Further progress.

I actually did this on Friday, but didn't want to post it all at once.

Friday I drafted the train for the robe. I just folded my fabric in half and I knew the widest point of the train would be the width of the fabric, so after drawing  a slanted line (the length of which was the length of the back seam on the dress) I then drew another slanted line to make it longer, I later curved the edges to make it prettier.

It came out looking really great.  Below is the train pinned to the back of the robe, as well as the sleeves (also pinned).

Here is the top of the back train sewn in into the back seam. There is a little pleat in there for added effect/ volume management. My flash really lit up the fabric, and so it looks much more shiny then it really is, however it does show the black on black pattern really well.

The sleeves, now sewn in. Probably some of the weirdest sleeves to draft for me to date. I'm sure that will change someday.  They worked out great but came with a small problem:  The black fabric has a tiny bit of stretch to it and the purple taffeta lining does not.  So we noticed that it bagged down at the bottom, which looked awful.

We were able to remove the bagging by pinning small darts/seams. Thankfully there is a seam there already, so it's not going to be a major hassle to fix. It does however, involve me having to unpick the sleeves from the dress to get at the inside to alter it.

And here is the back of the dress in all it's glory.  I'm going to attach a small loop at the end of the train so the model/owner to be can slip it over her wrist for easier movement.

Next steps:  Fix the bagging in the sleeves, sew and attach the collar, bind the front/ put in a zipper and finally hem it.