Time for another EvaDress challenge!

I hit upon EvaDress when I was looking for ideas for the Edwardian Ball I attended 2 years ago. She had this amazing Victorian bat costume that I recreated. She gets vintage patterns and makes reprints for sale, covering 1800s through 1950s. She does an online sewing challenge via a FB group a few times per year. The current challenge is to pick ANY pattern on the site regardless of decade. I had a hard time choosing as there are so many great ones, but I had my eye on this 1869 gown for a while and decided to go with it, even though I think it will be really challenging. Here's the gown:

The original is done is brown wool crepe with black silk taffeta scalloped trim, and there are 110 (!) buttons sewn into all the scallops. I'm still having trouble finding bulk buttons that (a) don't look cheap and (b) aren't crazy expensive since I need so many. I decided to go with this fabric, which is a wool/rayon blend.

I have a ton of black taffeta leftover from the aforementioned bat dress, so will use that for the trim. I am going to do the revers on the front and sleeves in the black also. 

I will be using TV108 for the bustle, as my lobster-tail bustle is more 1880s than 1860s. I got some plain white cotton and ordered the hoop wire kit for it. I can use the corset from my butterfly gown, so this is the only new foundation garment needed.