Canaples progress- Kirtle Questions

It's been a busy week but I've got a bit of progress to report on the Madame Canaples dress.
First of all: Embroidery!

I did a line of overlapping scallops, inverted and drawn out so that the longer legs made a little diamond when they touched. To get the perfect half circle, I traced around a shotglass that has a picture on it. From one side of the picture to the other was exactly the right shape for the space. I used 3 strands of DMC black cotton embroidery floss and I worked it in backstitch without a hoop because it was faster. I really like how the pattern came out, it was easy to visualize and break down into working steps. I haven't added the leafy bits yet because I'm still debating how much of them I want to do.

In the picture it looks like three small projections from the top and bottom of each half circle. Is that center bit a triangle shape? Are those vines? The extra bits don't look like blackwork to me exactly, but I don't know if satin stitch was mixed with blackwork in 1525. I would err on the side of 'no', so it's going to be more time with a magnifying lens to figure those bits out. Also, I'm about to start couching the gold cord I have around the top edge of the smock today. I have a plastic gold filament thread to tack it down and I'll probably use a very tiny whip stitch to get it in place.

Secondly: Pattern drafting!
I have a friend, Simona della Luna, who has attended several of Matthew Gagny's bara workshops and she has walked me through the process a few times. I'm still not 100% sure I took down the information correctly because I feel like I get a different shape off the body block every time I do this. However! I do recommend it for getting a basic flat pattern that you can fiddle with very easily. I ALWAYS remeasure if it's been more than 3 months since I last built something. Don't know about you, but my body can move a lot of weight around in 3 months and with something close-fitting like a bodice, it's going to matter. That's why I put the date on all my pattern pieces every time as well as "front', 'back', 'left arm' or whatever. You THINK you'll remember, but I never do.
So, I grabbed an old mostly cotton sheet and cut out the first of a few drafts. It used to be that I would cut my pattern out of the lining right from the start, but I want to make SURE this one fits better before I take up the scissors against my linen. These are my striped baby steps from the front and from the back.

Thoughts so far:
For a draft that supposedly had no seam allowance, that's really big. It does fit over the smock, so yay. But...really big.
I need to make some temporary tack-in lacing strips so I can test how it will look when it's held on with lacing instead of pins. That's not a huge deal yet ( 1st draft!) but they'l come in handy shortly.
Dang, those are some slender sexy straps on that gorgeously wide neckline! I hope that high back will keep everything on the shoulders properly.

Last time I posted I had some questions about the kirtle opening. I asked my questions (poorly) in a wonderful Facebook group, The Elizabethan Costumers, and got some GREAT feedback. Those gentlebeings really know their stuff. What it boiled down to is there might be 3 layers ( smock, kirtle, gown) or there might be four layers ( smock, stomacher, kirtle, gown). There's a bunch of different ways to describe what we're looking at but until we find a picture of Madame with her top layer off we not going to know for sure. Because I'm trying several new-to-me techniques for this particular outfit, I'm going to go against the portrait slightly.
I'm going to make this kirtle with a fairly low neckline, bringing it down below the neck of the gown, but keep the lacing at the sideback( suggested by Kimiko Small, all praise her brain!). That will allow me to padstitch the front of the kirtle heavily because the support I'm going to need is no small thing. My upper deck requires extra mooring so I'm also going to make sure to lightly pad and bone the front of the gown as well. Simona is trying to talk me into using bonding straw/ canes for that top layer and the more I think about it the more I like the idea. *plot, plot, plot*
One of the biggest things I have to keep reminding myself about is that there is NO TIME LIMIT on this dress. It's not a sprint, no one is waiting on it. I can take my time and work out all the details so I'll be actually happy with it when I'm done. Settle down ADD brain, we've got plenty of tiny details to obsess over!

Which is why I'm in the middle of making a hat too. It just had to happen, no I don't think I can wear it with this dress because it's super Castilian. I'm doing it anyway because it makes me happy. I borrowed the idea from Stanzi in Lochac. She did one after staring at this picture for awhile and I agree with her.

I've been looking for hats with better sunblocking power since I got my first round of skin cancer. I think might do nicely.
ScatterBrain, AWAY!