Black dress all finished

Several months ago I posted about a black silk dress that I was revamping for the folks at the Old Manse. Well it is FINALLY finished!

Here's how it looked before:

wrinkly front

wrinkly back

And now, after!

Front

back

And WOW does it look 1000 times better (if I do say so myself). Besides totally changing the style lines to place it more squarely into the fashions of 1824, the biggest change is that I flatlined the entire dress with muslin. It gives the fabric a WAY better drape for the period and helps it stay smoother (although some of the smoothness is just due to the fabric getting ironed for probably the first time in literal years).
The back of the dress is very voluminous partly because fashion, and partly because it's designed to be super adjustable in size.

drawstrings

two at the waist!

The center back closes with three drawstrings, one in the neck and two in the waist. Then the waistband fastens over them. I don't know of any evidence of such a waistband-over-drawstring system in period, but it detracts little from the overall look of the dress while also allowing a lot of adjustablity. At the moment the silly buckle on the back just slides on to the waistband - it wedges in place pretty well, but for security one might put a pin in on the overlapping waistband section. There are still a few details that need working out.

looking into the sleeve from above

The sleeves are poof above with a straight sleeve below, which is pretty much essential to early 1820s fashion. The sleeve poof stays poofy because of a set of four tapes sewn inside that are shorter than the poof itself. It's an imperfect system because the floof tends to droop down towards the lower sleeve, but it is better than trying to make sleeve supports. Next time I do one of these, I'll put in a fitted sleeve cap under the poof, and maybe stick a little ruffle in between along the shoulder edge to send the floof in the right direction.

The bodice front is shaped with three little pleats under the bust. It looks super wierd on my dress form but I hope it will be better when filled out with a normal soft sort of bust.
The skirt and sleeve hems are turned over and whip stitched to the lining, but the neck edge is finished with a self-fabric band. I just used straight grain and eased it around the curves - mostly because it was easier than finding bias on my fabric scraps, but I am also given to understand that bias cut finishing strips were uncommon until the late 1800s because, being cut on such an angle, they can be really wasteful of fabric.

There's piping in the armhole and back seams, and all round the waistband. The piping is straight grain self-fabric, stuffed with two strands of cotton crochet cord (the same material as the drawstrings, as it happens). Even with the cord doubled, the piping is so teeeny!
Oh yes, and did I mention, the whole thing was sewn by hand? Because that's a thing. The dress is intended to be able to serve as a teaching tool, so it needed to be done "the old fashioned way", and I think I may have gone a tad overboard on the teensiness of my stitches. The structural stitching is all tiny and even; I'm quite proud of it! In non-visible places I also left the gold basting stitches in (from marrying the fashion fabric and the lining), so that can also demonstrate sewing techniques.

After Christmas I may go back and put a row of roleaux trim around the hem, and maybe futz with the sleeves. I also need to write up an informational booklet to include all the historical information.

gosh it just turned out so pretty!! i just really love it.