A self-portrait story

Self-portrait drawing. It recieved a regional silver key in the Scholastics :)

During the past few weeks I’ve been working on my artist statements for the Scholastics Art and Writing competition. After writing them and seeing the crazy amount of self-portraits I’ve taken over the past two years, I’ve realized something: my self-portraits have really become a personal diary/journal for myself. At first it was just a way to document the clothes that I made. Then I needed models for my clothes, but by the time I called up a friend to model for me, the weather that I wanted would change into something else. So I was stuck with doing self-portraits most of the time.

For a while I didn’t want to show my self-portraits, because I didn’t want anyone to think that I was in love with myself or anything (blgh, gag me). I felt like they were more of an embarrassing thing. It’s really not until this year that I’ve finally become comfortable with showing them.

The first self-portrait that I ever took...oh dear.

A more recent self-portrait

I was looking back on some of my first self-portraits the other day, and it was pretty funny to see the difference! I’ve changed so much within the past couple of years that I wonder what I’ll be like in a year, or even five years from now. Woah, I don't know if I want to think that far in advance!

I’ve been thinking a lot about colleges and what I should be, and I have so many people giving me advice about what I should go into that it’s all kind of turned into a jumbled mess. But I’ve decided that in five years from now, whatever it is that I’m doing I just hope that I’m truly happy and in love with whatever I chose to go into. Maybe it will be fashion, maybe it will be film, or maybe I’ll combine the two and do something with costume design! Who knows! All I know is that whatever I decide on it’s going to be something that I love and something that I’m crazy about.

Masking Tape Dress

I made this dress for the Scholastic Art and Writing competition. It’s made completely out of masking tape and let me just tell you that it was a bit of a sticky situation (haha pardon the pun, but I just couldn’t help myself). I was inspired by architecture and an empty butterfly chrysalis.

I first constructed the underneath by using a stiff interfacing. Next I had to add a couple of layers of masking tape on top of that in order to get the length where I wanted it. Then I started adding, one by one, layers of masking tape starting from the bottom. I used over 18 rolls of masking tape and over 80 hours went into making the dress. The dress is completely wearable. It has a zipper sewn in the back for getting in and out of.

I might have nightmares about wads of tape attacking me in my sleep, but I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Haha. I just dropped it off for judging and I find out Sunday if it got in. Oh I’m so nervous! Wish me luck and I hope you like it :)



***Update Sunday*** I got the results back and the dress won a Gold Key!! :D Thank you everyone for all the kind and encouraging words!

Infinity Scarf

Hey Everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! What was your favorite part of Christmas this year? Mine was having my sister and my new brother-in-law home for Christmas :) It was super fun! On Thursday Ruth, Nate, my mom and I took the train into Chicago. I saw this amazing shop with an amazing quantity of beautiful, old sewing machines lining the front of the window…oh how I wish the sewing machines were actually for sale. Ruth and Nate took a picture of me while I was gawking in front of the window. Haha, I’ll be sure to post those photos later.

Most of my time right now is going into my Scholastics project that’s due by the 14th. Last year I made a dress out of pennies. As you can imagine it didn’t work out too well due to the weight of the pennies, so I didn’t even enter it. Haha so this year I’m making something that’s much lighter! Haha

Above is an infinity scarf that I made the other day. It’s for sale in my etsy shop if anyone is interested. A really nice elderly lady from my church taught me how to crochet last year and I’ve been hooked (no pun intended) ever since! I’ve been crocheting like a crazy lady in my down time. I like to crochet in my free time, because it’s very relaxing and I don’t really have to think about anything while doing it. If any of you would like to learn I found a good tutorial on how to crochet :)

P.S. Happy New Year!! ...well almost - in about three hours from now.

Merry Christmas / Video / Etsy Sale

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I'm so excited that it's Christmas! All of my family is home and it's so nice! My sister's home so we're going to be doing a bunch of photo shoots and we're thinking of making a video too :) Photos and sewing projects are on their way! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this year filled with fun and family.

P.S. Here's a video I made when I went to my friend’s house a couple of weeks ago for their traditional cookie baking weekend. I've been doing this with them for years! I look forward to it every year. Their family gets together and they make thousands of cookies in only a couple of days. Last year we made 8,141 cookies in less than four days. I'm not quite sure on the cookie count for this year, but I know that it's over 6,000. It's always just so much fun spending time with friends and getting to know their family even more every year. I almost feel like part of their family. I hope you enjoy the video :)

Music: Mouth Full of Diamonds by Phantogram

P.S. - P.S. I'm having a sale in my Etsy shop right now on some for my photography prints. If you'd like you can check it out :)

Oldie but a Goodie :)

Oh my goodness it’s seriously been to long!! I've been really busy with work and school, but things are finally just now starting to slow down a little with Thanksgiving coming up. :) I am seriously soooooooooo excited for Christmas Break! Ahhhhhhhhh, two free weeks of pure bliss and sewing!! My sister Ruth and her husband Nate are coming home during Christmas Break which I’m SUPER excited about! I’ve really missed Ruth lately! I’m so excited to see her that I can’t even put it into words…it’s more in a form of a happy dance! Haha. We’re planning on doing lots of photo shoots! I keep threatening Nate about photo shoot idea that includes him wearing tights and a poofy shirt. Bwa-hahahahaha. Of course I’m not going to do that to him, but it’s fun to pick on him.

Last year around this time I went to visit Ruth for a week while she still lived out in Boston. It was so much fun! Pretty much the entire week we just took photo and binged out on food, which just so happens to be two of my most favorite things…well sewing’s my number one, but it would have been pretty expensive to ship my sewing machine out to Boston for only a week. Haha. After thinking about the fun memories of trip I realized that I only posted a couple of photos from the adventure! This shall be remedied! Here are some more photos that my uber talented sister took while I visited her last year. :)

Photos by Ruth Yaroslaski






Seeing the beach for the first time!




I hope you all have a great week! Any fun Thanksgiving plans? :)

Vintage Inspired Winter Coat

Hey everyone!! Here’s a coat that I made within the past couple of weeks. I made it using this lovely Burdastyle Pattern.

I was inspired by the mod style of the 50s and 60s. I’ve fallen in love with all things 50s lately…this is probably do to the all-day marathon of Pushing Daises episodes and seeing all the adorable clothes that they have in it. Seriously that show is the cutest! I was very sad when I found out that they canceled the show only after two season! :( I loved the piping details seen in Orla Keiley’s collections and I wanted to create something similar to that effect. So I sewed piping on the collar, pocket flaps, and tab on the back of the coat.

I found the pattern instructions to be a little confusing when it came to sewing in the lining and making the vent in the back of the coat. The pattern called for shoulder pads, but I left that part out. Because of that, I had to make some slight adjustments to the sleeves and armholes of the coat. I also made the length a couple inches shorter and added a tab to the back of the coat. Overall it was a very fun coat to make, but I think a couple adjustments could be made to the pattern instructions to make it a little easier to understand.

Story time!! During my various photographic endeavors I have come in contact with mosquitos; bees; horseflies; thousands of little, tiny, ninja assassin frogs; BIG ninja assassin frogs; snakes; I’ve been bitten by a cat (haha that was a weird day for me!); I’ve been chased by a dog; I’ve been chased by a group of dogs; I’ve come within 50 yards of a pack of wild coyotes at night (that was really scary); and now after all of that, I might as well add chiggers to my list. I have them all over my legs! Man alive, they are not fun!! If any of you have ever gotten them before and have any tips for getting rid of them I’m all ears!! :)

Well I hope you’re all having a great week so far and I hope it stays chigger free! Haha

Sweater Weather

Hello everyone!! Oh goodness it feels like forever since the last time I posted anything! I hope you all had a great summer! I’m sorry it had to end. Mine went by a little too fast, but I am ready for fall weather again. I’ve missed wearing coats, sweaters and scarves!

Last week I started taking classes at a local college where I can earn duel credits. That way by the time I actually graduate from high school I can have most of my general classes out of the way. I’ve been a bit busy with that, but it’s going good so far. I made a new backpack the other day (my Barbie backpack just wasn’t holding up) which I will be posting photos of later on. :)

Here are a couple self portraits I took today. I’m not too sure about the first one, but hey, it’s good to have a couple clinkers every now and then. :) I hope you’re having a great Labor Day so far, and happy sweater weather!