A Vogue Dress for Spring Summer (Spring?)

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend, and that our friends in North America are safe from the icky storms and dreadful weather. My heart goes out to all those in pain after yesterday's nightmare.

I'm almost ashamed to confess that we seem to have gone straight from (very mild) winter to summer, here. I've never seen this - it feels like late June, not mid-April! It's actually too hot to wear spring dresses: the Floraison and the Aubergine dresses are back in the closet, along with a cute little black number I haven't shown you yet (doesn't fit on the dressform and Seb is too busy to take pictures). I'm wearing my sweet little skirts instead.
This is all very nice... but if April feels like late June, how will July be?
All in all, I wish we had a few degrees less, and our North-American friends had a few more!

This weekend, in between other things and walks in the sun with Seb, I started working on the Vintage Vogue 2902 dress. I made the bodice and its lining, as well as the combined yoke and straps, which are lined, too. (I lined them with white cotton cretonne (not sure cretonne means the same in English, though).

Wanna see?

The picture was taken yesterday afternoon, and the yoke/straps were simply laid onto the bodice to give you an idea - I hadn't sewn them on yet. Yesterday night, I started hand-sewing the yoke's bottom edge to the bodice (using a slipstitch), while we watched 2 episodes of E.R. I wasn't quite done by bedtime.
Then, I'll slipstitch the upper edge of the bodice to the yoke's lining, from the inside. My, it's like combining sewing and embroidery in one go - and I certainly don't mind that!

As you can see, I decided to cut the yoke and straps in the same fabric. I had a fabric whose colour would have made a great contrast (it matches the lavender gray in the print), but whose quality and grain wouldn't have looked good against that fine Liberty lawn. I'll be using it for the belt, though. I could have made it in white, too but it was, well - too white. After auditioning all three choices, Seb and I both thought it was best not to have a contrast. That print is so wonderful - it seemed better to stick with it!

The opening on the left side is for the zipper (this way, you can see the lining!). I read on patternreview.com that the pattern's instructions for a lapped zipper are faulty, so I'm going to put an invisible zipper. That's always my first choice anyway.

I am truly enjoying working on that dress and taking it one step at a time, to make sure it turns out fine. That Liberty lawn is pure bliss to handle and look at while sewing, and the more progress I make, the happier I am with the fabric and pattern combination.

The pattern is very well drafted, but the instructions are somewhat unclear at points. Since the construction is different from usual dresses, it would help sometimes to have a few more details, or clearer (or more) pictures. I had to unpick a few seams several times - once, I confess, due to my own silly mistake (I assembled the yoke and straps in the wrong order), but twice due to the pattern's muddled phrasing.
I believe the most challenging is over now. Besides, I do love all the construction details - for instance, they have you make an inside waist stay with a hook-and-eye closure. I'm enjoying it all!

~*~

As per my friend Sylvie's request - here's my desktop wallpaper:

Nope, we haven't got over yet how sweet our Miss Cutie is...
Have you?

Thank you for all your encouraging and comforting comments!