Circle Skirt Inspiration

I missed out on participating in Casey's recent Circle Skirt Sew Along, but seeing her completed skirts and those of the other sew-alongers has inspired me to get on and make one. A circle skirt was already at the top of my autumn sewing list (I've actually had the fabric - a dark grey wool felt-like fabric - since about February, but didn't get round to sewing it at the time), and with Casey planning a second circle skirt party, now seems like a good time to get cracking.

My original plan was to applique carousel horses around my skirt, but that idea has morphed into a different project (one for next spring), so I've had to go back to the drawing board on the embellishment.

Some I'm desperate to recreate come from one of the biggest names associated with circle skirts, Juli Lynne Charlot, who created some of the most creative and elaborate skirts of the era. The racecorse one below was featured in a Maidenform ad at the time, which no doubt helped Charlot's career.


Something based on this Parisian themed skirt is definitely on my to-make list, but not on this occasion as it won't work on the dark grey background.

I'm very tempted to do something based on these tipsy pink elephants!







I've narrowed it down to a few different options, but I'm struggling to choose between them! (Here's an idea: I could make interchangeable appliques - if I just baste them on they'd be easy to unpick and replace...)