Poodle Skirt

For my second project, I knew I wanted to make my own Halloween costume.  I'd never gone as a 50s girl, and a poodle skirt seemed simple enough.  I settled on pink acrylic felt and McCall's 5681.

I really enjoyed the process of making the skirt, but was not at all pleased with the result.  Two layers of thick felt gathered at the waist does nothing for an apple girl's figure, especially one with such a short torso.

My biggest problem was the petticoat.  The pattern back calls for netting or tulle for the petticoat fabric.  In my naivete, I assumed they were realitvely the same thing and bought tulle.  Needless to say, tulle did not give any boost to the heavy felt at all.  So, I got petticoat net and tried again, this time with a stiff lining fabric underneath.  That had some structure to it, but still didn't give the skirt much shape.  I wanted to add a ruffle to the bottom of the petticoat but ran out of time.  I ended up wearing both, as seen in the photo below.

After my unenthusiastic wearing of the ensemble on Halloween, I decided to move on to bigger and better things.