The story of the purple bohemian wedding dress

Finding the location of the photo-shoot for this bohemian wedding dress was one of those classic screech to a halt moments that don’t normally happen in real life. However, we’d just stopped at a nearby beach in Devon, hoping to find something to eat. Alas, we had no luck, so we just stretched our legs in the evening sun and walked along the shore-line for a bit…

A Fairytale photo-shoot

We jumped back in the camper van and drove towards a town hoping to find a pub restaurant on the way. But yes, we spotted this ruined church that was covered in pink and red Valerian growing out all the cracks and flowing over the walls. It looked magical! However, the sun was heading west fast so we had to make a decision quickly: food or photoshoot? (It was the middle of summer, so nearly 9pm by now.) We chose to risk not finding any food (It was Sunday, so the supermarkets were shut already) and take the photos while we had this chance opportunity.

So I quickly changed into the purple and green dress; popped a flower crown on my head, and decided bare feet were the best ways to accessorise a boho wedding dress! The colours of the flowers cascading over the ruins matched the colours of the dress perfectly and the setting couldn’t have been finer.

But I’m skipping way ahead; I haven’t yet told you how I made it!

Making a boho fairytale ball gown

If you saw my last post about making a bohemian tropical print fairy dress, you may remember that I mentioned how the purple and green monstera print crepe fabric ended up inspiring a whole collection of fairytale clothing, well this dress was the next thing I made. It is quite handy to collect a pile of fabrics all in co-ordinating colours and patterns, and just keep making clothes until they all run out! And I didn’t hold back on the colours and patterns either! If I’m going for a purple and green colour scheme for a dress, I may as well go for it!

I began by using a purple zip from a tunic – however it was fairly short so I had to make the back quite low – that was fine – I re-used a couple of ties with cute bells on the end that can tie up at the back to stop the dress falling off your shoulders. I also used the lining from a green tunic, and kept some of the original neckline. This was in an olive green shade with a swirl pattern and had silver sequins embellishing it. I had to sew over these very slowly and carefully to avoid my needle bending or breaking, but I think the touch of sparkle is worth it. It also acted like a disco ball on my sewing machine, so that was fun!

And then I went ahead and layered several pieces of green or purple material until the dress was formed. Purple and green may sound like a garish combination, but I matched up the duller tones and mixed in a few of the brighter jewel tones and I think the overall effect is very pretty. I included the tropical leaf print crepe with the gorgeous drape, along with silk, chiffon and flowy fabrics to give plenty of twirl when dancing! The style and colours give the dress a very bohemian feel and if you’re having a boho wedding, this would make a lovely wedding dress, or perhaps it could be a fairy ball gown.

Handmade bohemian wedding dress for sale

The dress is now listed for sale in the Threads of a Fairytale Etsy shop. By the way, I’m working on updating the Threads of a Fairytale website so that soon you can buy from me there instead if you prefer. And also, By the way, after missing the last food orders cut-off time at two other places, we eventually found a late-opening restaurant in Salcombe! I did of course make a video of our camper van travels that weekend if you’d like to have a watch; and here’s the video of making the tropical print inspired bohemian wedding dress: