DIY Cutout Skully Tee

I've been hankering after a cutout skull tee since I saw some in last year's S-Cawaii Magazine (Japanese) from the brand Barak (nothing to do with Prez Obama, I assure you). Trendy Tokyo girls wearing pastel-colored lightweight tees with skull-shaped cutouts over striped tees? Lovely! (And ironically, Childhood Flames' posted her own DIY cutout skull tee inspired by a Pleasure Principle shirt a few months later that had the blogosphere all agog.) How did I go about making mine? (Okay, I know, it's kind self-explanatory, but...Keep reading...)


Regardless of who was first and all that rubbish (likely Barak ripped it off from Pleasure Principle, though they probably took it from the cutout skully tees from the 80's that just about every hair metal band had back then...), I decided to make my own Barak-style tee, with two el cheapo tees from Target (the striped one, incidentally, is not sewn from striped fabric...the fabric was actually screenprinted with a striped pattern and then sewn together. Like that was cheaper for the manufacturers than actually sourcing a black-and-white stretch striped fabric. Sheesh.) Though I'm technically a Medium, I bought a large for my skully tee, so it will be loose enough to drape over the second layer. Here is the skull that I drew for my pattern: (right click to save each drawing, and print out landscape format on 2 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper. Line up each paper under your tissue-wight tee, trace the outlines lightly with a pencil or a fabric pen, and cut with fabric scissors! Couldn't be easier!)

I also tried layering it over a black tee for a more Gothic look, and a white tank for a summery ensemble. You could also try with just a bra if you're daring!

Have fun cutting and slicing!

-Carly J. Cais