Fashions on the Field - part 1

Every year during the Spring Racing Carnival I think that I should have made an outfit and entered Fashions on the Field. But of course, by the time they're promoting Fashions on the Field, and I realise that I should have made something, it is way too late. So last year, during the Mebourne Cup Carnival, I decided that I was going to enter Fashions on the Field at Canberra's biggest race, the Black Opal Stakes.
Last week I had a meeting with my milliner, Viktoria Novak of Viktoria Novak Design, and we started planning my custom designed headpiece to go with my outfit that I will be making. I'm pretty excited, because I've decided to go with a headpiece that is a little extravagant - if you're going to dress up for the races, you may as well go all out!
Today I started working on my dress, well I started on the toile - that is, I'm making the dress in calico first so that i don't end up wasting the silk that I bought. Calico only costs a couple of dollars a meter, so I'm fine with making mistakes. And considering I'm using a very vintage pattern, it is a very good thing that I'm making the toile first.
Here are some photos from todays work:

This is the vintage pattern that I'm working off, my interpretation and what the dress will hopefully look like, a shot of some vintage gloves that I have bought online, and some notes from Viktoria about shoes and embelishments for the dress.

This is a piece of the pattern that I have based my dress on. It is actually so old that there is no printing on it - they have used punched out little holes to write the letters, and to indicate other marks. The instructions are also not especially clear - but unfortunately that happens with current day patterns as well.
Below is a shot of what I have done so far. I'm actually pretty happy with it - it looks a lot better on me than it does on my dress makers form. I made that form out of duct tape a couple of years ago, and it was an exact model of my body. Unfortunately I have since put on some weight - damn being happy and content - and the form is no longer representative of my form!