Phoenix Rises- the update!

I'm sooo close! The coins have been detached from the fragments of the original, flimsy bra and hand sewn one by one to the new sturdy bra that I covered with lycra. The gold braid is sewn in place, the straps are attached and ready for the tiny bit of machine sewing that will make them functional and the wild cotton batik lining is in. Now I just have to finish the straps- possibly by covering them with more gold braid trim and do the belt... I have the material and I know how I want to do it... Now I just have to manage the time. First I'll draft a new belt pattern with my dress form. I've made a 'curved rectangle' belt pattern before but it didn't seem to work quite right so I'm trying again. Once the pattern is drafted then I'll cut out lining fabric, stiff and thick fusible interfacing and more of the lycra. Then I'll machine sew the sides and top edges (right sides together!), turn, press, tuck under raw edges on bottom edge and press and then topstitch. At that poing I get to decide if I want to use gold braid along the top edge to match the bra and I get to hand stich through some of the split rings joining the coins of my belt. I don't think I'll have to take any of the links apart. I'm hoping that some industrial strength velcro backed by some skirt hooks will be suffcient to secure the belt. Dress rehersal is tomorrow and I've got a family dinner tonight so I'd better sew like the wind!! (pictures will be added shortly)

Ooh.... Sparkles... o.O

I should never have followed the link from Bhuz... I've been wandering around Spandex World filling my cart so I can browse my preferred swatches at my leisure and I'm afraid I may never recover. I've found this green tiger striped holographic spandex that has me completely entranced... I can't decide if it's the most amazing material I've ever seen or the genesis of the world's ugliest belly dance costume.
I've been longing for a rich, dark green dance costume for years but never found just the right one. I've just about come to grips with the realization that I will have to build it myself. Bear in mind that I have the (posted below) teal coin costume in progress and the fixin's for an ivory crushed velvet costume with pearls and iridescent crystals that are just sitting there stewing in a bucket, waiting for their turn to be created... I don't NEED another project in my line-up. But this green tiger stripe... is it something amazing? Could I make it miraculous? Or will it just make it look like my costume is permanently wrinkled and my butt twice as wide? Help!! Opinions? If price is what sways you, this material is $14 a yard and I'll need at least 5 to do my flounced mermaid skirt pattern, 3 if I do a gored and godeted mermaid skirt (seams from waist to hem with triangles of material inserted for fullness at the hem)...

Coin Collection Turned Costume

Today I finished the hand-sewing on the material covering my soon to be coin bra.
Now I'm debating on whether I want to use gold trim along the top edge of the cup and if I want to remove the coins from the piece of the old bra (now cut up and slightly visible as a dark forest green) and resew them all one by one to the new, recovered bra. I also need to get the straps functional so that I can debate the attachment point for the tummy drape and determine if I want to go ahead and drill the coins that I set aside to cover the rest of the bra in a lighter layer of coins. More of a 'chain' of coins rather than the overlapping scale arrangement at the top of the bra. I pretty much never know exactly what the finished costume will look like. I like to have a general concept that gets developed as I go along. It lets the costume tell me what it wants to be instead of me forcing the costume to line up with what I thought it should be... I know. I'm weird :)