wanting to do something like this since PR&P movie week too! So glad you huys are motivated about it!! I've been wanting to do a whole Miyazaki series, but I never thought about doing something once a month! This is awesome!

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  19. This is going to be great! In Australia those "Euro trunks" and boardshorts are what most males young and old wear these day - guys wearing Speedo's have to have an awesome athlete body otherwise it just looks gross!! :-)

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  20. Forgot to say that I think your Drive jacket is awesome! I would've voted for you if I was following PR&P.

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  21. This is so great! One of our favorites at the Brewer house. Hendrix doesn't even know how brave he is :)

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  22. Wes Anderson movie's rock, and I can't wait to see the latest one. Love the outfits and the idea!

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  23. This rocks so hard! What are our sewing skills for if not making euro speedos? I am so looking forward to seeing what movies you guys choose and what you come up with. I love that I have found an online community that doesn't think I'm mentally unbalanced because I like to do weird things like make my 4 year old a Katniss Everdeen costume just because I feel like it!

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  24. This cracks me up! I love it!

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  25. i'm a little disappointed you didn't give your kid cigarettes for the photo shoot. ;) i love both of these so much and i have put the movie on my netflix queue so i can watch it again. xo

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  26. You two are awesome! Love it! Great work!!!!

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  27. I am ridiculously excited about this series! I can't wait to see what you two come up with!

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  28. Can't wait to see each month's movie pick and looks. The swim shorts are amazing! Love them even more to know the inspiration. My son wears them too and it's different, but I think they're cool! I've read that the speedo styles are better for boys learning to swim too without the saggy drag of trunks.

    Looking forward to next month!

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