MY FIRST SELFIE

 

When I was studying dress design at art college in 1966 my boyfriend was a student of photography and one evening he took me to his part of the college to take some photos.

 

 

I put on one of my latest creations, a jumpsuit made from burgundy coloured needlecord and tied my hair back with a wide velvet ribbon.

 

In the photography department there was a huge roll of white paper that spread out over the floor and I was told to stand there and pose moodily.

 

Being only 16 at the time and not used to being photographed I didn't really know how to pose, despite studying Vogue magazine closely every month.

 

However the photos weren't too bad when John developed and printed them.

 

I lost the photos for many years and have only just rediscovered them so I felt I had to make something special of them.

 

I traced the faces to start with as well as the figures on a smaller scale then transferred the faces to a piece of white linen using my light box and an erasable pen.

 

I cut out the hair and collar shapes from a piece of Liberty fabric that I had backed with bondaweb and pressed them in place before machine stitching all the lines in black thread and straight stitches.

 

 

 

 

I used some organza for the shading around the eyes and hand stitched the figure outlines afterwards.

 

 

I think the back of the picture is just as interesting as the front as I tried to keep my threads under control!

 

 

 

I'm really pleased with the result and I think I'll try this treatment on some other photos soon.....

UP-CYCLING BOB'S SHIRTS

 

My weaving addiction is keeping me busy and recently I decided I needed to make something to display my holiday stitchpics on.  I wanted to use the soft blues of Bob's old shirts and some green linen from my stash along with some cotton yarns.

 

I cut up the shirts and kept the collars and button bands to use later and started to make strips from the fabrics.

 

I used a rotary cutter on a cutting mat to make even sized strips approximately 2 cms wide.  I found a pale blue net curtain donated by a friend and some green organza to add variety to the collection.

 

I set up the loom with pale blue cotton yarn and started to weave a 35 cm square, luckily it just fitted on the loom although it was a bit tight as I got near the end.

 

Here's a close up of one of the 9 squares I made over a week of afternoons;

 

And here is a square auditioning for it's future role as a background for my favourite holiday stitchpic.

 

I think this is going to turn out well as the colours complement each picture perfectly.

 

I machine stitched around all the edges of the squares to keep the weaving secure, cut away the surplus ends and then machined them together into a metre square.  I used a slice from an old sheet to back the piece and then I used the collars and button straps to edge it.  The collar stands became the loops at the top to hang it to the rail.

 

Here it is completed at last ready for the next step.

 

I have hand stitched each picture to the hanging and left plenty of space for future embroideries to be added.  It will soon be hanging in the hall, as soon as I can persuade Bob to drill some holes in the wall for the rail!