The Green Gables

 All photographs are self portraits taken by myself using a tripod.
Styling:  Esther Boller

I remember the first time that I felt homesick for Indiana after moving to school in Savannah.  It was about half way trough fall quarter and I was helping a friend with a photo shoot.  We drove past the marshes just outside of the city, and it was my first time out of the downtown area.  As I looked out over the marshes I realized, "It's - So - Open."  There was so much space for my eyes to breathe.

Growing up in Indiana I was always surrounded by flat corn and soy bean fields, so my eyes grew up with the privilege to look out for miles at a time.  In that moment in the marshes, there was so much space again, and I didn't even realize how much I had been craving that till I had it again. 

Well the other day, I walked the Chelsea High line (my favorite place to walk in NYC so far) and I was soaking up every chance I got to see out past 100 feet.    I'm very happy that I found a place for my eyes to "breathe" in NYC.   I figure that no matter where I move, as long as I'm able to get a place to look out, I'll be ok.   

Hat:  H&m, tank top: forever 21, Skirt: muslin tulle skirt I found in the throw-away bins at school.  Belt:  Goodwill.  

Photos taken last summer while on a camping trip in Michigan with my family.  More photos from that trip are on the way.

Xx
Esther 

Life on Two Wheels

All photographs are self-portraits taken by myself using a tri-pod.   

Ahhh it's biking weather again, finally!  I remember the first time that I was allowed to bike on the open road by myself without my parents.  As a kid that was the ultimate dream - open road and total freedom!  My favorite place to bike back then was a fairly secluded road that was surrounded by soybean/corn fields on each side.  It would stretch for about a mile and was always the smoothest road around.  It's a little hard to find a road that open in Savannah, but I have my favorite spots here too!  One of them is further away from downtown and during the weekday it's pretty quiet from traffic.  There are palm trees that line the street, and it's where I like to go when I need to clear my head from school projects.

Outfit:

Blazer:  Red Clover Boutique 

Watch:  JORD - I love these guys! Their craftsmanship, packaging, and customer service is spot on.

Shoes:  LeBunny Bleu

School starts again this coming Monday and I'm so excited for this quarter!  I'm taking a Knitwear Design class with my favorite professor which I'm really looking forward to learning under her again.  I just came back from a week long internship with the incredibly fun and talented team over at Handmade Charlotte!  I interned with them over Christmas break as well, and it's was such a fantastic time!  I'll share some of my work that I did with them hopefully soon.  Below is an instagram photo that I took as I was driving back to Savannah.

Happy Friday!

Outfit: By the Water

All photographs are self portraits taken by myself.  

My favorite season is fall!  I love the sound of leaves crinkling beneath my feet, the smell of bonfires, and most of all the chilly wind hitting my face.  There's something comforting about wearing big sweaters and chunky socks.  I don't get much - well any of that - in Savannah really, but lately it's been about 70 degrees which is chilly enough (yes northerners laugh) to at least wear jackets which I've been pretty happy about! 

Outfit:  

Jacket:  Sheinside

Hat:  Red Clover Boutique

Top:  Forever 21

Skirt:  Thrifted

I've recently had a lot of people ask me about how I take my self portraits.  I wrote a post about this a couple of years ago and I thought that I'd share it again.  It's easy for posts to get buried in a blog so here's a link back to that post.

Here are the 4 big tips to take away about self portraits.

1.  Think of the background.  What's going on behind you?  Is it interesting?  Is it distracting?  I try to move my camera around and look through the view finder to get all the angles that I can, before I take the time to focus with the camera my tripod.  This saves a lot of time adjusting the focus later

2.  Double check that you're in focus.  I've had so many photos that I think are in focus, but once I zoom in I realize that it's completely blurry!  It's a very sad moment when you think you've got your shot and then you find out it's blurry.  So take one test photo, then walk back and zoom in on that photo to make sure that it's actually in focus.

3.  Find a place where you don't feel self conscious.  This can be really hard when first starting out - especially if one lives in a city.  If you're not able to find that, and you're in a busy park with people staring -remind yourself that chances are you're not going to see these people again, and just keep shooting.  That usually helps me when I feel awkward taking a photo.  It took years before that thought helped me though, so it's ok if you still need to go to a more hidden place while starting out.

4.  And this is the most important take away - just start shooting!  Take as many photos as possible.  I think that one of the biggest holdups in self portrait taking (and photography in general) is the fear of a photo not turning out well.  I've had countless shoots that have turned out bad.  In fact, I had a shoot a couple of weeks ago turn out bad.   I decided to re-shoot it in a different location and the new shoot turned out so much better. And remember - you get to choose which photos to share with the world.  If you don't like it, don't share it.  Delete it.  But please don't stop taking photos if your first try turns out less than you envisioned it.

Once you start taking photos you'll realize what tricks work best for you.  If you have any more specific questions feel free to leave it in a comment, and I'll be happy to try to answer it!  And for all of you self portrait pros out there, do you have any tips to add?  I'd love to hear your advice as well!

Sewing: Vintage Inspired Fur Wrap

All photographs are self portraits taken by myself.  

I'm finally getting back into posting more of my summer projects!  This is a photo shoot that I did just the day before I left for my drive back to Savannah.  I was trying to get as many last minute shoots in as possible before I left.  

This summer I rewatched Baz Luhrman's, The Great Gatsby and that sent me into a big 1920/30s kick, which was a big inspiration for the styling of this photo shoot.  One day this summer I was driving through a nearby town and I drove past this old fighter plane and decided that it would be an interesting new location for a shoot!

I made both the headband and the fur wrap that I'm wearing.  I'll be posting a tutorial showing how to make both pieces soon!

The wrap is made from faux fur that I found in the throwaway fabric bin in my school's fashion building last year.  The very last day of finals was the last day that the fashion building was going to be open before closing for the summer the next day.  I was trying to get as much personal sewing in as possible before it closed.  I was one of the very few people left in the building, and I was about to leave when I randomly decided to look for fabric scrapes for future textile swatch books (fabric swatches are so expensive).

Because it was the end of spring quarter, all of the seniors had graduated, and left yards and yards of unwanted fabric in the scrap bins.  So what did I do?  I went home, dropped off my sewing supplies, and biked back with an empty backpack ready to fill.  I found yards and yards of fabric!  I made three different trips and collected as much as I could.

I even went by the offices half way through to double check with a facility member to make sure that what I was doing was ok.  The professor that I asked stopped what she was doing at the moment, and came to do the same thing with me - collecting her own trash bag full of fabric as well!  ha.  So tip if you go to a fashion school - in the spring time check the fabric scrap bins!

Outfit:

Headband:  Handmade, myself

Fur Wrap:  Handmade, myself

Cream Blazer:  H&M

Dress:  Vintage Guess, thrifted (this was one of my happiest thrift store finds).

Working with fur is different than working with normal fabric.  You have to be careful during the cutting/sewing process, because you don't want to actually cut the fur itself.  This cuts the fur short and then looks like it was given an unwanted hair cut.  The trick to keep this from happening is to cut your pattern pieces using a razor, or small snips from the wrong side of the fabric.  I'll go into more detail showing this when I post the full tutorial!  I'm hoping to have the time to share it sometime this weekend.

I hope your week is going well so far!

Outfit: Black and White

All photographs are self portraits taken by myself. 

I'm now in my 2nd week of classes and it feels so wonderful to be back on a school schedule and taking fashion classes!  So far I'm really enjoying my draping course.  We're currently learning how to drape a Basic Bodice Slopper, which is the foundation block for learning pattern drafting.

One day last week for homework we were assigned to pull a single cross grain thread from two separate panels of fabric.  This is done to find the correct grain for when we start draping.  Well pulling a single thread out of fabric is a very tedious job, and just one panel takes about two hours.  Halfway through my 2nd panel I thought, "I'm actually really enjoying this.  Oh my goodness - I'm pulling a thread and I'm having so much fun!"  Ha.  I'm curious for how I'll feel when I get further into the course, and I'm taught even more than just pulling thread.  Needless to say I'm sure I'll enjoy it!

Funny story by the way: my professor assigned my class a summer break assignment with only 10 days to complete it before it was due, which was the first week of class.  When I got the e-mail I automatically went into an intensely, focused, research mode.  I turned down a lot of opportunities to hang out with friends, and I spent over 70 hours trying to complete this project in time.  Well, my first day of class my professor went over her expectations for the summer assignment, and I realized that I mis-interpreted what was due at the first week.  It turns out that what I completed was actually half of my final project that's due at the end of the quarter.  So I finished half of my final project before the first day of class even started.  Ha.  I'm going to go back and start over/revise it a lot when the time comes, but at least I have a good start on the direction that I want my final project to go.

Outfit:

Jacket -  Sheinside (This is such a comfortable lightweight jacket!)

Shirt - H&M, sale section

Skirt - Thirfted

Belt - Thrifted

Shoes - Thirfted

Hat - Thrifted

It feels really great to be back in Savannah.  I didn't share this with you, but last year was a really hard time for me in my personal life.  I had a lot of new adjustments (first year of college/first time in a new state) and I was also still deeply grieving my brother's suicide that happened just the year before.  Emotionally, a lot hit me all at once when I wasn't expecting it, and it's taken most of last year to process and slowly walk through it.

Looking back, I can tell that I'm in so much of a better place coming into this school year than I was last year.  I'm still going to have moments where the grief hits, but I realized that I feel a lot better prepared since more time has passed.  I've learned how to take it slower on the days when I'm saddened, and I know how to be enjoy and appreciate the times when I'm at happy, and it's not on my mind.   Overall, I feel really settled about starting this year.  Thank you to everyone who showed such love and support to me last year.  It meant the world to me.

Outfit: Geometric Shapes

All photographs are self portraits taken by myself.  

I'm now currently in my first week of classes for my sophomore year at SCAD.  This shoot was taken in front of one of the walls in the school's library.  For one of my classes I was assigned a last minute summer project that's due this first week so I was at the library a lot this past week working on research.  The library has gone through a lot of renovations this summer so when I came back it was fun to see all of the new colors.  This cool houndstooth print caught my eye right away!

Outfit:  

Geometric print dress:  Sheinside

Shoes:  Sears, sale section

Necklace: Borrowed from my mom

The project that I was given this past week is to research and document the design process of a mini capsule collection (this is about 6 looks).  So all week I've been working on a process book for this assignment.  I've been playing around a lot with fabric manipulation, and new textures for embellishment detailing.  Here's an instagram preview for one of the design details that I've been exploring with.

You can follow me on Instagram here!

I'll share some pages from my process book once I get the time to photograph it!  I still have most of my summer sewing projects to show you as well!

Summer Sewing: Classic Plaid Jacket

All Photographs are self portraits taken by myself.

 

One of my favorite sewing pattern-makers is a discontinued Simplicity brand called Build by Wendy.  Her patterns were one of the first patterns that I ever worked with.  I have the whole collection and this summer I was going back and remaking a lot of her patterns.   I made this jacket from her 4109 pattern, which several variations to the design.  I made mine with a standing collar, and I decided to leave out the buttons and make it into a throw over coat.  I also took in the size a little bit to make it slightly better form fitting.

I also made the shirt that I'm wearing.  It's just a basic button down made from my leftover prom dress fabric.  I love the texture of this fabric - you may not be able to tell through the photos, but the gold dots are slightly raised giving a really fun texture! 

 Outfit:  

Sunglasses:  ZeroUV

Hat:  Red Clover Boutique

Jacket:  Esther Boller

Shirt:  Esther Boller

Pants:  Forever21

Shoes:  Le Bunny Blue
Animal Ring Set:   Style Moi

More projects and a few new sewing tutorials are coming up soon!