Dickens Fair Sewing - My Dress

I've finished other items that need photos, but here are a few progress shots of the 1850 dress I'm currently working on. Hopefully I will finish it by next weekend.
Please excuse the poor photo quality and messy sewing area, it's been stitching mayhem for the last month and a half.

The fabric is a pale lavender/black shot taffeta. Not the greatest quality (it's a silk blend of some kind) but it's what I had plenty of in a pinch, and it has a nice body to it. I did flat line the skirt with a fine cotton.
Unlike the photos, it looks like a pretty rose grey in person.
I'll not be wearing a hoop with this, since hoops weren't generally worn until after about 1855. I'll be relying on crinoline petticoats for fullness, as ladies would have done during the first half of the 1850s. Corded petticoats were also worn, but I don't have time to make one :-}
If the neckline of the bodice seems too open for daytime, it's going to get a detachable collar, in a kind of fichu style. Something like the one in the image below (pink, top center):



Here is the bodice with the sleeves finally on. I decided to do a bell sleeve. The shoulder seam will get some hand pleated trim...


Here's a (horrible) shot with the skirt nearly complete, the bodice edge will also get piping, and the shoulder trim will get a little more treatment into what is fast becoming a signature trimming style of mine...