Black & White Skull Print Circle Skirt

Skull-print circle skirt (with an altered Turisas band shirt)

1950s style circle skirt in a skull & crossbones cotton print.

After finishing off the blue taffeta circle skirt, I quickly wanted to make the skirt up again in a new fabric – the pattern cuts up so quickly, sews up so quickly, and I’ve had a lot of fun wearing my skull-print skirt from before, and I love how it wears too – so once I was on a roll, I wanted to keep it  up.

From my stash of skull-print fabrics, I picked out another black and white skull print, this time a much larger print; much more white than black, but I still thought it would be cute.  Just like the original skull-print skirt, it’s just a cotton print, so it’s lightweight which means it should hang nicely with or without the crinoline under it.

The hem is a wide band of horsehair nylon braid, which gives the circle skirt nice shape and fullness – plus I didn’t need to worry about hemming the wide circle.

Skull-print circle skirt (with an altered Turisas band shirt)

I really need to start taking photos in daylight!

Blue Taffeta Circle Skirt

Blue taffeta circle skirt with a store-bought top

When I made my skull-print circle skirt last year, I really wanted to make it up again. I was actually itching to use some gorgeous bronze taffeta I had (but have mentally reserved for a Steampunk gown) so I held off… and then I found some gorgeous black/blue shot fabric on sale at Fabricland, so picked it up for this skirt.

Oddly enough – I had to re-draft the circle…. I couldn’t find my original pattern, but it’s not a big deal, it’s just a quarter of a circle, so it drafted up fast.

Enchantment Under the Sea – Dress

Enchantment Under the Sea costume complete!

After reviewing some of the different dress designs that I had pinned on my Pinterest board I selected a general style that I thought a) would flatter me, b) would be easy enough to make c) would be reasonably “1950s” feeling, and d) would allow me some ways of inputting the “under the sea” theme into the costume as well. I sort of shifted my idea from an octopus wearing a prom dress, to something a bit more elegant and slightly less costume-y, while still being much more costume-y than I’m sure a lot of other guests will strive for.

Skull print circle skirt (& crinoline)

1950s style circle skirt in a skull & crossbones cotton print.

For the Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge #23, the challenge is to make something historical (or historically inspired) that is wearable in an every-day context.  I actually was a bit stumped, but then realized that I needed to test out the circle skirt pattern for my Enchantment Under the Sea costume, and that if I made it up in a fabric I’d love… I could wear it for something other than “costume”.

Of course.. this meant I raided my stash of skull-print fabrics!