Pet en l'air - Part one - Adventures in pattern draping

I've finally pulled myself together and started to work on my pet en l'air.
Today I made my first try ever at pattern draping. I'm used to do flat drafting but it is so darn hard with 18th century garments. So I decidedt o give it a go and damn it was fun and quick!

Please allow me to introduce to you my dress dummy, monsieur Valmont. He is a strange thing, it is like something between a man and a woman in body shape. But he has my measurements (although he has the most of his body mass in his back muscles and I have mine in my boobs). I'm going to make him a companion that are my exact body double but until I actually get around doing it, Valmont will have to stand being a cross dresser.

Anyway I put my stays on Valmont and tighten them to the measurements I know is comfortable for me. Then I pinned some muslin to the stays and started pinning, smoothing and pinning and drawing. Here are the result:

Front:


And back:


I made a slanted line at CB so I can make a lacing there. The first 4-5 cm will be stitched close and the rest will be open. I think I will put some synthetic whale bone around the opening to strengthen it a bit.

Tomorrow night I aim at taking the pieces of Valmont and clean up all lines and to make a full bodice mock up. If the bodice fits I can start on the sleeves.

/L