We are excited to welcome Michelle Gutschick of Shelly Homemaker to My719moms! Michelle is a talented local mama of 4, and every week she will be sharing cute and crafty projects with us. Be inspired and get your craft on!
Check out this adorable poodle skirt tutorial!
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I am SO excited to be sharing this easy and fun project with you!
The poodle skirt may have been a staple item in the 1950’s wardrobe, but it’s so easy to make a play one for your kiddos school sock hop, Halloween costume and dress up chest! Of course if they are like my kiddos, they will start begging to wear it to Target, to which I figure maybe they will be the ones to bring it back so I respond “Why not” and off we go.
I’m going to show you how to make this super simple skirt with minimal sewing skills. You can do this on the first day you ever sit at a machine, all you are sewing is the waistband!
Materials:
- 1-1.5 yards of 72″ felt
- Wide knit elastic
- Poodle ( Iron on, or cut out of felt)
- Hot Glue
- Ribbon or Beads
The Standards:
- Fabric Scissors or rotary
- Sewing Machine
- Matching Thread
- Iron
To get started, measure for the desired length of your skirt. For my daughters I measured from her waist to a little below her knee, this was right about 18.5″
Fold your fabric into 4 – hamburger then hot dog, this will make the inside corner not have any raw edge.
This is where you might have a few dreaded flashbacks to math class.
Finding the Radius
Take the Circumference (1.5 times the waist measurement) and divide it by 6.28 (2pi)
In my case this came to 4.77 so I rounded to 4.5″
Mark these two points down the side, and connect them with an arch, you can be a perfectionist and use a compass, or do what I did and use a plate and get close enough.
Measure down from the waist to the hem of your skirt and mark it all the way around this quarter of the skirt
Cut along the line through all 4 layers of felt.
This is the base of your skirt. Ready for some great news?!
You don’t have to hem this! Your hem is done!
Now it’s time to add a poodle, I mean what’s a poodle skirt with no poodle?!
If you happen to have a handy Silhouette Cameo as I do, you can cut one out of iron on glitter vinyl. If not, you can hand cut one if you like the glitter idea, or even just use some adorable contrasting felt and cut one out that way.
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| He’s what it really looked liked when making this skirt. I was finished in one episode of Sophia the First! |
If doing an iron on transfer, be sure to only use med high heat and protect the felt, rather protect your iron from the felt, and felt is quite temperamental with irons and will burn easily.
Next it’s time to add the waistband. I like the super wide elastic for this style skirt, and I think it is one of the easiest to work with.
To find the right width just use their waist measurement minus and inch or so.
Set your machine to a med width zig zag stitch.
Sew together the ends of the elastic.
Pin the back of the elastic to the back of the skirt, then the front and each side. This will keep the amount of give and stretch even throughout the band.
Ass you attach the waistband to the felt, stretch the elastic, while keeping the felt relaxed.
This may require guiding the material through the machine a bit as it won’t get pulled as easily when you are stretching the elastic in front.
By stretching the elastic you are creating a gather along the waist band.
Stretch the elastic as much or as little as needed to get all the way around the skirt.
Waist band finished!
Every proper poodle needs a leash, this one is with some fabulous pearls, but you can use about anything to make this!
Remember, it’s a costume, so just hot glue that puppy on!
(haha – see what I did there 😉 )
Keep in mind Poodle skirt wearing results in immediate twirling and silly posing with dad.
But your little is now Sock Hop ready!
Get to it and have so much fun!
Hi! I’m Michelle, Mama to 4 spunky kiddos, wife to an amazing heart-throb of a hubby, and owner/crafter at Shelly Homemaker. Thanks for checking out this post and stick around for more from this hot glue gun dawning, sewing, daydreaming, coffee addict.
