Well... that went better in making up than I expected.

I started by using my handy-dandy flexible curve (one of those fun engineer's doohicky I picked up in college), and put it up against my dress form along it's left side. I marked center front and center back, and held it close so I could get the shape of the corseted body. I then carefully put the curve onto my paper, and drew along the inner side

Then I remembered what Robin Netherton said at her workshop, about how curves never do what you want them to, they always get bigger than expected. She proved that rather handily. I also looked at the TT book, and realized that their pic of the lady wearing their French farthingale was a little loose looking at the sides, tho it is hard to say for sure.

WELL... you know me, I take various chances, hoping to learn something new, even in mistakes (it was how I got over a lot of my fears in my early sewing years that stopped me from sewing at all). So I figured, why make this fit the final me, when if I make it a tighter curve it might open up and fit me, maybe snuggly, but it should fit me anyway, as long as the length of the curve is the same.

So, I tightened the curve. It changed the shape, but I had plenty of paper, so I marked out the new waistline, and then pretty much followed the book in making the placements of the outer edges, and then the boning seam lines. Basically, 10" at the side, 7" in front, and 8" in back, marked from the waistline edge. The boning seam lines roughly follow the book pattern, using the flexible curve to help mark them.

Yeah, that was the easy part. The harder part will be trusting this pattern (which means trusting myself), and cutting into the pretty silk and cotton canvas (what I have in stash), and making this puppy up! I think I have enough fabric, that if placed right, I could make two of them *if* this first one doesn't work out.

My canvas is washed, and will be plopped into the dryer before bed. My silk is washed and wrinkly, so both fabrics need ironing. My reeds are ready to be marked, cut and soaked (but I need to clear the bathtub so they can soak). I need to pull out the remnant blue velvet for the edge guard. I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow.