TRON Legacy: Film Petit Gatecrash #2

Cue the Daft Punk soundtrack...

"this is going to be quite a ride"

I'm gatecrashing my favourite blog series of all time; Film Petit. If you haven't heard of Film Petit, it's the hilarious blog series from Skirt As Top and A Little Gray where they, along with a guest blogger, sew clothes or costumes for their kids based on films.

I haven't (yet) been officially invited to play, but that didn't stop me with my Kill Bill Vol I outfit here. And today, you guessed it, I'm busting into the room again with my kids dressed in their new TRON pyjamas!

This was not just a fun idea, 'cause the kids actually needed, like really needed, new pyjamas. I was busy making lots of fun stuff and ignoring the dire need for pyjamas, when the call for the Twisted Trousers pattern tour came through.

Next thing, I'm taping and tracing a pattern and cutting fabric on the living room floor while Flipper's watching a movie. Suddenly it dawned on me that I had the perfect pattern for some pyjamas that I wanted very much to make! I wanted to make TRON jammies!!

(apologies as the photography goes down hill from here. We've had miserable rainy weather and if I get too carried away with post image manipulation I never get to bed!)

The Twisted Trousers were the obvious choice for the pants. Instead of narrow, corded piping I thought I'd add some wide flat piping. I really wanted glow in the dark fabric, but that's not readily available so I went hunting for something else.

At GJ's I found this "waterfall crush stretch velour". It was perfect as I needed the stretch, the velour-iness made it look like it glowed and the "waterfall crush" bit I presume refers to the uneven surface which reflects the light even more.

There was some vigorous debate about who would be the baddy and who would be the goody. I detest the notion of goodies and baddies and both Flipper and I have been heard to tell the kids that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" many times. Still, I wasn't going to sew matching outfits, too boring. Both kids definitely wanted to be baddies, but A also liked the blue colour best. Sorted. She is a baddy who's even more bad by virtue of being disguised as a goody. Check out this baddy face:

Being my third and fourth pair of Twisted Trousers the pants came together in no time. Or at least they would have if that waterfall crush stretch velour wasn't as awful to work with as it sounds. It was slippery where I didn't want it to be and grippy when it shouldn't be. What I thought would be quick overlocker sewing turned into hours of pinning and basting first.

 

I omitted the faux fly and waist ties and added cuffs at the bottom. Mostly 'cause I knew they were going to be super long and the cuffs would keep them from falling over their feet!

 

 

Laura had kindly given me a copy the Rowan Tee pattern as well as the Twisted Trousers. The Rowan Tee already has the option of a sleeve and shoulder stripe and cuffs, so all I needed to add was the front stripes. - although I ended up doing piping along the sleeves in the same way as the pants rather than using the pattern's stripe option.

The costumes of the main Tron characters were too detailed for what I was doing, so I went with the style of the Daft Punk costumes

I cut the front pattern piece and then added seam allowances to insert the piping. To keep things smooth and comfy - they are pyjamas after all, I've topstitched the seam allowances down with a narrow double needle stitch.

Apart from printing off the cheat sheet I didn't really consult the Rowan Tee instructions at all. I imagine they're every bit as good as the Twisted Trousers were. The sizing I chose was the same as the trousers (sizes 4 and 6). I should have thought to add sleeve length as P is a veritable monkey with those arms of his.

The black knit is incredibly soft and the kids absolutely ADORE these pyjamas. When you can model your new jammies with a mum sanctioned fight scene then what's not to love, right?

It was pretty wild for a while, then they ran off and fetched some Frisbees to use as Tron discs. Of course, that's what we were missing!

So last night I sewed up a couple of Frisbee covers. Have you ever thought you might stay up late to sew neon velour piped Frisbee covers? Nope, me neither, until last night.

I can't see there being much of a need for a pattern tutorial for a Frisbee cover, but if you're ever in need of some tips then drop me a line. When it comes to Frisbee covers I'm your sewing blogger!

A's come down with a bit of a cold, so she wasn't really up for another fight scene. At least not to the extent that her brother was. You kinda get the feeling he's liking his pyjamas, right?

Anyway, she was definitely up for striking another serious baddy face. Are you ready?.....

Ouch!

As much as I love the neat looking button up pyjamas or frilly nighties, there's a lot to be said for comfy knit tops and pants that the kids can easily get on and off themselves. There'll be more of these sets in the future, for sure.

Although they'll undoubtedly be plain pyjamas next time, as the idea of a nightly battle scene before bed is starting to wear thin...

Still, it's been fun!

Thanks again to Titchy Threads for the patterns.

Lars, Lucinda and Linen

Lars von Trier : Danish film maker. Co-founder of the Dogme 95 movement. Film makers vowed to abide by a set of rules in making their film. And they made some watchable, and some not so watchable films...

So, he's not a cyclist, and probably doesn't sew, so why am I talking von Trier?

Ever since I fell in awe of the Film Petit series where sewing for kids is inspired by movies, I couldn't stop thinking of the Lars von Trier and Jorgen Leth film The Five Obstructions.

Essentially Lars von Trier challenges his fellow Dane and mentor to remake Leth's 1967 film the Perfect Human. Yet Leth has to remake the film according to rules set out by von Trier, hence the 5 obstructions. (click on The Five Obstructions link above for the details)

While I suspect my movie tastes may be a little too arthouse, I've always thought it would be great to challenge a fellow sewing blogger to remake something wonderful and then give them some Dogme 95 style rules such as no artificial lighting (as someone who only sews after kids bedtime that would kill me!)

Anyway, I think I'm going to play this game in my own little corner over here, all by myself...

Lucinda does sew clothes for kids. Boy does she sew clothes for kids. I don't know if she cycles or makes movies. I just know that I really, really like what she sews.

Her Flickr pool is a place where I could lose hours of my life drooling over beautiful clothes, and I think I'd struggle to find a single garment in there that I didn't wish I'd sewn myself.

I'm not going to apologise for sounding like I have a huge crush on a semi-stranger cause she's also really nice, not only is she all over the sewing blogosphere saying lovely things, but she just mailed me a little linen top

.
Linen: Nothing needs to be said but that it seems to make everything lovelier.

So what's going on here?

Well, next week is Kid's Clothes Week - summer version, and while it's the middle of winter here I wasn't all that keen on joining in until Lucinda gave me the perfect excuse.

An excuse to sew, to sew something summery and lovely, and an excuse to buy just a little bit more linen...

I'm going to recreate her masterpiece with my own little list of obstructions:

1: her top didn't fit, but since I don't have access to her kid there's no guarantee mine will either.

2: I don't have a pattern. Freestyle sewing is not something I'm particularly comfortable with. But I'm drafting my own pattern from her top with guesses as to how to deal with obstruction 1

3: It has to be stripes cut in perfect chevrons (go back and look at her picture again, you'll see the challenge I'm faced with here, hers is flawless!)

4: Of course it has to be linen (of which I really only had scraps leftover. oh dear fabric shopping time)

There is no fifth obstruction as I really was tempted to unscrew the light globe from the sewing machine and plan to sew only in natural light and then I thought that's just stoopid, you'll end up creating the worst sewn garment you've ever made and then send it to someone else to have it fall apart on them.

So I'm leaving my last obstruction open. I've no doubt I'll find one along the way...

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.....



Why create a blog?

.... when you can't even bring yourself to use the word blog as a verb. Perhaps the internet really isn't the place for me.

And so, here at the beginning, I need to recognise the overwhelming reasons for creating a new blog for my sewing, and let's ignore all the other things I should be doing.

Firstly, I have become somewhat infatuated with these two; Skirt As Top and A Little Gray and a series they have called Film Petit, creating kid's outfits inspired by great movies. I've begun to work on an outfit that can only be described as ridiculous and it's sole raison d'etre is to be blogged about (aaarggh the verb snuck in).

Secondly, You And Mie has just announced a Japanese Sewing Book Series, and I really wanted to join in. Even if only I knew I was joining in as my internet presence is, and shall remain, minimal.

Thirdly (I feel like I'm importing a powerpoint presentation into a blog!), I've been very impressed by the work that other sewists have done in documenting how they've constructed things, sharing tips and tricks, and taking beautiful pictures. I can't promise to do any of that, but you all impress me, and sometimes I might just try.

And finally, I thought up an amusing, anonymous, joke name for my husband.....