Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween Poodle Skirts

This year for Halloween I decided that the girls would be 50s sock hop girls with poodle skirts.  We have had a very busy month and I knew that these would be easy and cute. 

I just put each girl in a onesie and cardigan and then tied a piece of pink gingham fabric around their head for a headband.  A lot of pictures show a scarf around the neck also but I was too paranoid to tie anything around a 7 month old and 2 year old's neck. 

 
The poodle skirts were really easy, I knew that it is just a simple circle skirt made out of felt but I used the tutorials by obSEUSSed and Dana Made It to help with the measurements.  First I measured each girls waist as well as the length that I wanted the skirt (generally a little below their knees).  To determine how much fabric I needed to cut I used the calculation at obSEUSSed and took the desired length times 2 and added 8 to that (so for my oldest I wanted it to be 12 inches long (12x2+8=32).  I cut a piece of felt 32x32 and then folded it in half twice so that the resulting square was 16x16 (make sure you know which corner is the inner most corner).

Once you have your square, use the calculations done for you at Dana Made It to determine how to cut out the center of your skirt.  The calculation is the waist measurement plus 2 divided by 6.28 (for my oldest her waist is 17 inches so (17+2)/6.28=3.03).  Measure from the center corner identified above and then cut in an arch for the waist hole (see red lines in picture below).  Once you have the center hole cut, just measure from the cut line the length you want the skirt to be (for me this was 12 inches) and cut along that line to make the outer circle (see blue lines in picture below), the final product should look like a donut.



Once you have your donut, its time to add the elastic.  I took each girls waist measurement and stretched 1.5 inch elastic along my measuring tape and cut at the measurement that matched their waist.  I didn't pull too much but made sure that it would be tight enough to keep the skirt up.  I sewed the elastic together into a loop and tacked down the ends.  I lined up the front, back and sides of the elastic with the front, back and sides of the skirt and then pinned it in those 4 places (note that the elastic will be smaller than the skirt opening).  To sew the elastic on I started at the back pin and using a zig zag stitch sewed a few stitches.  I then found the next pin in line (the side pin) and stretched the elastic until it laid flat along the material.  I continued to sew with the elastic stretched until I met the pin and repeated until I got all the way around.  Note that the elastic should be sew on top of the felt so that it lays nicely.  Once the elastic is on you are done with the sewing.  Because felt won't fray and because it is so heavy, I just made sure that the bottom of the skirt was cut nicely and did not sew the bottom.  I embellished with a poodle that I bought from my local material store as well as trim for the poodle's leash.  I just laid them out on the skirt and attached them with hot glue.

All in all I think I made both skirts within an hour and half or 2 hours, so not bad for a DIY Halloween costume, and they look pretty cute if I do say so myself :).

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  1. This year for Halloween I decided that the girls would be 50s sock hop girls with poodle skirts. We have had a very busy month and I knew that ... apoodleskirt.blogspot.com

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