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.....