Making 1950s Rock and Roll Poodle Skirts?

Joan
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January 16, 20120 found this helpful

Those will be expensive party favors, if made true to the originals. Most fabric stores will have felt wide enough to make a poodle skirt. They might not have enough of one color to make all of the skirts the same color. But they wouldn't have to be the same color. What did you plan on using for the poodle applique. If you buy them they are quite expensive.

Any skirt even similar to what the poodle skirts were won't have an elastic waist band. You could use velcro for the closure instead of a button, but it still probably wouldn't fit every size. Any waistband that has a closure on it will require a 7" zipper.

I was in high school in the fifties and am very familiar with that type of skirt. Although very few of the girls had actual poodle skirts, we all just had lots of very full skirts that we wore a whole lot of can-cans under. They were so full that when we wore a full length coat in the winter, where the buttons stopped, our skirts stuck way out.

If you go to a party supply store you could probably find some cute 50s style party decorations and favors, that would be a lot less expensive than the skirts.

Frugal Sunnie
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January 23, 20120 found this helpful

RedHatterB is right, those could be some expensive party favours!

But you might be able to run up some skirts if you are willing to use recycled fabrics like sheets from a thrift shop, and using the poodle pattern with a white sheet-you would turn under the raw edge and then sew it to the skirt panel, instead of using felt that wouldn't need the raw edges finished. You're going for the look, right, not historical accuracy?

For the waist band, simply fold over and make a casing with an opening after you've sewn the panels together. Then insert a drawstring-elastic cord through the opening. To make the drawstring-elastic cord, you cut a piece of waistband elastic 12-18" long, sew drawstring cords to each end of the elastic, and then thread that through the casing.

Try to figure out the average waist and hips of the girls invited, and make the skirts big enough to go over the biggest girl's hips.

The thing about poodle skirts, though, is that crinoline petticoats made the skirts pouff out and gave the skirt that cute flouncy flare. You might consider using cheap nylon net (around $1.50 a yard) to line the skirts; the gathering effect from the drawstring being tightened might give enough of the flare to please the girls.

Good luck, it does sound like a cute idea, but it could go costly very quickly!

Catherine
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January 23, 20120 found this helpful

Pattern for a poodle skirt

The pattern (see the image I upload) is a simple circle. It's cut in two half-circles to do not waste material.

This is how you draw the two circles of the pattern :

Inner circle : measure your waist, divide the waist measure by 3.14 you get the diameter of the inner circle, divide the result by 2 you get the radius.
Example : waist size: 60 cm divided by 3.14 = 19 centimetres divided by 2 = 9.5 centimetres. 9,5 is the radius. On the pattern line BC is the diameter, radius is half of the diameter or center of BC.

To draw the second circle: measure from your waist down to the desired lenght of the skirt, to the knee or to the calf + hem. Add the radius of the first circle to that measure. You can now draw the second circle from the center of the first circle.

Cut an opening for the zip and sew a bias round the waist and the hem at the skirt bottom. And that's all !