Just wanted to post an update now that the dress has been made and worn.
I appreciate the suggestions, as well as information from this thread: https://oliverands.com/forums/topic.php?id=435#post-2659
I ended up washing the silk inside a pillow case in the delicate cycle of my top-loading washing machine (neglected to note that those who had done so had front-loaders!). It came out quite wrinkled; I hung it to dry and then pressed and steamed it. I did a trial run with a small square of fabric first, and as others have noted, the silk did lose a little body. However, the washed silk had the same sheen (to me) as the unwashed silk.
I made the size 2 dress but added 2 inches in width and length for a fuller bubble. I also underlined the skirt with organza for some body–I’m not sure that was totally necessary but the skirt had a nice pouf. 🙂
I purchased some silk ribbon and rhinestone buttons from Etsy. I basted the ribbon to the top of the bodice and then sewed the entire thing to the skirt. That did result in some puckering of the ribbon; if I had it to do over, I might just hand-stitch the ribbon to the outside of the dress.
Finally, I followed this inspiration and made a matching bib: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noodleshandmade/5269691515/in/photostream . I traced one of Anna’s bibs and made sure to include a crumb-catcher–and it totally saved the dress from some serious chocolate stains.
Overall I was very happy with how it turned out, and I’m a little more brave to try sewing with non-cotton fabrics. Pictures of the finished product are in the flickr group.
