The Reform Dress Princess Gown... finished!

The back was a difficult part to get done. It did not want to lay flat. Took some creative pinning and sewing (and a necessity of overlooking one seam's appearance.) The final back below, sort of:

After that was hemming (I went with cutting it just over the feet, instead of letting it drag -- dragging was more fashionable, but the Rational Dress ladies disapproved.) Some hand stitching was needed for the neck and to secure the garment to the lining.

I was honestly a bit disappointed with the finished dress. It was not as pretty as I'd hoped, though this is one of the more flattering photos:

Kind of reminds me of the "ugly dress" from Sound of Music. The just-higher-than-empire waist makes my boobs nonexistant -- and even the Victorians didn't like that look as much as they get credit for. (bust padding was available commercially, then as now.) Also, the thicker fabric in the skirt area bulks up the waist a lot -- had to really trim the internal seams to avoid a "dress that makes me look fat." It, however, looks a little better if one wears a nice necklace with it.

I think the real problem is it needs a collar, and if I hadn't cut the neck so low before making this discovery, I'd have probably sewn one in. Reform dress specifically disapproved of high collars as being uncomfortable and unhealthy (perhaps with good reason -- there's evidence suggesting women died being strangled by the things.)

Oh -- one other change I made was to sew the cuffs in a contrasting fabric to the sleeve. This evolved, actually, because I figured the black and white stripes would get dirty too easily at the cuff, so I just used more of the skirt material.

All in all this was not an easy dress to make, and I don't think I recommend this pattern for anyone who is unaccustomed to making gowns from improvised patterns, or who doesn't have means to do a lot of on-the-body fittings while it's being assembled. But I do think a good 80% of the work on it was just figuring out what the pattern actually was. I suppose if I wanted to make another -- maybe with a collar -- now that I have a pattern it would be much easier. And maybe I'd lower the "waist" of it as well.