I've uploaded last weekend's photos from the 18th Century Time Travel at Schloss Fasanerie near Fulda:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefanie_nehelenia/sets/72157621896046829/

We love our new 18th C. embroidery kits so much, we have dedicated a whole new department to them! Every kit contains all that is needed to make your own embroidered 18th C. status symbol. Check out the brillant Stomacher Set "Carnation" and the lovely "Portsmouth" pockets and get your hands on them while they last. Stocks are low already!

A treasure for the Gentleman is our new Watch Fob which comes in gold and silver color to match your pocket watch! In the "Personal Accessories" department.

Reenactment of the battle of Minden in 1759, huge 3 day event in August 2009 with military camp, civilian area, marketplace, ball, tavern and more. Participants from across Europe are already confirmed. Don't miss out on this event created with an eye for detail and devoted to authenticity! They're still recruituing traders, groups, etc. and especially french reenactors are very much welcome (the french fought in this battle, too).

For more information check out: http://www.minden1759.de/ and http://www.schlacht-bei-minden.com/

There's some information on Facebook, too.

Info available in french, english and german.

Please share this with your friends!

We have been twice to this event and loved it! There'll be a lot of fun things to do for civilians (low class, high class no matter what) as well, including a ball on Saturday evening. And the market is wonderful (of course, we'll set up our booth there as well)! I'd love to meet you there.

I finally got around to taking pictures of the 18th century stays I have been working on since August. I'm definately not patient enough for this kind of work, still stitching the eyelets. Hope to have them completed by next year ;-)!

The pattern I used is the one designed by Christina: NP13 Half Boned Diderot Stays which is available from Nehelenia (also as complete sewing kit, but only from our german website. Please ask if you're interested!). The base is Coutil, in which I inserted steel boning tape. Covered with a heavy woven stripe cotton fabric by Westfalenstoffe (a local company supplying fabrics based on historic designs, highly recommended!).

Preparations for the sewing classes we're going to hold in cooperation with the Preussen-Museum in Minden in 2009 are reaching their final stage. From now on two 18th C. outfits from Nehelenias' workshops are on display at the Museum. These are the costumes (but of course not the completed display):


Classes will be held during February and May 2009 in Minden in preparation for the "Minden 250-year commemoration" festivities in August. There will be a workshop on 18th C. staymaking and two workshops on sewing women's and men's civilian outfits. Additional information will be available (sorry, only in german. Please contact me, if you need information in english) on our website within a few days.

When I was researching pictures for a doll pattern we recently added to our mailorder's range, I came across the wonderful fashion dolls by artist Susan Parris. Mrs. Parris miniatures are truly stunning pieces of art. Every doll is handcrafted, the costumes meticulously researched and finished. From head to toes these models are perfect little ladies and gentlemen from baroque to victorian times. Inspiration for costumes is drawn from paintings, period originals but also from famous textile collections like the Kyoto Costume Institute.

I strongly recommend a visit to the artist's website to every costumer. But caution: this may be addictive!

With permissons, I'm giving a few examples of Mrs. Parris work, which is best described with one simple word: adorable!

You're viewing:

Lady wearing a Redingote of the 1780s

My historical novel is going to be published in 2009! If you're interested in the 18th century, if you love the idea of sex &. crime in 18th c. London and are capable of reading german (sorry, currently there's no english version, but I'm working on that) just pop by at my Portfolio's page or visit my Hades-Weblog.

More news: there's also a german blog for Nehelenia Patterns now. I'd be more than happy if you'd check it out if you can read german.

Stefanie

Last weekend we attended the Boheme Sauvage Party in Berlin's Wintergarten Varieté. We had a blast - dancing til 4 in morning (well, actually it was already 5 when we got home to our room in beautiful Ellington Hotel - a 1920s building with a marvellous modern interiour - because of the daylight-savings time). Champagne and Charleston and Berlin's roaring nightlife! As promised I'm going to share some photos of the event.

Must be Halloween or what?

Okay guys, I ruined it! I blew it up! Lots and lots of website pix  deleted, just by trying to insert a small favicon! I'm in an uproar! Feel like hunting up that guy who programmed that piece of crap I use to build the webpage with! What a lovely start for a weekend... Do I need to mention that the favicon thing is NOT working?

Not that I intended to do something else today than restoring the site ...

I'll get my machine started and thunder right into hell! I'll track you down demonic image bastards!

Still trying to figure out how this livejournal thing is working. Well, I've survived Facebook, so this should be fine ...

Currently doing lots of update work on Nehelenias Homepage. We've got plenty new patterns to be added, mostly 18th century and early 1800s and most of them are already up on our german page. I have no idea when I come around to adding them to the english mirror site. As usual, when I'm adding new stuff, I picture myself wearing all those neat new outfits, but oh ... well.  Having a business, writing a book and holding lectures at the university reduces my time to sew to a couple of minutes in the evening.

But at least I almost finished my version of our 1925 Evening Cape (NP209) which I'm going to wear in Berlin on the 25th. Olaf and me will be visiting the Boheme Sauvage party which is going to take place at the lovely Wintergarten Varietè. And completing this thing means declaring war on velevet! The house is choke full of cotton fluff! At least it seems worth the fight since the garment turns out nice and I'm looking forward to wearing it with my little black evening frock.
It's such a pitty that Christina cannot join in this time, but we'll raise our Aperol Sprizz glasses in memory and fly the Nehelenia flag high above our brand new outfits!