25 Yards Gypsy Skirt: Red Satin; Tribal Fusion & Pirate Wench

I'm writing this blog post, because I'm ,frankly, quite disappointed with ALL blogs on this topic, and ALL searched on Google, yahoo, and other search engines.

If you type/search "25 yard Gypsy skirt" you will mostly just find online stores selling them. Years ago, when I got my imported 25 yard skirt you could actually find social networking comunities, blogs, etc... but it seems most of those websites have been shut down, or search engines just care about selling things.


So, I will write about mine here, hopefully it will show up in a search.
(Feel free to comment if you have a question, because I get questions every now and then, especially on YouTube & Facebook, but also in person.)

To start with, I started to notice that the teired skirt became in fashion around 2004/2005 when clothing industries began buying cheaply made clothing and selling them at higher prices in the West.

I in 2005 I began to really want one, and after Christmas in January of 2006 I bought a black one, at JC Pennies on sale. (-which as u can see, I still have)

By 2007 I started to REALLY get interested in bellydance, and by around 2008 & 2009 I'd begun really getting into making not just India scarf dresses, but I made a gypsy skirt based on tutorials I read online from bellydance, Ren fair, and Witch costume enthusiast bloggers.

Now, let me tell you, I really DO like to dress-up. I like to have fun, and I LOVE Halloween! I also like Cons (conventions), and fairs, and I've been to a few here & there.

I wasn't always a girly-girl, but I would have my periods of times when I just wanted to feel girlish, and do girly things... but, mostly I liked things that were SEXY.

Well, bellydance really changed all of that. It just REALLY brought me in touch with being feminine, and wanting to just wear skirts, feel proud to be a woman, and OK with that. There is just SOMETHING about a Gypsy skirt that just REALLY does something! I used to scoff at older women artists that would start to wear long flowy skirts, thinking it was an "old lady thing", like how many artists when they get older start taking up watercolors, or taking naps...

The funny thing about the long flowy teired Gypsy skirt is that it's somehow very flirty, it's so simple, but it really does something to your confidence. I've noticed it alot, not just with myself. The skirt above was a skirt I made from really old vintage silk given to me from some old neighbors in China that is woven to feel & breath like fine cotton, but, it's silk.

This skirt I once wore to a bellydance class in Cambridge, and when I was on the way to the class many of the men there kept wanting to talk to me on the street. At 1 point, a boy maybe 17-19 years old rolled his skateboard at me. Thinking he had lost control of his skateboard I went over to get the skateboard to give it back to the boy, and I asked him if he was OK. He said, he was fine, but then he just stood there acting weird... so, I asked him if he was alright, and he told me, he was fine and that he just rolled his skateboard at me to get my attention and wanted to meet me and ask me on a date. I couldn't believe it! I was nearly 30 at the time, and this boy was a teenager!

I wasn't wearing ANY makeup, just the skirt, some gouchos underneath, and a sports bra with a tank top.

Not only that, but this skirt ALWAYS gets compliments from women & girls or all ages, and men. I often get asked wear I got it. I just made it. It was 1 of the 1st projects I ever did on my sewing machine, that wasn't an Indian Scarf dress!

But, since then, I've had many other Gypsy skirts, and have worn them out too. ;)


 

After that, I became VERY interested more & more with ATS & Tribal Fusion Bellydance. So much so that I wanted a 25 yards Gypsy skirt. Making the 1st skirt was SUCH a grueling task. It took FOREVER, and it it often jammed in my sewing machine. I broke needles, and it still has problems staying sewn together because I wear it so often, but I've learned many of the various stitching the machine can do because of that skirt...

So, when it came to a 25 yard skirt, I wanted NOTHING to do with making my own! I wanted to purchase one... but, back then, those things were CRAZY expensive!

So, I used to scan Google every day, and even E-Bay for the 25 yard Gypsy skirts. Most of them were made of light cotton, but still they were at least $100+ easily! I knew ALL the most popular online stores! But, I was broke...
I even used to monitor E-Bay.

But, 1 day I found this website called Fun Fete, and back then they sold the 25 yard skirts much cheaper, PLUS, they even had them in SATIN, like a flamenco style.

So, my brother gave me some money, as a birthday gift, and I bought the skirt. It was shipped from India, and was made on demand. the tag says it's made of cotton, but it isn't.

It was a MUCH better deal than the cotton skirts, because it was thick satin, and still about $80 total with shipping. So, it was a REALLY good deal!

I noticed it was constructed much differently than I was instructed when I made my skirt, and all the other skirts... but, I guess when u sell clothing specifically for dancers, you would know better about what you were doing, right?

I originally used the skirt just for dancing, and costumes stuff related to bellydance.

 

 

But, then, I realized I could use it for my Pirate costume (just as I was starting to develop my character) so I did. And, I wore it at the 2012 Philly Comic Con!

I'm so glad I got red, because my favorite color is actually purple, but red is more attention  getting, and a power color. But, it's 1 of those things that just GRABS people attention, and their breath right out of them!

Even Pirate Pebbs borrowed it on one of the Comic Con days, and changed her whole costume up for a day!

Anyways, you might wonder what the big deal is about having it at 25 yards or MORE...

Well, when you pick up 1 end of the skirt, and hold it up, you can;t really hold it up very high, because then you will see underneath your skirt, like your panties, or bloomers, or whatever... but, the more yards you have, as the tiers go down, the more you can hold it up.

With a 25 yards skirt you can hold up both ends of the skirt, and the front and back still hand and touch the ground, and you can also get unique drapings if you fold or tuck, or pleat the way you wear the skirt. you also can get unique dance movments by the way the skirt flows and billows.

It's about drama, and creating striking visuals, and shapes with your movements, or even with the wind, or airflow if you are outside, like how a flag worked, or veil-work, or Isiss wings. Same principle.

Anyways, I mostly wanted to make this blog post to show off the skirt in some of the photos, since I find I'm often disattisfied with whatever I can find on Google searches.

So, here it goes:

I have many other blog entries showing more photos of this skirt, if you want to look.

It's Red Satin, made in India.

I love it.

I can't wear it too much in the summer, if it's too hot because it makes you very sweaty, and dehydrated, you can get body odor very easy if that happens, and it can feel heavy. It's better worn in Spring or Autumn, and winter, or indoors. I would like to get a cotton 25 yard skirt, but I am not exactly middle class anymore, so I could never save enough to purchase one.

When I do where this and it's a warmer temperature, I made sure to wear cotton panties, and some kind of breathable, hopefully cotton, pants, like gouchos, or bloomers underneath, otherwise you can get really bad jock itch (fungal infection in ur pubic area where you have hair and the sweat glands). That is NOT fun, because it can take weeks to treat it.