I guess I should say that I really did finish this costume!  I made up the pants like I said and they turned out excellent.  They are very billowy and look great.  I cut up 2 old velvet shirts I had for the velvet of the corset top.  I butchered up a pattern I had for a boned top to a top and dress to make the pattern.  I wasn't very happy with the corset I came up with, but in the time I had (2 weeks), it was approximate enough.  I have since destroyed it, so will need to make the top up again if I ever want to wear that costume again.  The shawl, I just lined one side with cotton and made a double sided "scarf".  Easy enough.  The belt took some doing, but I used some crinkle satiny stuff I found in a cummerbundy type thing with a belt buckle thing I had lying around.  It's kinda hard to describe.  I'll take pictures and post as soon as I get the time!  I also found some really ugly gold shoes at Target that worked just fine.  :)

 

 

I haven't had a chance to even look at the patterns again until today.  I think I'll start on the pants.  I looked at the reference photos again and realized there's a lot of velvet in the top.  Good thing I have those 2 velvet tops that I was saving for a moment just like this!  Go me!!  So, I have 2 tops to cut up and make into one top.  It also looks like it has some boning in it.  I think I might try that cable tie boning people keep talking about.  Ok, off to work!

 

 

I went to JoAnn's today (the new one near my new place, which is one of those big ones...yay!), and looked around for ideas.  I tried to find fabric for Inara's purple Firefly pilot dress, but no go.  I came across a pretty decent yellow brocade, so I just decided to do her black and gold from the movie.  It's an easy costume and I know I can get it done fairly quickly.  So, I bought some fabric for the pants, remembered I had fabric for the top at home, and went home to wash!  We'll see when I have time to actually make the thing.  The woman at the cutting counter told me to go straight home and start making the stuff right away so I could get done.  (I bought a lot of fabric!)

 

While washing the fabrics, I looked through my patterns.  I remembered using 2 pants patterns for the jumpsuit of the red and gold one and figured I could just make that again.  The pantsize is similar, so why not?  So, I dug those out and started preparing them.  But, ended up running out of time because of evening activities, so I'll have to get to that later this week.  At least they're all washed!