A Bit Of Light In The Darkness

After digging through my stash of silks, I ran across a lovely ivory/lavender/rose stripe silk taffeta I've had or years. The ivory stripe has a satin finish and a light ribbed texture. I also had to bite the bullet and buy some Ivory silk taffeta from Renaissance Fabrics, so I can make a complimenting bodice. I only have 5 yards of the stripe for the skirt.
I hope to finish both that and my Sisi velvet ensemble before the end of Dickens fair.

 I might use a cotton broadcloth for the skirt base, and do the silk in 2 tiers with the stripes going horizontal.

Also, I love my new 1850s hoop crinoline from Kay! It's the perfect bell shape and doesn't have that annoying "lampshade" look that so many modern (bridal) hoop petticoats do.

***WARNING***
For those seeking a good deal on silk taffeta fabrics, you may want to be wary when dealing with B.R. Exports. Better known as puresilks.us. The hilarious thing, is the stripe silk shown above is actually from this same seller, but from their Ebay store ages ago. They still carry this weave (supposedly), and while I would love more, after my recent experience with them, I don't want to roll those dice.
While I am always careful about where I order online goods, I had done some research on these folks and heard current reviews that varied from fantastic, to slightly annoying. Well, I decided to place an order last week for 10 yards of that light royal blue silk taffeta from their website.
They were super quick (less than 24 hours) to contact me and said they no longer had the fabric I ordered in stock, and offered other similar options (other colors/dupion textures, etc). Right away I replied that the other options were not going to work for my project, and could I please have a refund of my money.
Keep in mind I used Paypal for this transaction, thank gods.

Even though they didn't have the fabric in stock, they accepted my payment right away.
They have yet to reverse/refund it, and after a week of little to no communication from them, I filed a Paypal claim to get my money back.
Granted they are in India, but if they were so quick to contact me initially about my order, why should it take so many extra business days for them to even discuss a refund of my payment.
I heard from them finally yesterday morning before I finally escalated the dispute to a claim, and they continued their attempt at selling me fabrics I did not want! Then they had the balls to say that they didn't have my money!
Well, Paypal shows the transaction as complete and in their hands under their company name. 
When I pay for something via Paypal, it comes from my bank account and goes into a balance toward the purchase. When the seller accepts payment for a purchase, it takes the funds from my Paypal account into the sellers Paypal balance, where they can then withdraw it to wherever they want. Either way, they have my money. It shows that they took it, and it's not sitting in limbo. 
I will keep you all updated as to how this unfolds. XOXO