Netflix Sewing Club 1: The Runaways and a Serger!

In Netflix Sewing Club, I talk about style, sewing and movies that you can see on Netflix Canada.  This is totally not sponsored.  

I love Netflix. We subscribed to it in the fall, even though the selection was sparse (we have the Canadian edition). Since then, they've added way more content, and I've discovered the fun of  watching movies that I wouldn't bother watching in the theatre or even on TV. When I can watch a movie on my schedule, practically for free, I become a lot more open-minded! More importantly, I can watch a movie just for the costumes.

Choosing to watch movies that I know are bad has been educational. For example, I now understand the appeal of Kristen Stewart. I figured it out by watching The Runaways, an inept, leering bio-pic of the late 70s all-girl rock band. This movie is terrible. But if you have Netflix, the first 40 minutes are worth watching for Stewart's sulky, butch turn as Joan Jett. Before this, I figured that people liked Kristen Stewart because she was Bella in Twilight, and that people who loved Twilight would have embraced any actress who played that role. (Also, having tried to read the first book, I figured that people who loved Twilight didn't have the greatest taste).

But now I get it. The Runaways is a mess, but she's easily the best thing in it. She's quiet, but watchful, a slow-burning presence. 

Stewart's costume is pretty excellent. Her hair is cut in a dark shag with height at the top. Most of the movie shows her in tight 70s T-shirts without a bra, but she's so lean and angular, and she acts so much with her shoulders, that the look is boyish instead of porn-y.

If you're more into drag queens, try the second half of the movie, where Dakota Fanning plays singer Cherie Currie in a garter belt and platforms (I kept thinking of Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which kind of makes sense since Rocky Horror came out in 1975). 

All this t-shirt inspiration is very timely, since my mom generously lent me her serger for the summer. It's an 80s HobbyLock, and it still has its manual, thank goodness. Today, I made a t-shirt using the instructions from Sew U: Home Stretch and some medium-weight jersey a friend gave me. Some wobbliness at the neckline means that this will be a sleep-shirt, not a wear-out-of-the-house shirt, but it was good practice. It's much looser than the t-shirts shown above, since 1) it's not 1977 and 2) bwaaaaa, that would just look vulgar on me.

Incidentally, has anyone else noticed that the sizes in this book are huge? Especially when compared to the sizes in Sew U, the first Built by Wendy sewing book? I'm a medium in Sew U, but the small T-shirt from Sew U: Home Stretch is big on me.  

This shirt has a grey heather band at the neck that you can just barely see in the photo.

I don't know why I look so wary. 

Check out my new straight-across bangs! They were supposed to be a salute to Rooney Mara at the 2012 Oscars but may have ended up being Tegan and/or Sara, circa 2007. Whatever. That's what I get for reading celebrity style magazines while waiting for a bangs trim, I guess. (I'm just lucky I didn't get REALLY into Kristen Stewart and get a shag).