Sew Along Prep: Swing Dress

I am trying to be involved in two different sew-alongs that will run somewhat concurrently. I am following Casey from Elegant Musings to sew this swing dress from Sensibility patterns. The second, as you can tell from the dashing button of our beloved Peter, is the man's shirt sew-along, which will be my first foray into sewing for a guy. Or more importantly, for my husband.

The swing dress sew-along has started, yet still in the beginning phases, so that I is the one I am focusing on now (Peter's doesn't start until Feb 1). I have my pattern downloaded and am literally about to tape it all  together. Since I left before I could get the pattern in the mail I have the e-pattern, you know, similar to a Burda pattern (or maybe you don't?) that prints onto a million 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper and then like a jigsaw puzzle you lay it all out and tape together. I know these are not for the faint of heart, but I think I have the time and space to do this here in our apartment.

I have two (maybe even three) possible fabrics. I brought with me some cheap poly stuff (at $2/yd) that had a cute pattern to make my first run-through of the dress. The fabric is somewhat sheer, so I am trying to decide whether or not to interline or just line it completely. Also, if not lined, what to do about finishing the seams? I will have to pink a test swatch and see if that will do. Tricky. And maybe trickier do to with all its polyester-ness. Then if all goes well with test fabric, I brought some silks. One is the same silk I planned for the wrap dress, which is now on hold until I can adjust the sheath and the other is a cute silk print that has a nice vintage feel to it. My one reservation about the second silk, is that pattern is somewhat tight...is it too tight for this kind of dress? Before I go into the silk, we will see how the first dress comes out. I also remember spotting some Liberty of London cotton in Rome, so maybe this pattern will wield yet a third (or fourth) dress in that.

in order: silk option #1, silk option #2, J's poly-stuff 

Since these are my first sew-alongs, I am interested to see how they go. It kind of reminds me of cooking a dish while watching the cooking show at the same time. Will this actually work? Will it be helpful? Is anyone else doing any sew-alongs out there? Or do you work best alone? It seems like it will be fun....right?