The 50's Circle Skirt

Last week, my daughter attened a cotillion hosted by our local homeschool group. This event is held once a month, and the teens are treated to a formal dinner, etiquette lessons, and dance instruction. Each month has a theme, and September was a Sock Hop.

Here she is last year (with my cousin, Liberty) sporting a blue skirt borrowed from a friend.

And again with 3 other friends.

Can you just see the fun about to be had?

This year, Claudia first designed a cute felt circle skirt with a cassette-tape applique (going for the retro-updated-from-the-record-to-casette look), but that idea was scrapped and replaced with the "elegant 50's look" instead.

How pretty is that? I love it!

The circle skirt is incredibly easy to make. I did it from memory, but if you want to make one, you don't even need a pattern. Here is a great tutorial from Dana Made It.

We added a ruffled petticoat for fullness (and also for added coverage when Claudia "twirled").

For the petticoat, I made a simple gathered skirt and put three rows of overlapping gathered ruffles on the bottom.

The top was a last-minute (and I mean the DAY OF the dance) purchase from Wal-Mart, but it was absolutely perfect with the wide elastic belt! And thankfully, she already had the shoes.

I look forward to making more of these!