Pet en l'air

I finished the pet en l'air yesterday morning. I did most of the cuffs while sitting at the beach after work on Sunday, since I did just about everything with the cuffs by hand. Today, I was working on the stomacher, but I won't be able to finish it until at least Friday, since I can't pick up the boning I need for it until then. I'll also be making engageants out of the leftover embroidered net trim from the Regency gown. I have just enough!

This whole pet en l'air was made out of one curtain panel. And even after making the four bows for the front of the stomacher, I found that I still have just enough of the fabric left for if I want to make a second stomacher with the curtain panel fabric as the background.

But here's a few stomacher-less pictures:

17th c

Yesterday, I patterned and made a mock-up of my new 17th c gown. I'm having a hard time dating my inspiration portrait, but I think it's dating to maybe the 1630s or 40s? I don't like that silhouette as much, so I think my interpretation is more like early 1660s. I'm using the pattern from Janet Arnold, and making a fully boned bodice. I'm hoping to get away with doing the Janet Arnold pattern for the boned part, too, though I know it's supposed to be a different shape. I just don't want to have to deal with the two different patterns potentially fitting differently! In any case, I tried my mockup on over my 1780s stays, so I knew what shape it was trying to be, and the fit was almost perfect. I'm adding about .5" to each side panel because I know it will get a little smaller after I put the bones in (I'm primarily using 1/4" steel). And I think I'm going to cut the front bottom shape in a steeper v, because it's looking oddly wide at the sides. The tabs will also come up a little higher.

Here's a couple pictures. I think all the wrinkling at the waist in front will go away when I have stronger boning in the front (my stays have really conformed to my shape, and curve out below the waist).