Film Petit: The Big Lebowski

I don’t know that words can properly express how excited I am to be doing Film Petit with Jess from A Little Gray and Kristen from Skirt as Top this month!  And then they chose one of my husband’s favorite movies, The Big Lebowski.  So awesome.  I’m pretty sure I scared Jess and Kristen with my level of enthusiasm, giving them a crazy long list of all the things I wanted to make. I get a little carried away sometimes. But somehow I was able to eventually reign things in and focus on the main movie poster look of The Dude and his best friend, Walter.

The Dude is just a laid back guy that wants nothing more than to relax with a White Russian and meditate on his bowling game.  He also happens to share a name with a local millionaire and philanthropist.  Identities get confused, rugs get stolen, girlfriends get kidnapped, and toes get cut off.  All The Dude wants is his rug back (it really ties the room together) and no one to get hurt.  It’s a lot of stress for an other wise peace-loving man.

The Dude goes for comfort over pretty much any and every other fashion rule. Baggy pants, a worn tee shirt, the iconic Cowichan knit sweater, and a pair of jelly sandals.

 

The tee shirt was made modifying a layered tee pattern from Ottobre 1/2013.  The fabric is a super light-weight knit from JoAnn.  I’m not going to lie.  I seriously did a happy dance in the aisle of the store when I found it, the color was so totally perfect.  The pants are super basic self drafted PJ type, with inseam pockets, made from shirting from Fabric.com.  I made the Cowichan sweater with some ribbed sweater knit, lined with super soft fleece.  I stared with HeyJune! Greenpoint Cardigan pattern, with some minor tweaking for the shawl collar and zipper front.  The sweater’s pattern design was made with fabric paints and a homemade stencil.  Sloppy, but it works.  And then the jellys.  I stalked eBay for weeks hoping to find clear jellys in my four-year old’s size.   I had to cut some Telletubby artwork off the toes, but I finally found some to complete my Dude look.

It was almost too easy getting Dude-worthy shots from my preschooler.

I didn’t even have to pose him for that last one, just told him I wanted a few more pictures and this was his natural reaction.

Walter is The Dude’s best friend and bowling partner.  He’s also pretty much the exact opposite of The Dude: high-strung and angry, with some definite PTSD issues lingering from ‘Nam.

I started my Walter look by ordering amber-lensed aviators.  Walter wears them in every single scene, and my seven-year old needed a pair to pull off a true Walter.  I made the fisherman vest by tracing a boys’ dress vest Burda pattern, elongating and squaring off the hem, adding eight pockets, bound arm holes and neckline, a mesh lining, and a zippered front.  The polo is The Blank Slate Perfect Polo, made totally on pattern.  I used the Relaxed Pant pattern from Ottobre 1/2013 for the shorts, shortening the legs and adding cargo pockets to the sides and back.  I distressed the fabric, a twill, with anything and everything I could think of to give them a worn look: steel wool, bleach, even a razor. Then I told my kid to yell at his brother. 

Walter!

I had way too much fun putting these looks together and sewing everything up.  My kids were totally into it all, too.  My husband taught them a couple quotes from the movie, and they’ve been commenting “nice marmot” and yelling “mark it zero” for weeks.

It’s seriously awesome.
Thanks so much Jess and Kristen for inviting me to play along with Film Petit this month.  I can’t tell you how honored I am to have been a part of it all. 

And one last reenactment, this time with a cameo by my baby’s foot…

“You want a toe?  I can get you a toe!”

And now go check out Kristen’s Dude in the Grocery Store and Jess’s Dude Disposing of the Ashes.  I die.  Seriously, so funny.