Q and I have been working on Victorian/Steampunk/Fabulous outfits. I don't really know how to sew, so I'm relying heavily on the expertise/past mistakes and lessons of Q. This past weekend was largely spent standing around in the local Jo-Ann's. They're having a sale which made it the perfect time to buy some patterns and fabric.
The pattern (Burda 7880 "Historic Dress 1888") on the right is my goal. Pink is not. As it turns out, you don't simply walk into a store and get handed the appropriate fabric in the colors you want. Much of the fabric I picked up was either too expensive, too narrow, too short of a supply, too hard to work with... too something.
Eventually, after much consulting with Q, I left with some lovely grey with soft stripes (Edit: it's herringbone!) for the over skirt and a pretty blue-ish fabric with a leafy pattern for the jacket. I still need something for the underskirt.
I was probably overly cautious when cutting out the fabric pieces because it took ages. About three hours of work resulted in a a couple nice stacks of pieces.