Le Ballon Rouge (The Red Baloon) inspired photo shoot

I recently did a photo shoot inspired by the silent French film "Le Ballon Rouge" translated as "The Red Balloon". For my shoot, I was greatly inspired by the red balloon itself, bringing lots of red colours into each image and emphasizing the colour during editing of the photos. I also created a child-like model as the film was centred around children and the main character who had the red balloon was a child. The high pig tales and light make-up helped to create this child-like image in my photos. I also used the colour white, emphasizing bright, white lighting when editing the photos as white, according to the psychology of colour, means purity and innocence in the context of my photo shoot. The location I used for my shoot was in my house. I was inspired by a certain scene in the film where the boy with the red balloon is standing outside a wooden shop with widows. That's where my idea came from to shoot near wooden doors and windows. Here is how my photo shoot turned out:

In this image, the girl looks back as if curious to find out something.

In this image, the girl is in a fun, cute pose showing playfulness.

In this image, the girl looks through a window looking for something, but the light is so bright, she can't find what she is looking for.

I was inspired to create this image from a scene in the film, where the boy with the red balloon is looking through a window, as the red balloon flies away.

Photography: Me

Styling: Me

Model: Me

Hair & Make-up: Me

Location: My House

Editing: Me

Satin nightie

I finished making this satin nightie last night. I used some fabric that my mum is no longer using. I designed it myself and I tailored it to fit me. So I basically measured myself and then used those measurements to cut the fabric to size and to put the darts in the correct place. I didn't use a pattern or a mannequin, so I think I've done really well! I am so pleased with how it has turned out!

Pillowcase Dress

I have recently been making a dress out of two pillowcases for Dress a Girl Around the World (dressagirlaroundtheworld.com). It is a project to make dresses for vulnerable children in Africa. I made this dress for a 10-12 year old. I made the pockets and sewed them on. I ruched the top and sewed the straps on. I finished it with a hem. I am really pleased with how it has turned out and I hope there is a little girl out there who would love to wear it!

Industrial inspired Photo Shoot

Last week, our class was split into groups. We were given a word to be inspired by to carry out a photo shoot. In my group, we had the word "Industrial" and we began to be inspired by the Industrial Revolution, Les Miserables and Miley Cyrus music video "Wrecking Ball". We thought the background in the video looked very industrial. I really enjoyed helping with the make-up and overseeing the preparation for the shoot and the shoot itself. This is how our photo shoot turned out:

Photography: Annie

Styling: Katie, Annie and me

Model: John

Hair & make-up: Katie, Annie & me 

Location: Industrial setting outside

Editing: Annie

Supervising & transport: me

French Seam

This week, I learned how to sew an Open Seam, a Closed Seam, a French Seam, a Machine Stitched Hem and a Hand Stitched Hem. Here, I am going to go through the step by step process of making a French seam. I found this particular seam very difficult to do. French seams are usually used on sheer or transparent fabrics and is most often associated with the high end Haute Couture and Ready to Wear markets as it is a more expensive and time-consuming seam to make.

Step 1: Get 2 pieces of fabric, right sides together and sew a straight line 0.5cm from the edge. Steam iron the seam open as shown below:

Step 2: Fold the fabric so that the seam is on the inside and iron flat. Sew a straight line 1cm from the edge.

Step 3: Iron the seam flat on one side of the fabric as shown below.

 

 

My completed French seam.

Pattern Cutting

Recently, I have learned about pattern cutting and I made a dress block. I found it quite confusing and made some mistakes along the way, but with a little help, I got there in the end. It was all about following instructions from a book and calculating math sums to create lines, angles and curves. Here is my finished result:

High Street Illustration Board

As well as the couture illustration boards, we had to make high street illustration boards. Here is the one I made. I used watercolours and fine liner.