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-   -   The Poodleskirt Project (for Musical Festival) (https://www.quiltingboard.com/general-chit-chat-non-quilting-talk-f7/poodleskirt-project-musical-festival-t120142.html)

fabric whisperer 05-01-2011 02:42 PM

5 Attachment(s)
Ok, anyone who reads Doodles by Debbie may have already heard about the poodleskirt project... we have an annual May Festival, its a showcase of the kids ages 4th grade thru 9th grade, orchestras, bands, and choirs. The choir teacher called in a panic, the principal tattled my name that I am "crafty". LOL

Anyway, she had 9 poodleskirts made for her a few years ago by another mom. That mom now is in stage 4 breast cancer, so she was not about to ask her if she could make 10 more (the group grew that large)... these are for 5th, 6th & 7th grade dancers when our choir sings at the May Fest.

Well, I told her we'd fix her up, and she would be covered. She dropped off yards and yards of felt, and one sample skirt that the other mom made. I was a little worried when I noticed the poodles were just glued on. And were already peeling apart.

Well, first order of business is to secure those little puppies on.
2nd order of biz is to bust out 10 new skirts.
Don't want to disturb the original work, will only stitch those dogs to match the new ones.
And I am duplicating the art exact so the new ones look the same, there is sentimental value to the first 9. Messing with that is like cutting up grandma's quilt for rags, I'm not willing to go there LOL

So here are pics: the original sample skirt is the green one. We did get "creative freedom" to make the new dogs a little fancier, so we used sparkle felt on one (yellow skirts) and black/gray for the blue skirts. More pics to come later, my daughter and one of the other choir members are hand-basting "leashes" as I post this :)

shows the sparkly felt that we used to jazz up the black on black doggies
[ATTACH=CONFIG]191702[/ATTACH]

original that we had to match... this was done by the other mom, and is my "pattern"
[ATTACH=CONFIG]191710[/ATTACH]

our version of the new doggies
[ATTACH=CONFIG]191711[/ATTACH]

my daughter's friend who is a choir member too
[ATTACH=CONFIG]191712[/ATTACH]

my daughter hand basting on the leashes
[ATTACH=CONFIG]191713[/ATTACH]

debcavan 05-01-2011 02:44 PM

Oh were they lucky to find you. They are adorable

fabric whisperer 05-01-2011 02:44 PM

I will post new pics after we get the applique stitching done on the doggies to make them a little jazzier and secured onto the skirts to last! I made the girls cut out the parts of the poodles (the upper layers) and they are basting all the leashes... then I can finish up on the machine tomorrow....

Oh yeah, did I mention I got this phone call last Thursday, and the festival is in a few days? ROFL ... not to worry, she'll have her skirts, and the dancers will look great... We got sequins-dot fabrics for scarves for their necks. A little flashy, yay

Quiltforme 05-01-2011 02:45 PM

Wow so cool to incorporate the kids into the project too makes it even more special for them! Great job taking over!

BeeNana 05-01-2011 02:46 PM

I was hoping for an update. Great helpers and what a wonderful kind project you are doing. Will look forward to more pictures.

pennyswings1 05-01-2011 02:53 PM

Love the project and you are doing a wonderful job. Your daughter is adorable.
Please post the final results, I know we would all love to see them.
Will pray for the mom who did the original skirts.

GrannieAnnie 05-01-2011 02:59 PM

cute. be sure to get a pic when the group performs.

lauriejo 05-01-2011 03:00 PM

Cute skirts! Don't you just love it when someone hears that you sew or are crafty.

fabric whisperer 05-01-2011 03:01 PM


Originally Posted by lauriejo
Cute skirts! Don't you just love it when someone hears that you sew or are crafty.

LOL Lauriejo ~ these are the Akron Public Schools' May Festival coming up :) you may have heard of it, you're just up the road from me!

lauriejo 05-01-2011 03:33 PM

OMG! Small world!

Bonbonary 05-01-2011 04:08 PM

Great job. Love the new poodles.

Joanie2 05-01-2011 06:08 PM

You are doing a fabulous thing! I remember poodle skirts when I was in grammer school. I think mine was grey with a pink poodle. These look great and you are a real treasure helping as you do at the last minute. It's wonderful when you have a friend you can rely on in an emergency. Keep up the good work Dawn.

Quilter7x 05-01-2011 06:09 PM

You're all doing an excellent job! They're coming out much better than I expected after reading about them in Debbie's PDA. Hats off to you all! :thumbup:

fabric whisperer 05-01-2011 06:35 PM

thanks, but now I got a really dork-o question ~ I got something, I am thinking a small amount of singed glitter from the glitter dogs, on my soleplate... used dryer sheets aren't taking it off... any other ideas? I am making the last couple dogs, but I had a brainfart and used my good iron for this. Not sure how I got it on there, I'm using my teflon presser sheet to trap the dogs while ironing... hmmmm off to see the wizard for a magical remedy ;)

I've used heat-n-bond lite for the 2nd layers on the dogs... don't think that's what the sticky is, but I guess it could have transferred?

fabric whisperer 05-01-2011 06:42 PM

oh, on a funny sidenote, I made the girls figure out the size of each circle... they looked at me horrified! I said "but I've got the waist measurements"... they were like deer caught in the headlights! LOL

It's easy, if anyone has to figure it out...
waist divided by pi, divided by 2 (24" waist = 3.82 radius)
then add the measurement from waist to knee...
then add 3" for covering the knee...
x2 gives you the yardage you'll need...
craft felt is 72" wide, so this particular girls skirt needed a 49" circle cut.
We re-folded the felt to make a 49x49 square we were cutting from...

This leaves a long piece that you get your waistband from :)

hperttula123 05-01-2011 06:47 PM

They are going to be great!!! It is awesome that they get to help make the skirts. :) Make sure to take pictures when they are done, I can't wait to see them.

Joanie2 05-01-2011 07:57 PM

I know this might sound like a dumb idea but what about those wonderous Mr. Clean white magic things? They take care of so many other problems. Could it hurt?

Nanamoms 05-01-2011 09:45 PM

This suggestion if from someone who has made poodle skirts for pageants. Just updated one this week. There is a "sew a seam" glue by singer (and some other brands) but we always used a "good" glue to sew on the leash braid. Also, you can use it to tack down the poodle appliques. Saves lots of time. Believe me, I did 4 different outfits in 2 days, not the actual sewing of the outfits but "redoing" things the seamstress didn't do quite right and altering the clothes to fit 3 yo twins. I made bows, put stones on the glitzy outfits. This used to be what I did prior to having to slow down due to disability. Just imagine putting thousands of size 16 (teeny) rhinestones on by hand. No sewing, everything placed just right with a "special glue made for that purpose! Many many hours of work. But to see the finished project gives you so much joy! And especially when you get comments from other 'famous' seamstresses!!

Good luck with your poodle skirts. I think the worst part is getting the hem straight. There is a pattern for it though!!

debbieumphress 05-02-2011 03:04 AM

Doodles from Debbie... Now that sounds familiar. LOL. I Love what you are all doing. They are turning out so cute. As far as the glitter and sticky??? use a bit of WD40 and it comes right off and dries quickly from your plate.
Don't forget to update my PDA for those who are watching the poodle skirts there. LOL. HUGS♥♥

amma 05-02-2011 07:48 AM

You and the girls are doing a great job on these :D:D:D

babyboomerquilter 05-02-2011 07:55 AM

Really cute pattern!

lheartsl 05-02-2011 07:55 AM

GREAT JOB!!! would love to see the finish project...

(yea I don't know if I could have answered the question that you asked your daughter and her friend! ) :)

fabric whisperer 05-02-2011 07:52 PM

1 Attachment(s)
so here is the stitching... I'll get a group shot of all the skirts when done with everything... and we'll try and get a group shot of the dancer, because they are all underage, and not all my kids, I have to be careful ;) safety issues first.

I had stitched the normal way first, and undid it on my sampler... it looked way better to do it backward like this, the unsmooth boo-boo's don't show quite as bad as "innies" do

I am using bright contrasting colors, 1/2 my doggies are black/black sparkle so one is red, one is yellow, one is green, etc for the threads
[ATTACH=CONFIG]192256[/ATTACH]

pennyswings1 05-04-2011 01:52 PM

Gee that came out so cute. Love the quilting stitches around the appliques and the rinestone for the eye. Just adorable. Thanks for the update.

cmagee84 05-04-2011 01:53 PM

Adorable! I love poodles. My first child was a poodle! :)

fabric whisperer 05-09-2011 07:26 PM

1 Attachment(s)
yukky pic, sorry, this one is from my phone... but this was tonite as we were off to dress rehearsal. Total of 20 ~ I made 11 (teacher added one at the 11th hour), and then I touched up the original 9 so the dogs were stitched and secured.

Better pics on other camera, I'm just too whipped to get the cord out, so more pics tomorrow :) The dogs don't have a white patch, that is the girls' name tag so its easier to dress 20 bodies tomorrow night during all the preshow mayhem

fabric whisperer 05-10-2011 02:34 PM

7 Attachment(s)
ok, here are better pics from dress rehearsal last night... sorry, its hard to get pics because these girls move fast. Even the guys were happy that we jazzed up their shirts with a little sparkle, and a little rag of sparkle to hang out of their back pocket, too. This will be a TV appearance, BTW ~ this dance segment will air on our local cable station numerous times daily for the next 4 months :)

here's our group getting last minute instruction from the choir teacher & dance choreographer
[ATTACH=CONFIG]195456[/ATTACH]

toward the end of the routine, the guys in the front scoot the girls under their legs
[ATTACH=CONFIG]195461[/ATTACH]

and voila!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]195462[/ATTACH]

np3 05-10-2011 02:57 PM

Girls are adorable. Now you can figure out something else for the guys!

debbieumphress 05-10-2011 04:18 PM

I thinbk the guys look like they toughies in the poodle skirt days too. Great job by everyone. SO fun. COngrats.

Shemjo 05-10-2011 06:52 PM

Cute pictures. Lots of work in the poodle skirts, but it looks like it was/is worth it!

fabric whisperer 05-10-2011 07:40 PM


Originally Posted by debbieumphress
I thinbk the guys look like they toughies in the poodle skirt days too. Great job by everyone. SO fun. COngrats.

we tried to coerce one of the guys to put on a poodle skirt, no go. We bribed as best we could! A couple girls didn't show last night at the rehearsal, so me and one of the other moms put on their skirts and twirled til we were dizzy.

During the dance routine, they all clear backward, and 5 girls do kartwheels, and flips. So after, the girls asked if I knew how to do a cartwheel, LOL and they know I'm just a big kid... lets just say I'm sore today, and glad I didn't break anything!!!

pennyswings1 05-12-2011 05:24 PM

Just love how everything came out. Adorable!! You all did a great job!!


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