We love Jean Paul Gaultier: Culottes for all!

 

If you live in Melbourne and went outdoors at all over last summer, you probably went to the exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier at the NGV.

 

We did, of course! And can you guess how happy I was when P looked at the mannequin of Jean Paul himself and declared his outfit was cool....

 

 

Well, the Oliver + S Lunch Box Tee and Culottes pattern had just been released so I was all over this idea, and with that teeny bit of encouragement from the boy I was convinced it had to happen. I'm over on the Oliver + S blog today talking a little bit about boys wearing culottes. Here I'm just going to scatter some pictures around while I ramble on about the exhibition.

 

If you didn't get to see the exhibition then stick around, even if you're horrified by the idea of my son in culottes, for more pictures. You can also see the overview and themes of the exhibition at the NGV website by clicking the banner below 

 

The exhibition was an outstanding success for the gallery. On my first midweek visit in November it was nice and quiet, but returning on a weekend in January was bedlam!

Of course there were corsets

 

A great feature of Gaultier's work is his humour, that and a fair dose of sexuality. The kids were fascinated by entire body suits of stretch lace with beading and tiny beads perfectly sewn to represent pubic hair and nipples. Hilarious when you're 6! 

My 4 year old, however, was initially quite freaked out by the mannequins. While some had plain, blank faces. Quite a number of them had video projections of a model's face onto the mannequins blank, white face. Their eyes followed you around the room, they smiled or winked at you, or struck up a conversation with themselves in the mirror.

The intricacy in some of the work is breathtaking. A little beaded nipple might not seem too complex, but how about that cheetah "pelt" above?...

 

All beads!

 

That was one of the garments in a room full of appropriated cultural dress. The fact that almost every world culture was represented, somehow made the appropriation of their cultural costume seem cool rather than wrong!

 

 

I was smitten with some of the more wear-able dresses (wearable if you're Cate Blanchett or Kylie Minogue that is). The blue dress below is divine. The flowers are of the same jersey as the dress and "simply" twisted and stitched into place. Genius.

 

 

But P was definitely taken with the London punk look from the 1980's. I don't know if it was the denim, the tartan, the boots or the mohawks but he was loving it.

 

 

 

So I set out to find some tartan wool to match JPGs culottes as closely as possible. He already had the perfect mariniere top which my mother in law brought back from a Mediterranean cruise - as an aside, I really wish I'd photographed every t-shirt my kids have scored from her travels. Over the last 6 years there have been t-shirts from all over the world with Antarctica being the only continent not yet represented!

 

 

I found this fabric at Eliza fabrics. It was very cheap and very scratchy. I'd always imagined these would need to be lined anyway, so they were, and the look of surprise on his boyish face when his bare legs felt slippery lining fabric for the first time was priceless!

 

 

I cut the waistband in two pieces also so that the scratchy wool wouldn't be anywhere on the inside, and used some cotton for the inner waistband.

 

 

The other part of the exhibition that P was interested in was the graffiti art and some incredible big murals by RONE. I didn't get any pictures but there's a blurb here about his collaboration with the NGV.

 

We have some very impressive graffiti art near home (including my workplace building) but the local architect's wall is more subdued and was an appropriate colour scheme for our photo shoot.

 

 

To get the Lunch Box Culottes to be closer to the Gaultier silhouette I took out a lot of the flare of the leg. I dropped a vertical line down from underneath the pockets and of course, that allowed me to pattern match the tartan on the side seam too. I also pinched about an inch out of the width of the back pattern piece. They're a modified/narrowed size 6 with the length of the size 9.

 

 

So what does he think? Well, he loved them to bits until it came time to sit down to dinner. Then, even with the lining he said he could feel the itchiness on his legs. I suspect that may mean they get much less wear than he'd initially thought.

 

I had no expectation at all that he'd like them. I was delighted that he was so into the idea and I really like the look. Which is much more than can be said for Flipper. I suspect he's appalled but is trying not to say anything.

 

I love the idea that when you're young you can wear what feels good and makes you feel good. Doesn't mean he's getting a Mohawk any time soon though!

 

To see more of the exhibition and to hear Jean Paul talking about his work, there's a very charming interview by Virginia Trioli here. His story about his teddy and the invention of the conical bra has probably been told many, many times, but he still sounds enthusiastic and charming.

 

I love the fact that I've learned to sew, as a project like this one combines all my favourite things. A light hearted dig at the world of fashion with a knock off, an out there outfit for the kid, a chance to use another Oliver + S pattern and a family trip to the gallery for the inspiration.

 

 

I sew to amuse myself and I had a lot of fun with this one!

 

If you get a chance to see the Gaultier collection somewhere else in the world (I think it opens in Paris soon?..) then you should go. But I'm sure Melbourne put on the best exhibition!

 

 

Another fairy tale ending - courtesy of my fairy-freaky-sewing-luck godmother

There's something about the Oliver + S Fairy Tale dress. While you're sewing one, you're already imagining the next....

I was under birthday girl orders with this one, and so in my head I was imagining something much simpler, more refined, more, well.... more me to be exact!

Some blog readers may remember this fabric:

It's a nice quality stretch sateen cotton that I bought ridiculously cheaply and then couldn't work out what to do with. The stripes and the border print effect of the thick stripes necessitated a straight bottomed skirt. I wanted to keep it for myself but didn't have a pattern that it would work with.

Then, there was discussion on the Oliver + S forum about how to pleat the skirt of the Fairy Tale dress. The original poster came up with her own lovely solution (her blog: Bright Up My Life) and linked to this Alexander McQueen dress

Oh my, do I like that dress. So I was decided. I wanted a pleated skirt Fairy Tale dress with the pleats offset to each side. And here it is:

 

 

There was a little bit of planning that went into the dress and then bucketloads of good fortune. The planning went like this:

•  I wanted box pleats with approx. 1 inch deep folds.
•  I wanted a longer skirt in order to balance the three wide stripes at the bottom.



So I set to with my notebook to work out how wide the skirt would need to be to accommodate the pleats. I measured the bodice pieces, removed the seam allowances to get the minimum skirt width and then added my pleats, coming up with a sizeable number.

 

Would my fabric be wide enough?

 

 

Jackpot! By taking out the side seams and cutting the skirt as one rectangle my fabric was exactly the 56" I'd calculated I'd need. Obviously, a wise person would measure their fabric before getting carried away with an idea and investing any time in the maths, but hey, I like to live fast.

 

The only other bit of planning was to decide that the pleats shouldn't be too close to the side seams (which I'd eliminated anyway) and so I arbitrarily measured them in about 1/2" off each side.

 

So, how lucky was I that the first box pleat landed almost perfectly under the bodice dart?! Complete fluke!

 

 

Initially I hadn't planned any waist detail but since the box pleat was a millimetre or two off the bodice dart it looked as if it should have been perfectly aligned, but wasn't quite. Best solution to fudge things and break up a seam in stripes is piping.

 

The length of fabric I'd purchased had just one of the three stripes at the top end, so I used that to make some straight grain corded piping and tucked it into the bodice/skirt seam.

 

 

I toyed with the idea of sewing the armholes without the facing that the instructions suggest, but since I was having such an undeserved run of luck I thought I'd better not start trying anything clever.

 

So the rest of the dress is as per the pattern, although I left the collar off.

 

 

For my own records it's size 4 with probably about 2 inches extra length at the skirt hem.

 

I cut the lining (white cotton batiste from ClearIt) and the tulle (double layered again) to be the same width as the outer skirt but then just gathered them evenly rather than pleating them.

 

 

I was getting pretty excited by this stage. Normally my enthusiasm for a project is inversely proportional to my daughter's, but I must have been heavily dusted with the lucky Fairy Tale magic sprinkles as she LOVED it!

 

I was surprised to learn that this pattern hasn't been as big a seller for Oliver + S as some others. Frankly I'm baffled, 'cause what you get here is a lovely fitted (or not so if like me you just pick a size and don't mind if that bodice is a bit roomy - see pic above) bodice with a fullish skirt. The options for collars, sleeves and waist trim make it incredibly versatile and the only remotely challenging aspect is inserting a visible zip. Trust me, if you've never done that before then this is the pattern company that you want to have walk you through it.

 

 

This dress hadn't been intended for an Oliver + S blog post as I was sure Rachel would be all over the Pleated Fairy Tale idea. Turned out she'd been busy and so I was up for the feature.

 

It would seem insufficient to suggest people scratch out some sums and then wing it, so I set to and worked out how to get those pleats perfectly on the bodice dart for every size.

 

If you like a bit of maths with your sewing, or are just happy for someone else to do it for you, then hop over to the Oliver + S blog by clicking the image below.





If anyone does use the measurements I've set out I'd love to hear how it worked. I made up a couple of test runs in a few sizes using strips of interfacing and the stapler. I think I got all the sums right.....

Am I allowed to say that I think this may be my favourite of all the dresses I've ever made, and I really wish it was my size? Well, I just did!

It's couture knock off time! Kenzo Kids style

I could be accused of getting carried away with "project" sewing (Exhibit A, Exhibit B) but there's a lot of fun to be had in making things just a bit more than was required....

P needed another pair of these pants:

I'd bought these from a now defunct store called Kids on Parade which sold lots of high end fashion clothes for kids. I suspect everyone else, like me, only bought anything from there when it was heavily discounted in the sales. These Kenzo Kids pants were one such bargain

They are a size 4 and have a lovely slim fit and have been P's good pants for almost two years but they're definitely now too short. I wanted to try and make my own and replicate all these little designer-y features.

I experimented with the patterns I had that seemed appropriate and came up with my Pattern Mash Prototype pants. They have proven to be a great pair of pants but were a little more of a relaxed fit than I wanted so I took half an inch of each back panel at the side seam. I also raised the back yoke seam about an inch by adding to the pants panels and subtracting from the yoke.

Then I took the scissors to the old pants and stole all those Kenzo tags (sadly not the pocket rivets as they're one use only)

Essentially I used the front of the Oliver + S Field Trip pants and the back of the After School pants, splitting the front pants to include the extra inner leg panel.

 

I bought some little pyramid rivets from Jimmy's Buttons which is also where I found this grey denim remnant. There was about a metre and a half on the roll and I paid 5 bucks for it!

 



I'm not sure what kind of modelling style we're channelling here....

So there are my Kenzo knock off pants, modelled above with (yet another) Flashback Skinny T

But I couldn't stop just with the pants. Nope, if you're going to wear Kenzo, it would seem you need to get a tiger on your sweater....

The idea of knocking off one of these sweaters with some fleecy sweater knit and fabric paint from Spotlight was just too amusing (for me at least)

I did a dry run here using the Field trip pattern again for the sweater, but decided in the end to do an upsized Flashback Skinny T. I cut a size 9/10 in width and size 5 in length. The blue striped one earlier is straight size 5 and perfect as a close fitted T-shirt using very stretchy fabric. This one could still do with more depth in the armholes and sleeve width and I should have cut the neck-hole back at the smaller size but I'm happy with it.

....if only cause it was fun to paint!

It's a long blog post, but stick around if you're curious as to how some of these things were done.....

First up, the detail on the pants pocket: I don't have a fancy sewing machine that does embroidery so there was no way of perfectly replicating the mid section of the pocket detail from the original pants.

But my sewing machine can do these stitches:

So I used the Orange A stitch for the straight lines and a couple of rows of the Blue J stitch to get the wavy midsection effect

 

And after Heidi taught me to topstitch with two threads I thought I'd try for three!  Using three lots of regular thread is STILL easier than trying to thread a needle with that thick topstitching thread! Here's another shot of how they all sat atop the machine:

 



Now to the sweater....

I downloaded the clearest and flattest picture I could find of the tiger logo and then traced it to tidy up some of the lines and make it clearer. Then from this image I traced again, using a Iron-on Transfer Pencil onto baking paper.

At this step the image needs to be in reverse. If you have a really clear image you can flip your paper over and trace it from behind. Otherwise, when printing the image you need to select T-shirt transfer paper as your printing medium and the printer will reverse the image for you. Or I guess you could reverse the image in any photo editing software before you print. Anyway, make sure it's back to front.

Put your traced picture facing down onto the fabric and iron it on. Be careful as the pencil marks do not wash off and the print is not really useful a second time over without recolouring all the lines. you can just see that I've drawn up a grid with washable pencil markings to make sure I got it straight first go.

Then you simply paint over the drawn lines. I used Setacolour brand paint as the green paint and it is lovely to work with. Two layers gave a good depth of colour with no brush marks. The orange paint however, was Jones Tones and it needs a lot more layers and then develops quite a thick plastic-ky feel and you can still see through it a bit.

 

These paints only take a few hours to be dry to touch and then you iron them (with a baking paper sheet or similar over the paint to stop it sticking to the iron) for a few minutes. Then they wash and wear really well.

So there's my Kenzo Kids knock off outfit.... As I'm posting this last picture I'm making myself laugh wondering if there's any way I can incorporate a conical Gaultier bra into a  princess dress-up costume for A...

Kill Bill: Vol 1 - Film Petit Gatecrash

I tried creating a flow chart to organise the thought processes that leads a busy, working mother to create a knock-off Moschino trenchcoat and trousers for her two year old daughter, but looking at the scribbled page beside me, it makes no more sense than before.

Let's see if this can be explained.....

 Film Petit is breathtakingly awesome. If you haven't already been floored by the beautiful, hilarious, creative and sometimes just wrong outfits that these two and their co-collaborators create then please go have a look.
I LOVE Film Petit and desperately wanted to play along but without a blog there's no chance of joining in. Without something as fun to contribute to as Film Petit there seemed little point in a sewing blog. Ergo blog created. Now what to do next...

I had some leftover, stretchy, white polyester fabric from P's Evel Knievel jumpsuit which is too nasty for regular clothes but perfect for a costume.....

The white fabric immediately made me think of Elle Driver in her nurse outfit from Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill: Vol 1. Was I comfortable with the idea of dressing my beautiful, naïve two year old as a violent psychopathic killer? Sure, it's kind of for art's sake right? But, oddly, I wasn't entirely at ease with the short, tight, nurse uniform. I mean it's a bit tarty/trashy right?

But then, a little bit of movie watching and, of course, the SUIT. I mean I'd kill for a suit like this, so why not make one for A. So, whistling (creepily) while I worked, I scoured the net for more images, found the Fashion Channel Moschino link and got sewing.

 

 

Of course, before I got sewing I had to go out and buy some fabric as I was never going to make a trenchcoat and trousers out of the nasty, white polyester, now was I? (this is where the flowchart got to me as the failure to link back to the need to use up my fabric stash was really obvious when it was drawn out on paper)

 

So, if you're with me, here is the reason for making a blog, and a Moschino suit, and an eyepatch and handbag to match:

 

While I was meticulous about the coat and trousers matching the original Moschino suit, I confess to not being much of a handbag lady, so forgive me if you're screaming at the screen that my bag is not a proper {insert famous tote bag here}!

 

 



 

I made my little tote bag by scaling down from this one which comes from one of the Japanese pattern books I have. The 66% downsize also meant I had exactly enough of my Sarah Jane mermaid fabric leftover from lining the coat.

Have you guessed why it had to be mermaid lining yet? Pretty obvious huh. It's my little tribute to Ms Hannah and a joke for those of us old enough to remember 1984

 



 

My mini Elle's eyepatch was a home invented job using a bit of quilting template plastic covered with fabric and topstitched to match everything else. The tricky part was getting it to stay on. I'm guessing Darryl Hannah had a few bobby pins under that perfect hair, as well as a lot more sitting still for the hair and make up artist than I was permitted by my starlet. Oh, and Ms Hannah probably hadn't just come home from daycare with heaps of sunscreen all through her locks either (what is it with daycare teachers and sunscreen in the hair?!)

 

This is not a grumpy face but actually an attempt at copying my whistling while eating a lolly.

I had far too much fun creating this outfit and presenting it. Thankfully A was more obliging than I could have wished for.....

 

 

Although it was her brother standing in as a lighting test subject who nailed the walk (but gee he's mad that he still can't learn to whistle. I'm not.)

 

 

And full credits to Flipper (as photographer) for holding his nerve in the hospital corridors and humouring me.

 

 

Here's the point where, had I been invited to play I'd say thanks for having me. Instead I'll say thanks for inspiring me. If you haven't checked out the brilliance of Film Petit then get on the bandwagon now. Over and out.....