They’ll be evil sleeves as soon as I try making them, but check this out: Mrs. Cephas Smith, Jr. (Mary Grove) and child, about 1803, seen at the MFA today. (Online catalog photo at left)
The dress reminds me a lot of the brown silk Quaker dress at the MFA (early 19th century).
What doesn’t fully register until you can get close to the painting is the sleeve detail.
Drawstring waist, check. Probably front-closing and not a wrap dress. Probably earlier than the Quaker dress, but of similar materials. I can feel the taughtness of that shoulder and think a similar detail of the front is shown in a drawing in Arnold or Bradford. The neck is a little higher than I’d expect, but this is not a high-style gown like the ones shown in Arnold. It’s a dress worn in Rutland, VT.
But those sleeves–I’d venture to guess at embroidery in silk thread and buttons, based on the repeated motif at the neck.
Buttons? They look like they sit above the fabric, float, in a way that embroidery would not. But I think of buttons (aside from some stomachers and buttons for polonaise loops) as decorative elements on women’s clothes coming at least a decade, maybe two, later than this painting. Time to sit down with 19th Century Costume in Detail again.
Kitty Calash 
Indressed that gown for photography, hard to believe it was ten years ago!
When I see MFA costume photos, I always wonder if you dressed the mannequins. There are some at MO Historical I dressed…now I wish I’d locked the studio door and turned them inside out.
I love the lace ruffle around the neck too. But goodness gracious me, is that not the scariest baby you have ever seen in your life?
Totally scary baby. Even scarier in person. The ruffle is on her shift, and if you look a the sleeve of the gown, I think you can see the edge of the shift sleeve beneath the silk.