I sketched my friend today as a practice. I tried to make it look calm and have that classic effect.

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Reference photo:

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Very happy she likes the outcome
In this pic she is wearing a veil or head cover. Very old fashioned but it carries a timeless beauty and femininity.

Some process photos

I just used one pencil and one sharpener, for sketch and gradation practices it helps me control the shading having only one shade.
So here I started with just drawing the outlines and then filling it up with shade. There is minimal smudging since the paper is not so textured it barely did anything when I used my finger to smudge.

Next, I drew patterns and filled it in randomly around the dress.
There's a tendency of mine to always copy everything even small designs or details "exactly" as I see it however this time I put more randomness thinking patterns are repetitive and I should not sweat the small stuff. Just relax and draw along. They're not polka dots, they're little bit more angular too. That's the better detail to notice on capturing the likeness.

I have to emphasize the trick on drawing patterns in clothing, first is drawing the pattern, fill it in with color or shade, then adding the shadows over it after (for the shadows of the drapery). That's the easiest way to do it. The white patterns I applied leave out method which I think is easier than shading it all and "erasing" white spots on it.

I have a video, here's me filling it in