Romantic Dress Progress: The Violent Violet

     I found the perfect purple shot silk taffeta for my 1820's/30's dress for 50% off! And my grandma gave me this awesome plaid silk that my mother originally got for her while she was in Thailand. The bright silks called for bright piping, so I decided on a hot pink cotton piping.
    The bodice is coming along quite nicely. The bodice pattern was originally Truly Victorian's Romantic Era Dress, but is heavily altered. I moved the darts, took in the shoulders, and carved out the arm scyes and neckline. I created a fan-front that I tacked on, which covered the darts, and made a waistband out of the plaid and pink piping.

Bad mirror selfie.

     But those pleats weren't orderly enough for me. So, I pinned them all down and ironed them. 

     Then came the sleeves. I used the pattern from PoF, by Janet Arnold. The 1827-29 wedding dress. In case I didn't mention before, I am obsessed with this sleeve style.

The pattern. 

      I cut out two sets of these in my purple silk and a cotton organdy for a lining. The organdy makes the sleeves stand out properly in the iconic 1820's/30's style. I gathered up the puffs and hand-sewed them to the bodice with piping around the arm scye.

It's not a proper Romantic Era sleeve if  you can't fit
at least one head inside of it.

Kitchen photos!
The left sleeve isn't gathered yet, fyi.

You can see where boning needs to be added in the back.
And look at those matching laces!

And onward!