Polling the Audience

Ok guys, I need your help.

Google Analytics tells me that I there are a few of you out there.  (Some of you even live in exotic places like London and Adelaide, which I think is just too cool, but I digress.) I'm desperate for your advice!

First of all, there's the matter of the brunch dress, which has literally been keeping me up at night.  When I went back to Haberman's looking for the perfect lining, I got talked into buying some divine pima cotton lawn that cost more than my fashion fabric, but feels incredible, and it was really, in my heart-of-hearts, what I wanted.  So now, the $64,00 question is: to line, or to underline?  The paisley fabric is opaque enough that I could either.  But neither method seems perfect.  Here are the pro's and con's as I see them.

Lining:

• Pro: I can sew and under-stitch the fabric to the lining at the neckline and armholes, which I think yields a really slick, polished finish.
• Pro: I can do Kathleen Fasanella's slick zipper installation...almost
• Pro: I'm a sucker for the polished effect of a fully-lined dress
• Con: The surplice bodice poses logistical problems with attaching the waistband.  Since the dress fabric and the lining overlap at the CF and CB, I can't simply sew the waistband seam separately for each layer of fabric (ie. fashion fabric to fashion fabric and lining to lining).  But if I sandwich all 4 layers right-sides-together and sew a single seam, that doesn't leave the lining free for the zipper application.  That said, the Slapdash Sewist has faced a similar problem, if I understand her correctly, and she managed to make it work.

Underlining:

• Pro: Underlining will stabilize my lightweight fashion fabric.  It might also be less bulky, and I'm told the finished dress will wash better.
• Pro: It's arguably easier to sew.  I can finish all the raw edges with my serger and still get a nice, tidy look inside.
• Con: I would probably do a rolled hem on the neckline, and I'm not sure how I feel about having a row of stitching visible there.  
• Con: I have no idea how I would finish the armholes with the side zip.  Can you use a bias binding in this situation?  Again, that would leave me with a row of visible stitching that I'm not wild about.

So readers, I'm stumped!  I'll keep working on the drafting in the meantime, but please weigh in with your expert advice.

My next quandary is a more familiar one.  So tell me: should I buy this fabric?

It's a light-weight rayon-lycra knit from EmmaOneSock, and I'm thinking about using it for this dress from Patrones no. 284.

This dress is without a doubt one of my favorite patterns in this magazine, and I've been hunting for the perfect fabric for it for months.  I think it needs to be a print rather than a solid, and a geometric print would be best.  But it also needs to be something that will work with all the pleats and the tie collar without looking too busy.  Do you think this fabric would work?  It's vaguely similar to what the Slapdash Sewist used, and I love her version.

Just to complicate matters, do you like the abstract lines more or less than this windowpane print from Fashionista Fabrics?  It's less austere than the abstract lines, but also busier.  So I don't know what to do.

I've been close to taking the plunge and buying fabric for this dress a number of times, but I keep losing my nerve at the last second. 

So, dear readers, I place myself entirely in your hands.  Clearly, I need all the help I can get!

WGD 2.0: If at first you don't succeed...

Ok, folks.  I'm chalking up my first attempt at the wedding-guest dress as a "learning experience," and starting again from scratch.

Just to remind you, this is what I'm aiming for.  The original dress, called "Retail Therapy," is sold out on ModCloth.

Overall, I think my pattern is solid, and I've only made a few small adjustments to the fit for my second attempt.  I think the main problems were fabric choice and construction.

The poly charmeuse I picked the first time around is way too light and drapey, and it doesn't really stand up to the more structured look of the dress.  Also, the fabric is really shiny, which just makes the whole thing look cheap.

For my second attempt, I ordered up mid-weight poly satin from Fabric.com, and I'm much more pleased with both the color and the hand.  The charmeuse is on the left, and the satin is on the right--look at the contrast!

Fabric choice aside, my real sins with this first attempt were in the construction.  I chose not to interface the neckline, since you could definitely see a line on the right side of the fabric where the interfacing stopped.  This was a mistake.  As a result, the stand collar is droopy, and the neckline is rippled where I sewed the bodice to the lining.  I also rushed to get the skirt on and the zipper installed, again omitting interfacing, which led to (you guessed it!) more ripply seams and the most horrible, unwearable wavy zipper ever.  It's so bad, I won't even show you a picture!

Believe me, I've learned my lesson!  This time I'm interfacing EVERYTHING.  I'm also going to be much more careful not to stretch or ease my fabric when I'm pinning or sewing on the bias.  Hopefully, the heavier fabric will help with this too--unlike the charmeuse, which was super-fluid, the satin holds its shape and stays on-grain much better.  I'm also planning to hand-baste my zipper before I sew.

So far I've cut the bodice and sewed the bodice lining (which is also cut from satin), and I'm pretty pleased with the results.  My one concern is pressing: the satin doesn't want to hold a crease, and when I press it enough to flatten out a dart, it leaves a faint, shiny mark along the edge of the folded fabric underneath (if that makes sense).  I'm thinking right now that I'm going to press it anyway, figuring nobody will notice the marks.  But I'm open to suggestions: what are the "best practices" for pressing satin?