Sewing again!

Supplies:
   Ballroom Bustle Back Skirt Pattern from Sew Fast Sew Easy
  2yds Red beaded French silk, a gift from my well traveled father
  2 yds Gold lame found on a trip to my old neighborhood in Queens NYC
  8 red felt rosettes from the embellishment isle at Michaels
  1 large white rosette (dyed and gold leafed) from the embelisshment isle at Michaels
 A whole bunch of gold lame ribbon
 1 pair white flats from H&M liberally painted red and gold leafed
 3yds 1 1/2" red grosgrain ribbon (I replaced the elastic the pattern calls for with ribbon)

Things I learned while making this:
Gold leaf is worse than glitter for getting everywhere, use a lint roller to clean it up.
Seal the ends of lame and silk , which unravel faster than you can sew, with Fraycheck.  Or, if you're an excellent seamstress or happen to have a serger, serge that badboy before you ever start sewing. I am neither an excellent seamstress, nor do I own a serger for reasons that became very obvious to me in 9th grade sewing class when a dress I was diligently working on suddenly developed two very deep, very clean claw marks in it.  It was one of those sergers that cuts as it sews.
Sewing with beaded fabric is a nightmare, plan your seams and cut off any beads that will be in your presser foot's way.  I wish I had.  I nearly got poked in the eye with a flying needle when it broke off on a bead.  Sewing with me is an adventure.
Use sharp needles when sewing with lame (there's supposed to be an accent over that e but I can't figure out how to do it.  I'm also not tech savvy).  If your needle dulls, it will pull and pucker the gold threads in the lame and look...sad.
The second you put your skirt onto your sewing dummy, your cat will immediately claim the space under the skirt as it's hidey hole and will paw at you randomly from beneath...it will also attempt to pull the skirt down off of the sewing dummy.  Thanks cat, I needed your help.

All that excitement aside, I really like how this skirt came out.  What do you think?  Please...don't mind the mess in the background.  I'm also not the tidiest of people when I'm in my studio.