The fairytale wedding dress – behind the scenes

It has been on my To Do list for some time to make a fairytale wedding dress from scratch, but I think I was subconsciously putting it off as I knew it would be a big project. However, I’m so happy and proud of the finished dress, I wish I had made it sooner! Hopefully I’ll have chance to make another one soon as this is an example of a fairytale boho-style wedding dress that can be made to order to your measurements.

As usual, I filmed the whole process and here’s the video:

Please get in touch with me at helen@threadsofafairytale.com if you’d like your version of this handmade bohemian fairytale wedding dress. Take a look at the listing on my Etsy shop, ThreadsOfAFairytale for more information about this particular dress, and I’ll update this post tomorrow with a link to the listing for the made-to-order version!

And before I go; a quick apology for not updating here much recently – I’ve been very busy over on my YouTube channel with editing, posting and filming a video every day for Vlogmas! Two weeks exactly till Christmas!

Exciting news – children’s clothes are back for sale online + their shop has a new name!

Halloween pumpkin fairy costume

Hello everyone – I hope you’re having a lovely day! As you may know if you’ve been following me for a while, I’ve been phasing out my old Oshun Etsy shops and continuing with just the one, now called Threads Of A Fairytale. Although my handmade children’s clothes and fairy costumes sell well at festivals, they don’t seem to sell well online, so I decided to let that shop die out. (I may eventually have them available on facebook, but as you can imagine, the task of uploading photos and details of nearly fifty items is quite a daunting one!) Anyway, Etsy have just offered me some free listings, so with nothing to lose, I decided to re-list everything that was already sitting in my ‘expired listings’ folder. If you don’t sell on Etsy, you probably won’t know this, but a listing expires after three months and then the seller has to pay again to re-list it. So for that reason, after three months it is likely the children’s clothes will all disappear again. (I don’t want to say they will definitely disappear just in case a celebrity buys one for their daughter or something and all of a sudden they become really popular!) So now is your chance to buy a handmade child’s dress from me for a limited time only. By the way, the fairy dresses make lovely Christmas presents!

Oh I nearly forgot to tell you the new name! It’s Children Of A Fairytale. I love the name so much, I’m half tempted to start making children’s clothes again!

I will be sending out a discount code for the Children Of A Fairytale Etsy shop with my next newsletter which I will send out in a couple of days. If you’d like to receive that, please sign up with the link in the black box below!

How I made the woodland fairy wedding dress

 

Green woodland fairy wedding dress
Green woodland wedding dress

Hello! This is just a quick news update to tell you about my latest post I’ve written over on my blog, When I Grow Up. Hopefully it will be a little less controversial than the Oshun one! It’s simply a post about how I made the dress as several people I met at the New Forest Fairy Festival asked me how I make my fairy dresses. Hopefully it will be helpful if you’re thinking about making your own if you have a special event to go to; or interesting if you’re thinking about purchasing the woodland dress from the Threads of a Fairytale Etsy shop.

I can’t wait to get sewing again! Unfortunately I’ve been busy stuck in a vortex of housework and admin since getting back from holiday!

A bit of a hoo-ha over cultural appropriation in fashion

Hello! I’m back from holiday and had a wonderful time exploring the Acropolis and other ancient remains and ruins around Greece and Albania and have come home full of inspiration. Three new goddess dresses influenced in design by ancient Greek attire will be appearing in the Threads of a Fairytale shop very soon – one in pink, one gold, and one in a mottled green and grey – all pure silk chiffon. I will continue to be inspired by religions and cultures from all around the world; ancient and modern, because that’s the way art grows, develops and nourishes one’s soul and interest. The term “cultural appropriation” seems to be more in fashion than fashion itself at the moment, and there’s a bit of a hoo-ha going on over at my personal blog in the comments of a post I wrote in May last year, entitled OSHUN – THE STORY OF MY CLOTHING BRAND, AND THE YELLOW DRESS INSPIRED BY BEYONCE’S IN LEMONADE.

If you’re a regular visitor to this page, you’ll know that I changed my clothing business name from Oshun to Threads of a Fairytale a couple of months ago and explained my reasons here. And no, the change had nothing to do with cultural appropriation because I’m sorry, I simply don’t agree that it’s a problem here. I’m currently working on quite a long blog post to reply to all the comments and to give my point of view to the subject in detail because I don’t want it to be misconstrued.  (edit: my blog post entitled Cultural Appropriation in Fashion. Does it really matter? has now been finished). We have been influenced by our neighbours of all colours and heritage since time began and I think that’s a wonderful thing. Segregating oneself and not allowing this to happen comes from a place of ego, not from a place of good.

Anyway, I just thought I’d make a little statement here so that those of you who aren’t happy with me at the moment know I’m not ignoring you, I’m just taking a couple of days to word my response carefully for my blog, When I Grow Up, and debate can continue over there. This here is my Threads of a Fairytale page about my business of fashion in all its frivolity and I will not be approving any negative comments here.

Ase Ire; Namaste; Peace; Have a good day! x

Time for a little break!

Hello everyone! I’m absolutely exhausted after the wonderful New Forest Fairy Festival last week, and now I’m taking a break for a few days so the shop will be closed. I’ll catch up with any queries and re-open on the 1st September with renewed energy for making lots of new dresses!

In the mean time, if you’d like to take a behind-the-scenes look at having a stall at the New Forest Fairy Festival, here’s a little video I made of the weekend:

The New Forest Fairy Festival 2017

It’s this weekend already – I can’t believe it! So I’m a very busy bee here at Threads of a Fairytale HQ getting ready for my stall at the New Forest Fairy Festival. Please come and find me if you’re going; it would be lovely to say hello! I have moved from my previous spot where you might have seen me the last couple of years. This time I’m behind and to the left of the new Elemental Dance area. This is quite exciting – hopefully I’ll be able to stand in front of my stall and join in the dance workshops!

Look out for my new banner that I finished making this morning – don’t forget it now says Threads of a Fairytale (not Oshun!) and I’ve just made a few new goddess dresses. You also won’t have seen my velvet cloaks before, and also the first batch of pastel goth voodoo fairy outfits will be coming with me!

New Forest Fairy Festival

Also; a little heads up: Last year I sold almost as much during that one weekend as the rest of the year put together; so if you have your eye on something in the Threads of a Fairytale shop, then now might be a good time to purchase it before all my stock comes with me on Friday! I’ve got my fingers crossed that the weather will be kind and the visitors many. If it does get too busy to keep updating from my phone, I may have to temporarily close the shop, but don’t worry, it will back open on Monday!

Changes are afoot! Oshun shops are disappearing.

 

Mermaid wedding dressThere are a few changes happening! You might have noticed that now all old Oshun shops have been removed from the ‘Shop’ section and there’s only my new ‘Threads of a Fairytale’ shop there now. I’ve been a busy bee and have utilised these horrible rainy windy days by dealing with the admin and swapping over all the items from the old shops and into this main one.

So this means that there are a couple of new sections that can be used to search for specific styles in the Etsy shop. For example, ‘Occasion Wear’ will now have most of the Oshun Occasions clothes. ‘Fairytale and Cosplay’ will have most of the Oshun Costumes clothes, and I’m working on the ‘Custom and made-to-order’ section as I have more examples to show.

If you happen to do an Etsy shop search for OshunCostumes, then my shop will still turn up for the time being because there’s a handful of clothes that don’t quite fit into where I’d like Threads of a Fairytale to be heading. These have been reduced in price, so head over there for some costume bargains!

The closing of Oshun Kids means that those handmade items are currently not online for sale at the moment. I intend to make these available on Threads of a Fairytale’s Facebook page, but won’t have time to do this until after the New Forest Fairy Festival in a couple of weeks (where several often sell anyway!) and possibly not until the end of summer.
The vintage new stock of clothes is all still on Just A Bit Different, but I intend to close this down soon too and sell off all the stock in one go. So let me know if you need alternative clothing stock to open a shop or market stall!

Phew! I think that’s it for now!

Glastonbury Festival interruptions – delayed posting possible

Hello! It’s that time of year again and Glastonbury Festival is almost upon us. If you have any orders you’ve been meaning to place, please do so today or tomorrow morning so I can get your items in the post before the festival kicks off. After that, you might need to wait until Tuesday 27th June when the local post office re-opens. Thank you for your patience 🙂

 

Massive news: Oshun is changing name! Welcome to Threads of a Fairytale

Gold Oshun chiffon dressFrom now on we’re called ‘Threads of a Fairytale’. I just thought I would make my life a little more complicated than necessary and decide to change the name of my clothing business, which has been called Oshun for so many years, I can’t even remember since when! I think I began late nineties / early noughties, so this is going to take a while to get used to!

Please bare with me for a little while as it’s obviously going to take a bit of time to change everything. At the moment I’m having to appeal the change of name of the Facebook page, so that’s why that is still saying Oshun. However the transition on Etsy was Snow white cosplay costumefortunately much simpler and my original Oshun Creations shop on there is now called Threads of a Fairytale. I hope it’s not all too confusing! Also, of course, you may be wondering why the title here is still saying Oshun – well my programmer tells me that it’s not as simple as just changing the wording of the title; it’s made up as a whole picture. Therefore, if we’re making a new picture for the title, now is the time to figure out logos and branding and all that sort of thing. This isn’t something I want to rush, so look out for gradual changes. It is of course, lots of fun doing this bit!

One of the changes I’m looking forward to the most is dropping all the other Oshun Etsy shops (along with Oshun Creations, there’s currently also Oshun Occasions, Oshun Costumes and Oshun Kids.) I think I’ve mentioned before how I’d planned on closing Oshun Kids anyway. All the handmade children’s clothes will eventually be listed on the Facebook page. The vintage items from Oshun Costumes are on my depop shop, (soon to be sold off as a job lot) and the handmade items moved to the new Threads of a Fairytale (formerly Oshun Creations). Also, all the clothing and accessories on Oshun Occasions will move to the same shop on Etsy as well, under the category of Occasion wear. It will make it a lot easier for me to keep on top of updates and news; and a lot easier for you to see everything I make. I’ve honed my style of clothing over recent years and I think the shops will blend nicely together now.

Beyonce at Grammys as OshunSo, the reason why I’m changing the name? Well, there is one big thing that has bothered me right from the start of the existence of our Oshun business, and that is, very few people know how to pronounce it! It’s simple matter, but a very annoying one! (So if you are thinking about naming a business, keep that in mind!) Even we pronounced it wrong for many years, saying it like ‘Ocean.’ You Tube didn’t exist back then, so there was no way of hearing other people say it. It is in fact, pronounced Oshoon, if you were wondering! However since Beyonce played homage to the goddess Oshun in her Hold Up, Lemonade music video, and then again at the 2017 Grammy Award show performance, the name is better known. The flip side is, it has suddenly become massively popular and whereas we were originally the only ones with a shop in the world called Oshun, in the last few months, suddenly shops called Oshun this and Oshun that have popped up all over the place. I recently had to deal with someone who was blatantly copying the name along with materials and style of clothing, and although most of the other new Oshun shops are selling beauty products or jewellery, I can see how there might be confusion with us. I’ve talked more about this on my latest weekly vlog on You Tube.

So I thought, if ever was the right time to change the name of our clothing business, now is the time to do it. I’ve recently made a new collection of velvet cloaks which are about to be listed; a fairytale wedding dress; and have started a collection of raggedy pastel goth Cinderella-type dresses. I’ve got so many ideas in my head for fairytale clothes I want to make this year and I’m very excited to take my business forward with its new name, Threads of a Fairytale.

Fairytale velvet cloaks perfect for weddings, handfasting or cosplay

My husband and I finished all the photoshoots for the luxury velvet cloaks I’ve recently finished making as we have just had a lovely working weekend away in Cornwall. These cloaks are made with such beautiful soft cotton velvet, I just kept wanting to stroke them! If you are planning a wedding or handfasting and are looking for that extra layer to keep you warm then these fairytale cloaks are perfect for the occasion. Also, if you enjoy a bit of fancy dress (and who doesn’t?), they are also ideal for a number of costumes such as historical medieval LARP or re-enactment; Pagan festivals; Renaissance Faires; The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings cosplay or Game of Thrones outfits. I’ve sewn a variety of colours so I probably have the right one to go with your dress or costume.

The new Poldark series is back on telly very soon, and what better way to celebrate than wrapping up in your own Demelza-style cloak! In fact, we actually took some of the photos at one of the ruined tin mines which was used as a filming location for Poldark.

wedding velvet cloak

I still have a few to list, but please take a look at the OshunOccasions shop on Etsy to see all their details. So far the cloaks I have listed chocolate brown; midnight blue; pale dusky blue and this soft green cloak, but still to come are peachy pink and black.

Also, if you would like to see how I made the cloaks by using reclaimed vintage cotton velvet, please take a look at my latest YouTube video: (At the end I show how my handmade cloaks are different from the ones you might find in some shops – the size is adjustable; the material is heavy and warm and the seams are properly hidden.) Enjoy!