This dress was based on a dress designed by Worth and it's pictured in the Harper's Bazaar book put out by Dover.  The original is a blue satin with a beaded iris up the skirt and fur trim (see the picture at top).  I don't generally look good in blue, so I made it out of pale green chysanthemum brocade.  Worth had a chrysanthemum fabric in their lineup as well.  I also used a feather trim rather than fur (see the close up down below).  I'd had the feather trim lying around, quite literally, since the early 1980s, and it goes well with the fabric since it's got green feathers in it in addition to the brown feathers.  There is approximately 11 yards of the brocade in the dress, and it's fully lined and interlined using a fusible stabilizer to give the brocade more body.  The brocade had too soft of a hand otherwise and wouldn't have mimicked the silk satins of the period well otherwise.

 

I also used a few period techniques on this gown based on some research I was able to do in July in Washington DC, at an East Coast collection that prefers to remain anonymous.  See below for more information on that.  Briefly, though, the skirt has tapes that run behind the legs and hold the skirt to the rear of you - they run from the side seams to each side, with tacking in the seams of the other panels.  There is also what I call a "half petticoat" of crinoline in the back that is only under the back portion of the dress, again to give body and hold the skirt out properly.  A dust ruffle is attached to the entire bottom of the skirt, attached to a piece that runs about 1 foot wide around the bottom.

 

The feather trim is attached using snap tape so that I can remove it easily for cleaning.  That's a theater technique, not a period one (and thanks to Mela Hoyt-Heydon for that tip).  I copied the bodice ruffles as closely as I could from the drawing in the book, but changed the sleeves which were actually described as two part sleeves (a pouf and a ruffle over that, made of mousseline).  I liked the look of the chrysanthemum fabric pouf sleeve better, although I did make both versions (I used a poly chiffon in place of mousseline, though).

 

This dress wound up very heavy all finished.  It's probably about 25 pounds total.  But it moves very nicely and the skirt stays pretty firmly behind me, even when dancing.  I think that's the result of the construction techniques I used, copied from a vintage skirt.  The combination of the tapes that hold the back panels in place and the crinoline half-petticoat want to hold everything to the back.  The fabric stiffened so much with the stabilizer it practically can stand up by itself.

 

Below is the picture of roughly the same configuration of my own skirt, with its petticoat and ruffle.  You can't see the tapes too clearly in this picture but they are there behind the petticoat.