Linen Ruffled Partlet

 I went rogue last week while I was supposed to be working on a camicia for a friend, who needs an entire Venetian 1570's ensemble for Halloween this year.  That's barely a month away, so I really shouldn't have.  But I got bored of flat felling seams, and instead decided I needed another partlet, so I made one!  I did everything by hand, and it took about 9 hours total, so that's not really that much time wasted, right?  And it's a very cute partlet!

It's really more of a practice run in sheer linen for a partlet I'm planning to make in silk when I have time to actually take my time and do things carefully, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  And it looked great with my new black dress at an event over the weekend, so that was nice.  What I wanted was something along the lines of the partlets in a lot of northern Italian art from the 1550's and 60's that are very simply constructed out of linen or silk, and have a low ruffled collar, rather than a large ruff attached.  

This Portrait of a Lady and her Daughter, by Titian from around 1550 is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind for a fancy silk partlet, and I figured I should probably try it in linen first.  Besides, one can never really have too many partlets, can one?  It's hard to tell due to the painting being unfinished, but the partlet looks like it's about the same weight fabric as the camicia, so it may be linen, but you see partlets like it, with the small ruffle but not really much other decoration frequently in all sorts of sheer materials across northern and central Italy and throughout the period.  I really love everything about this portrait; this is one of several images that led me to settle on mid 16th century Venice for the majority of my historical wardrobe in the first place, and this gown was also a major source of inspiration for my blue dress, so I'm really excited to have the partlet to match!  I just bought a few yards of gold silk taffeta on sale, too, so I could have the whole ensemble...  But that's a project for another day, when I have more time!

This partlet came together really quickly!  I started with the partlet pattern I used for my Venetian falling ruff, and adjusted slightly to make the shoulders just a little wider.  My ruff tends to come un-tucked from my shoulder straps, which isn't really ideal, but adding another couple of inches to the shoulders fixed the problem.  First, I cut out my 2 front pieces, one back piece, and and a couple of long, skinny strips of linen to make the ruffle.  I decided to omit the collar for this partlet, since several of the portraits that inspired this piece don't appear to have any collar apart from the ruffle.  

First I sewed up and then flat felled the shoulder seams, just like I had on my ruff.  I then tried the partlet on to determine how much of a neck hole I should cut out, since I was lazy and didn't draft that into the pattern.  I cut out a 3/4 circle at the shoulders and top back, tried it on again to make sure it fit, and then hemmed all the edges with a little rolled hem.  Yay, functional partlet!  

Attaching the ruffle

Stitching it to the partlet

Then I went on to the ruffle.  I stitched the strips of linen I had cut together with tiny flat felled seams to make a single piece about 2 inches wide by 38 inches long.  I then made a tiny rolled hem all the may around.  Next, I made 1/2 inch gathering stitches on one side, and gathered and stitched the ruffle to the partlet.  I tried it on and found that the ruffle was a little floppier than I wanted, so I tacked it to the partlet all the way around.  Finally, I sewed some ribbon ties on under the arms and a hook and eye at the front.  Partlet complete!  And it didn't even take a full day to do by hand!  And I got to wear it for a party, so both it and the dress have made their public debut!  Much excitement!

We didn't take a lot of pictures 
at our event, so this is just about 
the only one of me in this partlet.