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.

Waffling about some of the details,but the ruff is done

Trying something new this time. Rather than losing the camera, I've just misplaced the memory card and card reader, so new pictures will have to wait a bit. In the meantime, I realized I never posted this necklace here, although I did include it in an update.  Pearls and gold acorn beads that basically follow the pattern of Montemezzano's Lady with a squirrel. The central pendant is not part of the original, but I wanted to wear my Golden Maple Leaf (Artemisia's AoA level reward) and the jump ring kept separating when I wore it with my other set of pearls, so I decided to integrate it more fully into a necklace.

So, that's the old news. In new news, my big standing ruff is complete, just needs to be set.  This is my first try at doing a ruff according to authentic methods rather than theatrical and I was pleasantly surprised.  I'm in the midst of cartridge pleating the matching shoulder ruffs to complete the suit of ruffs. I finished the accompanying partlet yesterday. It has a bit of a neck ruffle itself and is made from embroidered organza and I attached little plaques/bezants down the front as in this and several other portraits. (Just to insert thanks in here, I've spent hours at Angela Bacci's site, Starlight Masquerade lately.  Her collection of late period inspiration portraits is wonderful. ) The ruffs are also organza, with linen neckbands.

Still far too much left to do, and yet I find myself not managing time well.  I'm having a hard time buckling down into the teeny finishing details, as evidenced by the fact that the cappotto STILL isn't complete.  Ah well, at least I have a wearable dress at this point. Hopefully, I'll finish the shoulder ruffs tomorrow and perhaps stitch the eyelets on the sleeves that are keeping me from declaring the dress done.  Or maybe I'll spend another day looking at hairstyles as I did today, trying to figure out how to adapt Victory Roll tutorials into Venetian horns.