Day 3.
Today, I threw on a plain black tee, the dress, a black & grey striped sweater, and some leggings. Layers. It was hovering around freezing all day with scattered snow flurries. And I managed to lock myself out of my apartment for about 20 minutes, so I'm glad I thought to put on layers. Yay for layers.
I hand-washed the dress when I got home this evening (along with a few pairs of leggings) in my bathtub, using Soak. I have used it mostly to wash/block hand-made knitting projects, but I have found that it works fairly well with other clothing as well. The best part is that it doesn't require rinsing. I'm going to stick to mostly hand-washing because it's a lot kinder to clothing, and they'll end up lasting longer. Conventional washing machines are hell on fabric.
I also installed a retractable clothesline tonight (like in hotel bathrooms) to make hand-washing a bit more convenient. I typically only hand-wash my bathing suits, bras, and Black Milk leggings, but as I'll also be doing this dress every few days (or more frequently if it gets dirty), and likely I'll be going through more leggings than usual, the clothesline will make it easier to dry multiple items.