Poodle Skirt Craft

I found out a while ago that the church we have been attending is hosting a Father/Daughter dinner and dance on Saturday, the 16th, for fathers and daughters age 4 and up. I thought this would be a wonderful thing for H1 and H3, but then I realized that it was a 50's theme and poodle skirts were requested. I wasn't too sure where to find one, and so was thinking about maybe not buying tickets. But then one of the moms at church started talking to me about making a felt poodle skirt and said it wasn't hard.  I decided to give it a shot and went with her to pick out fabric.  H3 wanted a bright green, so bright green it was. We made an afternoon out of it, shopping for fabric and supplies with the 4 kids (2 mine, 2 hers, and our daughters are less than a year apart) and then stopped for Sweet Frogs frozen yogurt before heading home.

Back home, I spent some time on Google and decided to combine instructions from two different sites and add a twist of my own. I also decided to break out the sewing machine instead of the no-sew methods.  I confess I sat for a few minutes staring at my grandma's old Pfaff before turning it on to begin. This is the machine I learned on and since my newer one is broken and I have no clue how to fix it, I was trying to remember a few of the nuances about this one.

Grandma's 1950's Pfaff, such a wonderful machine!

I didn't have a pattern, so Josh pulled out some butcher block paper from the garage and I made one.  H3's waist is 20 inches and I decided to make the skirt 18 inches long, and one of sites I used to make the pattern said to add 1/4 of the waist measurement to the planned length of the skirt.  So, from my center point, the radius was 23 inches. 

The waist was cut out by using 1/4 waist measurement as a radius. It looks like a big donut, right?

Now it's a bit more recognizable.

I sewed in an elastic waistband and then came my little twist.  H3 picked this beautiful green but she was also going crazy over a sheer glittery fabric. I purchased a yard of it and added it to the bottom of the skirt.  Then I used an applique poodle from Jo-Ann's Fabric and Craft and some pink polka dot ribbon for the leash, the leash idea from Prudent Baby.

And here is the finished product!

So, it's not gorgeous or professional, but for my first attempt at a poodle skirt, I'm pretty happy with it.  I think it will do for the Father/Daughter dance and H3 loves it, so mission accomplished!  And that was my Thursday and Friday evening.

~H2