Hope Chest Photos!

{My favorite photo!}

Over the weekend, I've been posting the photo's from my Hope Chest photo shoot on my website, Facebook & Flickr. Have you had a chance to see them yet? I just got them back and am have been so excited to see my fabrics and all of our hard sewing work looking so glamorous.

 
 

I've been wanting to do a photo shoot at a carousel for a few years now, and this time I felt it really worked with the look of the fabrics. I was able to book out the carousel at the Woodland Park Zoo for a couple of hours before the zoo opened, which made it very hassle free to get the shots in that we wanted without a lot of extra people walking around. Also, this carousel was indoors, which was even more reassuring with our temperamental Seattle 'summer' weather.

My friend Karin and I put in a lot of work sewing up samples a few weeks leading up to the shoot. Karin and I worked at Nordstrom together and she's an amazing and award winning fashion designer, so she tackled the more difficult garments. This year I had 4 models with 2 outfit changes each for a total of 8 garments, which we sewed up in 2 weeks! It was pretty crazy! But each time something got finished, it felt really satisfying and it was fun to see the group and my vision start to come together.

Since I don't have my own line of sewing patterns (...yet?) I usually use the designer patterns from Simplicity and Vogue, (with Cynthia Rowley and Rebecca Taylor being my favorites), as well as scour Etsy to see if I can find some new indie designers with great designs. This year, I found Victory Patterns, and really loved a lot of their looks! Have you heard of them yet? I of course love the patterns of other fabric designers, but don't feel it's right to use them when showcasing my fabric collection.

{My Hope Chest fabric collection}

Photo shoots can be kinda hectic, but in a good way. I prepare all of the garments, jewelry, accessories, shoes, etc the night before, making sure everything is pressed and hung nicely. I usually ask the models to bring loads of shoes that we can select from, and I pour through my closet gathering many things from shoes to cami's to jewelry and hair accessories. And I map out a plan of which model will theoretically wear what. A few of the models I hadn't met before so I was crossing my fingers quite a bit, but thankfully everything worked out really well!

{All the girls looking gorgeous at the carousel!}

I had my Cross Stitch Roses backdrop that we set-up to get a few shots in front of. I love how bright and bold the backdrop turned out!! I'm definitely going to need to hang this up in my studio...probably for curtains! Along with the backdrop I laid out some props that went with my Hope Chest fabric theme, such as flowers, old keys and books (this was a great excuse for me to finally buy some of the Penguin Hardcover Classics with the beautifully patterned covers!).

{Love these books whose contents inspired my Hope Chest collection}

My awesome photographer Natalie, from Natalie G. Photography did wonders capturing the look of this shoot. Wouldn't you agree? This is the fourth photo shoot we've worked together on, and each year the photo's get better and better which I didn't even think was possible.

{Me and the girls}

Well, I hope you enjoy getting a little behind the scenes glimpse of my Hope Chest photo shoot! Any questions at all, just let me know and I'm happy to try to answer. I'll do another post explaining the garments I chose, soon. Thanks so much for taking a peek at my photos! What are your favorites? I hope they inspire you to use the collection for your next project!

PS - If you're a store interested in using my photo's to promote my Hope Chest fabric line, please contact me to let me know your needs. Thanks!