skull & crossbones

Did you know Saturday was National Talk Like a Pirate Day? Well, I certainly did. Celebrated by going to the local Renaissance Festival during their pirate weekend. I even made this ridiculous get-up just for the occasion.

I’ve been wanting to do my own cut-out shirts for awhile now, so I did this one as practice and learned a lot about how I should be cutting the shapes, what drapes and how, etc. I sketched out the skull and crossbones on some scrap paper, then drew the design on with a wash away fabric marker (the pastelly kind). I cut away the design with fabric scissors, then applied no fray liquid to all the edges. Once it had dried, I cut more precise lines into the now stiffer fabric at the edges. After, I sewed a layer of thin mesh beneath the holes (use a sewing machine, otherwise it’ll take too long if you’re doing it by hand, because you have to think about where the holes of the mesh are). As you can see, (or hopefully can’t), I cut the bones of the crossbones too wide, and they gaped downwards even after I’d sewed in the mesh layer. I ended up just safety pinning so that they were more of a bone shape and hoping that people would just think I was going for the punk look. I’m planning on doing a couple more of these (one with a spine on back/ribs in front, some other ideas I’m keeping under wraps for now), but if anyone would like a more detailed tutorial with pics, just let me know so that I can document the process whenever I attempt a project like this again..!