Poodle-skirt tutorial, 50’s costumes

Published: October 29, 2010 | Updated: August 16, 2018 | By Ashlee

So here’s how our Halloween costume choice came about, here is the boys letterman cardigan tutorial and now onto the Poodle-skirt tutorial! It’s actually a pretty simple costume to make.

First you’ll want to figure out the waist size your working with. We want to figure out the radius. My daughter’s waist was 19 inches. Divide it by Pi (19/3.14=6.05) and you get the diameter. Divide that in half to get the radius (6.05/2=3.02). Just so you know it’s better to go a little to small rather than to large in this case, you can always cut a larger hole, but once it’s cut you can’t go smaller. Get some felt in whatever color you’d like. My felt is 72 inches wide so it’s wide enough to make an adult skirt as well. So start by folding your felt in half.

The easiest way to mark the waist is to take a string, pin the end to the FOLDED half of your felt. Measure to your radius length, mine is 3 inches. Not take a pen and while pulling your string away from the center take it and mark a half circle from fold to fold. Now you have your half circle for the waist! STOP, don’t cut yet, we still have to use our center pin first.

For this we need the length of the skirt you want. Let’s use mine again, 16 inches. Add to it our radius (16+3=19) and we have our new length. So use the same technique as before, measuring out a string and mark our half circle! NOW you can cut!

And we have the body of our skirt! We’ll need to try it on to make sure the waist is the right size. Since you can’t get it over our hips this way we need to cut a slit down one side. But not too large. Also felt can stretch and we don’t want that so be careful.

Once you have tried it and know your waist and slit are right it’s time to add a waist band. You can use just felt, but remember that felt can get stretched. So what I did to strengthen it was to use adhesive interfacing. I measured out the waist for the waistband. You can go the exact length or go a little longer. I did both for comparison. You’ll also want to double the height that you want. Cut the interfacing to the same length, but half the height. Iron on the first side of the interfacing, peel off the backing, fold it over and and iron it again!

Now it’s time to sew the waistband onto the top of the skirt. Pin the right sides together and sew! Easy peasy!

Now you have a decision to make. How you want to close your skirt, you can go with a simple button, works great, a hook and eye, or a zipper. I’d had poodle skirt costumes growing up so I know how easy it is to stretch out the slit so I decided to go with a zipper. PLUS I have lots of zippers around my house! Now it would be easier to go with a zipper that’s already the right length or at least has an end! But since my zippers are all continuous I had to cut and make “ends” for my own. It makes mine look a little messier than your’s will be! Use a zipper foot and sew it in!

Now it COULD be finished, but it depends on your zipper. I tried my daughters on her and the zipper is so smooth it kept slipping down! SO I added a hook and eye.

If I had known I was going to be adding a hook and eye I wouldn’t have sewn the zipper all the way up. Also while the hook and eye works my favorite of my skirts was mine where I had overhang and used a sew on hook with eye closures. And this way it covers up the zipper.

Now comes the fun part! Choosing your image! There is always the classics, poodle or Scotty dog, etc… But I decided to go with something more personal to us! A pig! In case you didn’t know we have a pet micro mini Potbellied Pig, that and I’ve collected pigs since I was a baby! So pig it was! I again used the double sided adhesive interfacing for this. First I pinned my image onto black felt AND the interfacing, now cut it out!

Now follow your interfacing directions. For mine I first ironed the interfacing onto the skirt. Let it cool. Then peel off the backing, place the felt on top and iron it again!

And now for the bling! Our pig needs a leash! You can go any route you want for your leash. You can add collars, beaded eye’s? Anything you want. I went with a sequined ribbon! I THOUGHT I’d be able to sew it on, but my longest stitch was still to short to hit the holes perfectly, also that wouldn’t have been precise enough. SO I hand stitched it on. On all three dresses. It ended up taking 3 nights! So DON’T go this way if you are in a hurry! But I love the way it looks so it’s okay, AND I emptied out my HULU queue while working on it.

And all three finished and on! We went with the classic ponytails for the girls and I made us all felt ruffled flowers, tulle neck tie, white collared shirt, white bobby socks, black shoes (I could only find zebra ked’s, but white ked’s would have been better) and cardigans. Complete package! Don’t forget to check out my boy’s outfits!

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