film petit: Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

I'm pretty honored/ thrilled to get invited to be a part of film petit this month!

If you haven't followed previous months, Kristin at skirt as top and Jessica at a little gray have a series where once a month they and a lucky guest sew children's clothes inspired by a movie.

There's been some awesome sewing in past months, definitely worth checking out!

But this month's film is themed for Halloween with Alfred Hitchcock!

I grew up watching old movies, and these were really scary as a kid.  The movies are great, and the costumes seem to have a bigger role than most movies do now.  During Project Run and Play I made a dress inspired by Dial M for Murder, so I was excited to get a another stab at sewing for Hitchcock.

This time around, I went boy and got a little creepy with the Halloween version of film petit, being inspired by The Birds.  

Don't forget to hop over to Skirt As Top to see Norman Bates go psycho and A Little Gray for an adorable Melanie Daniels fighting off some birds!

So on to my take of THE BIRDS.

It was another great day in Bodega Bay, California.


RJ was enjoying his afternoon at the dock.


Until he noticed unusual behavior with the local birds...


When out of nowhere, they attacked!!


The birds pecked relentlessly.


Unfortunately, RJ didn't have change for the payphone to get help!


Tragically, another Bodega Bayan fell victim to the carnage of....
the birds!


ON TO THE SEWING:
Daniels Tee with Grandpa Pants



inspiration:

There's quite a mix of inspiration sources on this look.
Because the movie takes place in the coastal small town, I had a little nautical vibe going with the stripes and three contrasting shoulder buttons.

I chose green for the tee since the main character, Melanie Daniels wears the same green dress suit the entire film.

Then the for the Grandpa pants, the movie was filmed in 1963 and the style of the pants nods to the high-waisted trousers men used to wear.  I designed them with the fabric and overall shape of the pants my Grandpa used to wear, but sewed the details more like jeans to try to mix the vintage vibe with modern styling, making them casual play pants rather than formal-wear.

There's also a great scene in the film with school kids are running down the hill trying to escape from the crows attacking.  I love vintage kids clothes because they're simple designs and use plain fabrics, not plastered with characters or goofy stuff like today.

 sewing details:

GRANDPA PANTS:

-made with crosshatch gray wool blend suiting

-used a pair of his pants as a pattern and altered the legs for a simple, loose leg opening

-functional zip fly, buttonhole elastic waistband, and hook and eye closure

-patch pockets in back and regular curved front pockets

-scant pin-tuck on pant-leg fronts to maintain the crease found in men's trousers

-sewn with contrasting rust thread to mimic jeans rather than dress pants

DANIELS TEE:

-original pattern drafted with raglan sleeves

-contrasting cuffs, shoulder buttons, and waistband chunk

-three functional buttons at left shoulder

-made with stripe slub knit (walmart) and kelly green interlock (JoAnn)

blue contrasting was scrap knit and I have no clue where it came from

photoshoot:

We visited my husband's home town, and they have a reservoir which served for our Bodega Bay backdrop.

RJ was pretty excited to take these pictures, as you could probably tell from his acting...but he insisted:

a) we needed fake blood (honey and food coloring)

and

b) the birds would end up killing him

So it was pretty fun, and we tried to not go too crazy with the gore for this one.

It was so fun to be part of this month's Halloween film petit.
You'll love Kristin's kids replaying the famous shower murder and Jessica's cutie wearing a miniature Melanie Daniels look!
They also have a flickr group if you've sewn any kids clothing inspired by a movie!