Let's Go to "The Hop" {Poodle Skirt Tutorial}

For those of you who may be new to Miss Lovie, you should know that I teach Kindergarten and LOVE planning fun days for the kids. So last Friday was the 50th day of school and we celebrated by having a 50's Day. Kids and teachers were invite to dress up. Of course, I was pumped about it because it meant I got to sew a poodle skirt. YES! 

 Here I am, ready for the "Hop"! I know you like those shoes, too, right?!

 I used a suiting type fabric that was much more lightweight than the felt you usually see on poodle skirts and it laid very nicely. I used black zig zag sequin trim (which I also used on this table runner) for the bottom of the skirt. LOVE. 

 It was a very dance-able skirt (dance-able is a word, btw.)

 See?

 You twist like this...

 and this.

We went all out at school. With all the outfits, decorations, making and drinking root beer floats, learning the Hand Jive and The Twist, comparing the 50's lifestyles to today's, and of course lots of counting activities to 50, it was a super fun day. 

 We made paper chains (the kids made them themselves!) and they had to create their own pattern since we were learning about patterns at the time in math.

 We made Rock and Roll records. 

 And we even had a teacher on roller skates during the Sock Hop! 

I have some fabulous pictures of the kids boogying at the Sock Hop, but I'm not permitted to show them! Just imagine almost 250+ kids in the gym doing the Hand Jive. haha! 

 Here's my kindergarten team all dressed up. Love them. 

If you're a teacher and want to do a 50's day, we got a lot of ideas from here, here, and here. Some of those links include some great printables we used!!  Or you could follow me on pinterest and I have some ideas under my "School" Board. 

Want to know how to make your own awesome poodle skirt? Of course you do! You never know when you might get invited to your very own "hop"! You could use it as dress up for kids, Halloween costume, or 50's day like us!! Read on :)

Poodle Skirt Tutorial

Materials Needed

2 yds. of lightweight material of your choice 

(to keep within the Poodle Skirt tradition go with baby blues, powder pinks, black, etc.)

1/4 of a yd. (or less) of white fusible felt 

(I used fusible felt so I didn't have to get wonder under, but you could use regular felt if 

you had it on hand and use wonder under with it.)

1/4 yd. (or less) of contrasting cotton fabric.

Elastic for the waistband (3-4 inches wide), enough to go around your natural waist plus 2 inches.

Trim for the leash and bottom of the skirt (about 2 yds. for the leash trim and 4 1/2-5 yds for the trim at the hem)

(On my skirt, I used thin black sequin trim for the leash and a thicker zig zag sequin 

trim for the bottom hem of the skirt)

A tiny piece of coordinating ribbon for the bow on the poodle's collar

sewing essentials

Create the Skirt

There are a lot of poodle skirt tutorials out there that look more complicated than necessary. As soon as I realized I got to make a poodle skirt, the perfect tutorial popped into mind. I just knew Dana from Made's Circle Skirt Tutorial would be the perfect fit for this project.

Source

I was excited, too, because I've been dying to try that tutorial anyway! It definitely was a great fit. Making the skirt part was SO easy. Thanks Dana for such a great tutorial!! Definitely use the lightweight fabric like she suggests- it makes a huge difference in the look of your skirt.

Follow the tutorial just as she says, but before you sew on your elastic, make and sew on the poodle and trim.

Make the Poodle

I used this poodle pattern (scroll down to find it), but here's another one if you like it better. I actually copied the image onto a word document and enlarged it as big as a regular 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper would allow me to do and then printed it. This may vary depending on whether you make the skirt for an adult or child.

 

 Pin the pattern to the contrasting cotton fabric and then cut it out. If you used cotton fabric for this step like I did, it'd be smart to use some kind of Fray-Stop (the spray or the gel) on the edges.

Pin the pattern to the fleece. Don't worry about the legs or the tail for this part, just cut along the body and make the balls for the feet and the tail separately.  

Lay your fleece over the cotton body of the poodle, making sure it's lined up on all sides.  

If you did not use fusible fleece, follow the directions on the Wonder Under. If you did use fusible fleece, flip it over and iron on top of the cotton side to get the fleece to stick. Be sure to line the fleece up carefully-especially on the balls for the paws and tail! 

 Pin the poodle to the skirt and make sure it is in the place you want it by trying the skirt on or holding it up to you in a mirror. Use Wonder Under to adhere the poodle to the skirt. Then sew along the outside edge of the poodle (about 3/8 an inch). Careful around the curves of the circles!!

Sew on all the trim

Once the poodle is sewn on, pin down whatever trim you're using. If you use sequin trim, please be smarter than I was and pin it in a way that allows you to sew along with the direction of the sequins. I sewed against the sequins and it created some puckering in the fabric along the leash and it was difficult to sew at times. When pinning the leash, pin it in a curly pattern as seen above. 

 After it's all sewed on, tie the coordinating ribbon in a bow and tack it to the dog's "collar" with a few stitches (either hand-stitched or on the machine).

 Then sew on the trim to the hem. See what happened to me? I ran out of the zig zag sequin trim and, of course, I made this at 9:00 the night before our 50's day so last-minute runs to the fabric store weren't even possible. There was only about 8 inches or so that was lacking trim so I just sewed on some regular zig zag trim. I may go back and fix it later. But it worked for the day. No one noticed....I don't think

Sew on the Elastic

Sew on the elastic just as Dana describes in her tutorial for the circle skirt and you're done! 

 I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! I'd love to see your poodle skirt if you make one! 

Now I'm off to go dance some more....

Thanks for reading! 

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