The Red Tree

 

These are some of my favourite screenshots from a short film I have just completed of Shaun Tan's children's book 'The Red Tree'. The book is about the struggle through depression and the journey towards hope.

This book has always been an inspiration to me, and when our family bought our new high-tech camera I decided it was high time to start making some quality videos. I have been working on this project for weeks - and today it is completed.

If there is anything I would change it would be to bring the voiceover out louder than the music, but it is still distinguishable... I think...

Here is the video:

I greatly enjoyed this project - it was the first proper film I had made in years, and I learned heaps in the process. Some of the images are taken directly from the book, but others I have used my own interpretation of the words and have quite deep meanings for myself which might escape others. I just hope there's enough universal content for everyone to get something out of it.

I did all filming, lighting, acting, editing, speaking and all of that myself. I think next time I will ask someone to help me out, especially with the filming, so I can get some better close-up footage and even a moving camera!

Bodice

I have now completely finished my Cambodian-style bodice! Yay!

And when I went to try it on, I realised I had made it a size or two too large for myself T-T

So in these photos you might notice I am pinching it tight behind my back. WHAT A SHAME.

I will alter it to fit my size once I get it back from marking.

Here's what it looks like off the body:

Do you see that detailing? See those seams?? See that boning??? See that zipper????

(You're not meant to see the last two)
This took me forever T-T

Now it's time to work on my skirt!!

Makeover

My blog has just gone through its own makeover! Gone are the gothic black backgrounds and painful-to-read white writing. Gone are the thin columns and small-size photographs!

Speaking of photographs, my fabulous mother has just invested into a top of the range camera - I cannot comment on its type as I must confess I know little about cameras! But I'm expecting to learn. This is my new baby - too bad I have to share it!

Meanwhile, some further vintage hair persuits:

Preparing the night before...

 The next day:

Made up:

 

Lots of pins!

For further information on these pin-curls, check out Vixen Vintage's post.

I have another style I tried a while ago, unfortunately the photos were taken on my old camera. This is a more work-style hairdo:

Vintage Hairstyles

So I have had incredible fun in the last week getting into the mood of VINTAGE. I don't know where it came from, but all of a sudden I am obsessed with anything and everything vintage!

I watched numerous youtube tutorials until I managed to find one that showed me how to do this:

I am absolutely in love with this style. For further information on how to achieve this, go to this youtube video.

Meanwhile, today I have reverted back to a vintage hairstyle I have not tried in a while:

RAG CURLING!

For more detail, see Vixen Vintage

I slept on it (quite an uncomfortable experience) and this is how it turned out this morning when untied:

 

Far better results than the previous two times I have attempted this! Then again, I have never slept in it. It is important for it to completely dry (even after a night it was still a little damp).

My final look:

So yeah.

So I am having another uncreative spell.

But luckily for me I am doing a subject in textiles which is forcing me to be creative!

So here are some nice samples I have made recently of cornelli stitch using freemotion embroidery with metallic threads:

 And here is a picture of my favourite sample yet - a petal created out of wire and freemotion stitching!! No fabric whatsoever!

And that pretty much sums up my creative achievements for over a month now.

And they weren't even of my choice! I HAD to do them for class!

So yeah.

Cya soon, when hopefully I have produced something more interesting.....

!

(Sorry this was such a lame post, but I felt I had to write something after a month of nothing!)

Sewing Fun

Some sewing fun I have been creating lately:

Flower

Silk Painting

This is by far the most sophisticated bit of sewing I have ever done. It looks hideous, because I did it badly! But through that mess of stitching, I have actually created my own fabric to the left of the shiny fabric by using solvy and free-motion machine embroidery!

 

 

 

 The last picture is what I created today, and I am quite proud of it. This term we have no theory at all (!!), every lesson is practical where we are being bombarded with fairly sophisticated techniques. This one is meant to be a petal (but I used a leaf pattern and didn't realise that petals don't have centre veins....) and it has fishing wire around the edges to keep shape, and wire down the centre to bend it into cool shapes!

My plan is to create more petals and then somehow join them to create a full flower! Exciting!!

Late Christmas, Oscar Wilde and Flowers

So I know I'm 32 days late, but I guess there was more sewing involved than I had anticipated.

But my cross stitch is now COMPLETE! :D

 

 On another note, I have just finished reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde, and it was very interesting. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was amazing. I could understand why it had become a classic, and it had some very interesting ideas about society, but beyond that the plot was a bit thin. I had to read it for research in my gothic story English majorwork.

I have been experimenting with different methods of making fabric flowers. Well, I've only made one so far. I think it's pretty cool, but it's not what I'm looking for. This looks more like a rose, whereas I am looking for a more traditional petal shape.