Midnight Garden - Introduction

As promised, today I'll introduce a new large project. As I stated yesterday in the Q/A, I usually percolate on ideas about 4 to 6 months in advance of actually beginning the project. I've been working on this one for about 8 months or so now. During this time, I also start collecting items I feel will be useful for the project. I go through my entire studio and pull out everything that might work, plus buy items and put them in a bin for future use. Not every item will be used and many may possibly be discarded later because they doesn't work for the project, but there's no harm in having them available and maybe gleaning a usable idea.

Midnight Garden is an early 1950's skirt suit ensemble, consisting of a jacket, skirt, blouse, hat, and handbag. Here's the suit pattern I'm starting with; I will be making a few design changes as we go along:
This is the blouse pattern, notice the scallop edges coordinate nicely with the suit's scalloped edges:
As far as accessories, I showed you the hat form a while ago as a Parting Shot and I have yet to find a vintage handbag pattern from the late 40's to the mid 50's that I'm happy with and willing to pay the price for. I think I've found navy vintage 50's shoes on eBay, but I'm not in a big hurry to get those. My husband's aunt, for whom I do alterations, gave me not only the jewelry that you saw earlier this week for Diamonds, but she just sent over two pair of gloves that she found. Take a look at these, they're perfect:
I'll still need to come up with some jewelry, but I'll work on that later, once I see how the ensemble looks on my body.

The main fabric I'll be working with for the suit is a dark navy silk shown below. [Note to Marji: Now you know why I wanted that silk. Thank you for getting it for me!]
The additional embellishment fabrics will include a variety of silvers, blues and silvery blue tones, all of which are synthetic. Now, I know that's a bit weird to embellish in all synthetics when the body of the suit is silk, but I do have a very specific reason for that which shall be explained in due time.
Where am I with the project at the moment? I've started the artwork drafting, and a jacket muslin to start the design changes. Keep watching this space and I'll show you everything that's going on, plus probably a lot you didn't want to know about how these wearable art garments are put together. As with American Beauty and Diamonds, you'll get to see it all from design process to final product.

Parting Shot: Here's Pixie enjoying the sunshine. I can't be certain that laying like that on the window sill is entirely comfortable, but somehow she manages even with that ridge in the middle of her body.