Partlet and ruffs

Ruffs didn't cooperate as much as I would have hoped, but they still totally finish off the outfit. 

I decided I really loved the metal bezants that were along the edge of many of the late Venetian partlets and I needed some.  I had a bunch of little gold findings that are a 5 lobed flowers made of hearts that I decided fit the bill, and I topped each with a glass pearl.

The partlet itself is just a basic mostly rectangular shape cut off my body block.  I used an embroidered organza that already had a shaped edge and cut the front to use that for the inside edge.  I gathered a simple ruffle into the neck and finished it off with ribbon ties under the arms.

The ruffs are organza as well, which may have been a mistake.  I wanted to do an authentic construction, cartridge pleating the edge into the linen neckband and then setting it with starch later.  I used Noel Geileghem's excellent tutorial  The organza didn't want to cooperate, however, even when I used hair spray rather than starch as was recommended.  I went back in an put a thin line of 32 gauge wire in in order to shape them, but it still doesn't give the look I want.  I'm going to need to play a bit more with the main ruff before Solstice in December when I want to wear these.  A rubatto or suportasse may be needed. I certainly need to practice my settes.  I totally understand why a good laundress was prized in the 16th century.

Fluffy, frilly gathers of doom

The puffy white monstrosity is done.  It took me two days to gather the fabric and only about an hour to actually sew and assemble the thing.  It looks sort of wrong in the picture, but the shape should be just right with the support the dress gives.  I looked and looked at the portrait for some sort of fastening, like the ties on other partlets. but didn't see one.  It didn't seem to have an underarm seam either.  That just doesn't work with the pointed look of this particular shape.  All I can figure is that it is pinned into place.  It sits fine now, but could easily be twisted if it isn't anchored in some way.  I might starch the collar just a little to give me more the look that is in the portrait. 

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.

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.