Regency or Napolenic / Jane Austen era daydress project - part 5 : On sewing

Despite my efforst to truly document of making this dress, fightig the pattern took soo much time, that I really needed pull myself together, so I would be ready with the sewing n time, that I didn't really took photos. But rest easy, this is not the last historic dress I made... not even the last regency one.

True that 100 % HA dresses from the 1850'is were made by hand... In reenactment, costuming communities everyone can decide just how deeply will immerse him / herself. I am sure there will be peieces on which I will sew each and every stitch by hand... But the day have not arrived just yet. Partly I sew the inner (mainly lengthwise) seams by hand, but also becase I do not yet feel that a hanhandsewn seam can be as stable as the machine one. 

Thirdly, because there are indeed original pieces, that have handsewn seams so straight and even, that no one would tell they are not machine sewn. 

No, I have nothing against handsewing, in fact I use it a lot. In my historic clothes, almost every seam is handstitched down, every linening is handsewn, in my historic dresses (with a very few exception) no machine seam can be seen, not only from the outside, but from the insides as well.  

The regency clothes I made earlier had their bodices drawn in, they are from two layers, the upper stayed bigger than the lower, and strategically pulling them they are fitted on each other. Simple.
However the description of the dress I used as an inspiration said that it has pleats on the breast and at the skirt as well. About a dozen of tiny pleats on each side, so they are symmetric as ell. Took me half a day, and several seam ripping. . 

Arranging the plrats of the skirt (not a dozen, but a few times a dozen), though bigger than the bodice's pleats... almost a kid's play, but still took time.

The serious question was whether to use th blue or the red ribbon, but my friends woted for the red (and the orignal piece had a red one too)

The dress was finished just in time (you could already see it in my previous post, but I will bring pictures from the event I wore it the first time.