The neck slit didn't work out—it ended up being much longer than needed—so I simply turned the dress around and folded/trimmed fabric back so that it came to a V. The neckline in front is almost completely straight across. Because I wanted to take the dress in at the sides, I inserted a short invisible zipper from the end of the V to the top of the back gore; the zipper was a few inches too long so I had to trim off the extra.

While I was at it, I altered the shape of the sleeves at the wrist a little. Now instead of being just straight and looking too big, the sleeves curve in at the wrist. They still bell out over my hand, coming to my nuckles, because I decided I liked that look. Had the shoulders of the gown been wider, pulling them up more, the sleeves would have been shorter. Yet another change from the original gown. Instead of a t-tunic, the neck & shoulders resemble a cotehardie.

To finish the edges of the neck and sleeves, I used wide double-fold bias tape in brick red. Very easy. The hemline was a different matter. It was rather jagged from my first attempt at making the dress, so I chopped it all off until it ended an even 6" off the ground all the way around. Because I wanted the dress to be a bit longer than floor length, I made a band of crimson Kona cotton (same material as the rest of the dress) about 9" deep, and sewed it to the bottom with about a 5/8" seam allowance. That in turn got hemmed, and ta-da! I'm done.