Do-It-Yourself Poodle Skirts

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Das Schmidt Haus Sockhop
Earlier this week I posted a recap of the Sock Hop fundraiser for Mary’s Meals we recently attended. As much fun as we had chatting with friends and dancing the night away, I shamefully admit I did my fair share of complainin’ and moanin’ about WHAT TO WEAR?!? I called every friend whose daughters just might have a poodle skirt from a past dance recital or Halloween costume. “Nope, sorry!” was the typical response received. So I was on my own here.

Thank you, Internet and mommy blogs, for coming to my aid.

As I shared in my sock hop fundraiser post, Mary’s Meals mission is to feed chronically hungry children one meal per day all for a dime. So that became my motivator: to frugally figure out these costumes so any money potentially spent on buying or renting sock hop attire for my family could be gifted to Mary’s Meals. All said and done, the project really was rather simple, thanks to one mommy blog, and we did it all for a couple of quarters.

Here are my quick steps to making a DIY poodle skirt. ** Oh, a very important note: before you begin this project, don’t forget to serenade your crafting with some 50’s tunes on Pandora! **

— Step 1 —

Raid your kids’ dress-up storage chest, look through their past Halloween costumes, shop their closet, your closet, or your neighbor’s closet. Just find something already on hand to use as the skirt. I found two skirts from worn out princess dress-up costumes.
Kids Dress-Up Storage Trunck

— Step 2 —

Buy a 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of white felt from a craft store for your poodle. I bought two sheets given I needed two poodles. Grand total = $0.54.

— Step 3 —

Print off this handy-dandy FREE poodle printable over at obSEUSSed.com.

— Step 4 —

Trace the printable on the white felt and cut out the poodle.

Poodle Skirt Outline

— Step 5 —

Hot glue the poodle to the skirt. (This really is too easy to be true!)

— Step 6 —

Find some ribbon already on hand in your craft closet or from the mess of leftover wrapping paper and accessories cluttering your closet. Use the ribbon for the poodle’s collar and leash. Hot glue those to the skirt/poodle as well.
DIY Homemade Poodle Skirts

— Step 7 —

Using a black marker, draw on the poodle’s nose and mouth. Voilà! There you have it. One thing I forgot to do was hot glue a white pom-pom to the poodle’s tail, a nice finishing touch. Now if you want to make a more sophisticated no-sew inexpensive poodle skirt, that post here has you covered, too. My goal was to repurpose materials we already had and make the project as simple and inexpensive as possible.

With the skirts finished, all we had to do was pair them with cardigans, white socks, and saddle-like shoes found in the girls’ closets. Lucy also raided my scarf collection for one final touch.
Lucy's homemade poodle skirt for the sockhop

Lydia dressed for sockhop

* * *

With the girls rockin’ and rollin’, we just needed to figure out something for the boys and me. Joel found a cool retro shirt hanging in the back of his closet that he hasn’t worn in years. Wear that more often, baby! He matched it with blue jeans — rolled at the cuffs, of course — white socks, and black shoes. Jude was easy: a white t-shirt, blue jeans, white socks, and black shoes. I wore a red cardigan, scarf, and black skirt. We made a Laverne & Shirley inspired  “L” from the remaining white felt to attach to my sweater. L for Lisa! I also had a pair of white Vans circa 1994 in my closet and paired those with white socks. My headband and Jude’s white t-shirt were the only other things purchased for this event, each $1 at Dollar Tree. Everything else we found while digging through our closets. All together, we outfitted our family in sock hop attire for a grand total of $2.68.
Jude ready for the sockhop
P.S., I’m still celebrating because our 2015 Halloween costumes are figured out already. #NoStress #HappyMom

Linked up with 7 Quick Takes hosted at This Ain’t the Lyceum.

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