Tiny bubbles

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Seraphina is the best. While she was fitting my bodice the other day, I was babbling about the partlet and how I wasn't sure how I was going to get the right look. I'd looked at goblet pleats (shape if good, but the fabric lost its sheerness,) smocking pleats (too rigid and geometric of a shape) sculptured box pleats (both problems) and a few other types of treatments and was getting nowhere fast on the partlet problem. She smiled, went to her stash closet and pulled out this sheer linen with gathering threads woven in and handed it to me. PERFECTION!

I was over thinking it. Rows of gathers is going to give me the soft bubbly dimensional appearance of the portrait. The plan is then to couch over the gathering lines and add some sort of decorative stitch as well. That should stabilize the gathers and give me the finished look I want for the partlet.

Big sigh of relief from me. The partlet is such a large part of the visual for the portrait that I knew I had to get it right. Doing pleats was going to be pretty time consuming as well. This should be much faster and easier. Since the gathering threads are already in the fabric I don't have to measure and hope the threads I put in stay and don't break. There is much happy dancing here. A project that was going to take a month of handwork should be done in a week. At least that is the hope. Depends on what I decide to do for the decorative stitching.

I should finally get back to making progress on the project after a weekend of family. I have some lace that is really reminiscent of reticella. The plan is to play with that a bit and see if I can come up with a hankie. I also need to get the wood rasp out and start shaping my chopines. Probably most urgent though is the need to shop a little harder and see if I can find a fabric for my dress.