Las Vegas Circle Skirt
For this year's Viva Las Vegas, I decided that I wanted to make a skirt with a Las Vegas theme. I've always loved the novelty circle skirts from the 1950's, but the actual vintage ones are often quite expensive.
I first made the skirt from a circle skirt pattern I drafted from the directions, in the book "Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing" by Gretchen Hirsch. This book is great and the directions were very clear. I sewed it using black suiting fabric on my fabulous 1950s mint green sewing machine.
The skirt painting in progress
I designed the skirt with vintage Vegas casino logos from the 1940s through the 1960s. I also included Elvis and Ann-Margret from the movie "Viva Las Vegas" as well as a gaming icon with a roulette wheel, cards and dice. I first marked the the skirt with tailor's chalk and then painted it with Jacquard Textile Fabric Paint. Once the paint was dry, I ironed it, to set the paint.
Twirling in my newly finished skirt.
I wore it the first day of Viva Las Vegas and got lots of compliments on it, including one women who wanted me to make her one and more than one random person on the street. I made sure I was wearing it when we went to visit the Neon Museum. I tried to get as many pictures of me in front of some of the very signs that grace the skirt.
At the Neon Museum, Las Vegas, NV.
The skirt took a fair amount of time to make but I really enjoyed researching imagery for all the different vintage signs. Especially because many of these old casinos are now gone forever and the kitschiness of Vegas keeps getting replaced with, in my opinion, much more boring looking casinos.