Crowdsourcing is cool

Its truly amazing what can happen when you put questions out there.  The picture up top is "Pegasus and the Muses" by Girolamo Romanino, painted in the 1540's.  Do you see all the lovely pointy partlets and puffy paned sleeves?  From the front and back?  Whoo-hoo!  I have huge thank yous to dole out for finding this for me.

Ashley was kind enough to point out the pictures of an extant dress with a skirt pleated to the outside of the bodice that Anea has on her site.  I sent Anea an email thanking her for having the pictures up, and she was kind enough to help me even more and tell me about the regional style in Brescia for this type of pointed partlet.  She linked me to several other paintings in her files with the same type of dress and partlet.  I am very, very grateful for her time and expertise.  Since Italian is not my area of research, I haven't put the time and effort into really investigating sources and knowing what is out there.  I am so floored by the generosity of people who have been willing to help me as I bumble along with this project.

Speaking of crowdsourcing, my embroidery hero, Kim Salazar (author of The New Carolingian Modelbook and superdooper generous designer and researcher of blackwork patterns) is attempting an interesting project.  She is using the frame from a recent design and attempting to have a design constructed by the group.  If you're interested in helping out, you design a bit of blackwork to fit into the frame and send it off for inclusion.  Check it out.  She's also got a new FREE book of over 200 blackwork fillings available for download, not to mention some silly designs (who could resist the Flying Spaghetti Monster, skulls, and octopodes in blackwork?) available in her recent posts.  Her research, stitching, and design skills are amazing and I so want to be her when I grow up (assuming that ever happens.)

In parting, there's one more cool thing about crowdsourcing.  It let me have a rather interesting conversation with my computer geek husband who's job has involved writing software that works with and supports crowdsourcing for language translation.  Not to mention the fact that he got to use the word portmanteau in a sentence.

Still pleating the skirt

Hand pleating 250 inches of velvet takes a while.  I finished the edges of the side back openings and I'm pretty pleased with my finish work for once.  The stitches are nice and small and mostly invisible.  I decided against the separate waistband under the bodice after staring at the portrait some more.  It appears that the skirt is attached to the outside of the bodice,  There is definitely some volume between the bodice and the skirt.  The tip of the partlet rests in the sort of valley formed by the ridge of the skirt.  Have a look and see if you see the same thing I'm seeing.

I've turned over the top of the skirt as you would in cartridge pleating, but I'm currently doing knife pleats that I'm basting into place.  We'll see how it works or if I'll be ripping them out and trying something else.  I THINK it looks right so far.

Chug a chug a choo choo

Maybe just a little train?  I watched Jenny La Fleur's video of her pink Florentine gown in action and now I'm wondering if a train wouldn't be rather nifty.  I certainly have plenty of velvet for it.  As my friend Marguerite pointed out when I was obsessing about cutting the bodice, "you've got enough fabric to make a dress, burn it, and make another one."  It'd also make the dress a little more exciting, which is something I've been worried about since its just so darn plain.  A train would also be something unusual for me.  Russian dresses don't even go to the ground.  They are normally just a little short in order to stay out of the mud and had the added bonus of showing off beautifully embroidered boots.

 Going to have to think about it for a day or so.  I've got probably at least two until I have to cut the skirt.  I finished stitching the lining on the front section of the bodice last night.  Today's project is the back section.  Then I need to make the lacing eyelets.  I'm rather excited.  There's a really good chance I'll have a wearable dress by the end of the weekend.  No sleeves, but since I still need to make my husband something to wear to this wedding in two weeks I'm going to leave the sleeves for awhile and shift to working on his doublet.  Trying to get things done quickly but not rush anything on my dress.