Serenity progress 3

This thing took a lot longer than I would have liked... I remember working on it from when the sun was up to when the sky was pitch black.  So I think I've spent almost five hours doing the gold beading and adding the first white strip?  The white strips are white textured rope braid and my sewing machine hated sewing through it.  Ugh.  There's still two more strips I have to add, but I'm not doing that until my lace eventually comes in, which'll hopefully arrive within the next few weeks.

I've made a mistake when sewing the strip on and because of that, I hate this bodice so much.  Guergh... nothing I can do about that now, sadly...

Not even done and this thing is already heavy as heck because of the white rings and glass beads.  When this part is finished, it's going to be even heavier so I may end up having to install some clear bra straps if it doesn't stay up due to the added weight.  It stays up just fine right now, but... not so sure about later.  I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to pack this thing in my luggage when it's time to go to AM2 Con and Anime Expo this summer.  The fabric for the skirt is also quite heavy since there's going to be 12 yards of fabric going into that monster... GRAAAAHHH!!!