News

Hello! Just letting you know that I’m taking part in Southeast Open Studios for the first time! Although the emphasis is mainly on my art inspired by folktales, history and magical landscapes, I also have a few items of Threads of a Fairytale clothing on display. As I don’t do festivals any more, this is a rare chance to try something on before you buy. There wasn’t space to take everything, so please let me know if there’s something you’d like me to bring for you to have a look at.

I’m going to be in the pretty village of Otford near Sevenoaks, Kent, where my sister will also be showing her beautiful landscape photography. And if that’s not reason enough to visit, we’ll also have homemade cake!  I won’t be there, but it’s open this Friday 12th and Saturday 13th June; and then I will be there on Thursday 18th, Friday 19th and Saturday 20th. Come and say Hi! All the details are here on the Southeast open studios page.

IMG_6770

I’m back on Instagram! I decided to give up waiting (after 3 months it’s unlikely to come back) and have started a new account. I am still upset for all the lost connections I’ve made there over the last ten years, but I’m trying to stay positive for a new beginning. I’d be very grateful if you could share my new account with your friends who might like to follow. THANK YOU! 

I’m actually a little bit excited to start afresh. I guess I’ll be giving into Reels at last! I’ll be sharing art, my handmade clothing I make for Threads of a Fairytale, and I love photography, so I’m sure there’ll be some landscapes, florals and old-school flatlays occasionally! Also, as a hangover from my past fashion blogging days, I sometimes find myself prancing about in beautiful locations wearing interesting clothing I love! Think cottagecore, fairycore vibes!

In the past I had separate accounts for my art and sewing, but I’ve decided to continue with just the one account – it’s much easier to manage. If you used to follow me on my old Instagram account, or haven’t done yet, I would really appreciate a fresh follow to show the algorithm that people are interested. Thank you SO much!

But the most difficult is feeling like I’ve lost my connection with you. So, Meta have, for some inexplicable reason, suspended me from Facebook and Instagram, including all my pages that went with them. Now admittedly, I haven’t managed to keep up with both my Instagram accounts, so Threads of a Fairytale fell by the wayside and I had started posting sewing and fairytale fashion content on my account simply titled ‘Helen Hobden’. This was what I called my main account, and included my art and photography of landscapes, still lives and travel. I feel gutted that ten years of carefully edited and captioned photos (plus a few reels) have now disappeared.

Hopefully, some day (it’s been a month already) I’ll get it all back, but in the mean-time I came to tell you about it in case you were looking for me on Instagram. I know I often look there to check a new website I’ve come across is legitimate and still active. Rest assured I am!

The best way to stay in touch is to subscribe to my Letters from a fairytale newsletter and blog.

Or watch what I’m up to on YouTube.

Happy Spring!

I have another sewing video to share. I was looking through my Youtube videos and realised I forgot to tell you about this one. Mixed in with the sewing, there is also some painting – which gives you the answer if you were wondering what I’d graduated from! Last year I completed a course called The Mastery Program by the Milan Art Institute – a full-time art course. So this also explains why Threads of a Fairytale has been running a little slower lately with fewer new clothes added into the shop. If you’d like to commission your very own dress though, have a look at these ideas.

I decided to turn the words I wrote for the last sewing video into a blog post. It’s a little story about snobbery and being cool.

By the way, this was sent out to everyone on my newsletter. If you’d like to join to make sure you don’t miss out, please sign up here as I’d love to stay in touch. 🙂