Helen Hobden

New Forest Fairy Festival 2019

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Hello folks, sorry it’s been a while. When you really get your mind into something, I’m afraid I neglect other things! First of all I was determined to get my new website finished, but that hasn’t happened. Instead I turned my attention to the New Forest Fairy Festival, which is taking place this coming weekend, 10th and 11th August!

I am very pleased to let you know that I will be back with my stall this year, so I have been super busy preparing for that. I’ve made several more sheer goddess dresses, jackets and kaftans, as they are always popular. I’ve also made a collection of silk and cotton skirts and tops – most of which I’ve dyed using natural plant dyes. I think they’re really pretty and can’t wait to show you! And also new this year: my fairytale undergarments collection!

The stall is also having a bit of a makeover this year – it will be less of a woodland feel, and more of a crumbling castle ballroom vibes. I hope so anyway! So gone is the thick hessian I had adorning the walls of the gazebo, and instead I’ve been hand-stitching together lace curtains. I’m hoping this will give a much brighter airy feel. I’ll still have ivy about the place, but mixed with tassels too! If you’re a regular visitor at the fairy festival, I’d love to have your feedback on this change. 🙂

By the way, if you can’t be there, I will be trying to remember to Insta Story the weekend. Go to Instagram.com/threadsofafairytale and follow me over there to have a look. I’ve also been showing behind the scenes and work in progress and adding them to collections so you can catch up on those little clips too if you like.

Lastly, a newsletter went out last night, so if you’ve signed up, please check your e-mail folders. 🙂

Helen x

Photography edits and a new tropical fairy skirt

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Hello! You may have noticed that my photography style has started to change in the Etsy shop. Well, hopefully you haven’t noticed actually, as I’d rather it happen seamlessly and subtly! Anyway, after years of dipping in and out of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom learning, I think I have finally found an editing style that is all my own and I’m proud of. It’s so tempting to quickly click a Lightroom preset, but they’re often over-processed, even if it looks cool. I love some of the dramatic and stylised results you can achieve with digital post-processing, however I have to remind myself that I’m not presenting art to you – as an online shop owner, it’s my responsibility to make sure you see an accurate representation of what you’re buying. Therefore, all those lovely desaturated vintage style looks you sometimes see on Instagram, are no good for me! I might actually write a blog post or film a YouTube video all about it soon!

In the mean time, please pop over to the Threads of a Fairytale Etsy shop to have a look at a new item of clothing: a beautiful purple fairy skirt perfect for dancing in. The festival season is upon us and this would make a lovely unique sustainable handmade item of clothing to wear to festivals.

New photographs and exciting changes

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Interesting things are happening here at Fairytale headquarters! Ticks are beginning to appear next to my list of plans that I made in January and it feels exciting! Chris (my husband) bought me a lovely new lens for my birthday last month and although I’ve tested it out on flowers, yesterday I learned how to use it on people. In fact I took nine hundred and sixty-eight photos of my daughters Rain and Jude, who were kind enough to model for me. So I now have quite a lot of work to do editing them and uploading them to my Etsy shop.  Most of the items you will have seen already, however I also used the opportunity to photograph two new dresses, a skirt and a shawl that I’ve made so far this year. So please keep a look-out for them and let me know what you think. 🙂

The other news is that I’m working on a new website! Well, it’s the same Threads of a Fairytale website really, but it will have a new layout and a lot more information about how I make the fairytale and festival fashion and the whole handmade clothing business. I can’t wait to finish it and show it to you!

Have a lovely week. 🙂

Making a tropical jungle bohemian fairy dress!

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely sunny Easter weekend. I spent it mostly in the garden, but also took a drive to Avebury stone circle when the sun was getting low in the sky and birds all around us were singing very loudly – it was quite magical!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I’ve uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel showing how I made a bohemian fairy dress using tropical leaf print fabric along with Indian cotton and silk chiffon. This dress isn’t in the Threads of a Fairytale Etsy shop yet as I haven’t had chance to do a photo-shoot with my daughter, but I’ll let you know when the listing goes up. 🙂

Have a lovely short week!

The chaos of a creative sewing room

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Have you ever wondered what it’s like in a creative’s work room? Well, mine became a fabric storage disaster zone last year, so in January I made it my priority to get on top of it and have a massive sewing room tidy-up and sort out! I embarrassed myself by showing you exactly how bad it got in my latest YouTube video, so if you’d like to see me sort out my fabric stash and have a really good clear-up, then please head on over to my YouTube channel and have a peek! Please don’t judge me!

Seeing everything in progress

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Hello! I hope you’ve had a lovely week! Just popping by to let you know I’ve started using the Stories feature on my Instagram account more lately. I’m using the Highlights function to save them all to a group called ‘In Progress’. I’ve been showing little clips of me sewing, pinning, and patch-working together the fairytale clothing I’ve been making in the last couple of months. So if you’d like to see a little of what is going on behind the scenes, please take a look at Threads of a Fairytale on Instagram. I’ve made a pretty purple and green dress with colours taken from a lovely crepe fabric with a tropical leaf pattern. Then a fancy frock coat to go with it. And then as I had plenty of the tropical fabric left over, I started another dress to match the first, but much fancier to be more of an alternative wedding dress or fairy ball gown, with added tutu net and lace. It’s almost finished and I can’t wait to show you!

 

Too late for Happy New Year?!

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Yes it is too late really, but Happy New Year anyway! I’m sorry things over here have been a bit quiet lately, but I have been busy in the background making new and exciting plans for 2019. I’ll be honest, last year Threads of a Fairytale didn’t have all my attention as I spent a lot of time over in America, and I even thought I’d be moving there for a while and would have to close this business down. However, that’s not happening now, so it’s full steam ahead! My stall at the New Forest Fairy Festival is already booked, so I’ll be making lots of goddess dresses, kimonos and fairy skirts for that. I’m also working on a new jacket design inspired by the goblin king in Labyrinth! And I have a couple of tabs open with different eyelet and press-stud machines available. I’m thinking of investing in a good one to make adjustable wrap-around skirts.

I haven’t currently got my bottle bags and cup carriers on sale in my Etsy shop, but I will chat soon with the lady who arranged to sell them at Glastonbury Festival a couple of years ago, and see if that’s possible again. And my other plans for the year are to develop my collection of special occasion dresses; update this website, and completely re-photograph some of my older items. So a busy time!

By the way, I am on the look-out for models to collaborate with; so if you would like to be involved and receive professional photos for your portfolio and are in the Somerset, UK area (Or possibly Connecticut/New York state) please get in touch. I’d love to diversify the look of my shop so that everyone feels welcome here; so I’d be particularly interested if you’re a person of colour.

And one of my main goals for Threads of a Fairytale in 2019 is to keep you updated in this news section! I’m currently working on a tropical leaf dress, and have just started an ‘In Progress’ Highlights on my Instagram for little sneak peak stories at how I’m getting on!

If there’s anything you’d like me to cover here, or have any questions, please let me know. 🙂

A pink floral dress new in the shop

Posted on by Helen Hobden

Adult pink fairy dress

I’ve always loved flower fairies, so this pink floral fairy dress is one of my favourites. If you’d like to go straight to the shop to find out more about it, follow this link to Threads of a Fairytale on Etsy.

Or if you’d like to read more about the process of making the fairy dress, and watch the YouTube video, then please head on over to my blog, When I Grow Up.