Another suggestion, although this is cheesing the game... You can create a new world, enter with your character and build them a nice little hut, get them properly geared and well fed, then return to your main world and smash the skeletons to pieces.

If you don't have a properly equipped second world already, this might take a while, but you should be good in leather, with a wooden shield and a wooden club. You don't need anything fancy for skeletons.