Finally finished the last of the pesky (far too large) eyelets on the waistband of the underskirt, so I can officially declare that done. I also had said I'd show my idea for the trim, so here it is. I've been staring at the embroidered net on the German waistless kirtle in Patterns of Fashion as well as the black child's overdress trimmed with gold bobbin lace that looks like a lattice and decided that trimming with lace couldn't be that terrible of an idea. The lace looks a lot like the one used as an insertion in this extant Italian apron. I might actually have enough of it to use it as trim for the underskirt and make an apron as well. Not that I need an apron, but I think the one in Antea is beautiful and it shares an artist with "my" portrait. I'm also considering making her gloves and possibly her hair jewelry, so its sort of serving as a secondary inspiration. The look of the apron over the gold skirt is really interesting and it would be nice to have options down the road to be able to use the various pieces of the dress in different ways to get more wear out of it.I've been playing with pleats, but am nervous they might be too large. I'm lining the gold with a sort of chestnut colored linen and had put a strip of felt in to pad the pleats. I'm not sure they need to be that thick. I'm afraid its going to give me more of a farthingale effect, especially as the skirt of the dress will be heavily pleated as well. I think the ones in the velvet are flat pleats though. At least that's what I'm coming up with from staring at the portrait again. They look flat, right? I've attached a few of the underskirt pleats and then taken them back off the waistband three times now. This wasn't supposed to be this difficult. Grumble, grumble grrrrr. The weight of the velvet will probably crush them to some extent, so maybe they need to be that poofy. Maybe not. I have no idea. I'm going to try ripping the felt out and see if the pleats have enough body without it. Yeah, that's what I'm going to do.
The pleats in the portrait look like knife pleats to me, but if you choose to cartridge pleat them, the weight of velvet WILL pull them down. I've done two very full cartridge pleated velvet skirts and without a bumroll, they do fall flat. They are not, however, padded with felt. They're just two layers of velvet folded over with some interfacing for slight stiffness.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the dress pleats are most definitely NOT cartridge pleats but are some form of flat pleating. Hmm. If 2 layers of velvet fall flat, I may in fact need the felt padding with the cotton jacquard and linen of the underskirt to stand up to the dress. It's going to be one layer of velvet lined with silk, so not as heavy as two layers of velvet, but flat pleats aren't as springy as cartridge pleats and I do want some oomph and fullness to the skirt. I hate trying to figure out what non-visible foundation garments are doing what for a shape.
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