And by the way...

after lots of ponderin I am redating my 1796 dark-blue popeline dress to 1797/98.

This may seem a bit of pea-picking (I really don't know if that expression exists in English, but you might get the picture), since it only differs about a year. But after much looking at pictures and paintings, I believe the difference was quite grand.

In 1796, dresses still tended to have the natural waistlines front and back. In the course of one year, waistlines climbed higehr and higher until they settled right under the (quite lifted looking) underbustline, while the back seemed to linger a few inches lower. The pattern by PP has the high-raised bustline and the dropped back waist. There you are...a transitional dress of the Directoire which would eventually become the Empire/Regency dress most of us know about since watching all the Austen releases (the PP dress looks a lot like the dresses the Dashwood sisters wear in the Thompson/Winslet movie).