Cat's Pyjamas and More Poodle-less Poodle Skirts

Maggie & Lily model their cat pjs

Honestly, I have been making stuff since my last post in November. I just haven’t been writing about it.  I have a lot of catching up to do here!  I am also thinking about doing a TBT entry each Thursday to show stuff I have made in the past.  (Maybe I will go all the way back to my 8^th grade graduation dress…hmmmm)  Today’s throwback only goes back to November.

 

 When I left off, I had sent a package to Lily and Maggie with poodle-less poodle skirts.  I also made them cat pajamas which I thought were the “cat’s pyjamas.“ Maggie and Lily liked them enough to model them.  (along with a little stuffed cat.  They really want a cat.  Their mother really doesn’t want one)

 

Little cat pajamas. Lily:pink, Maggie: blue

Of course the American Girl dolls and Raggedies couldn’t be left out, so they got cat pajamas too. 

Tracing the smaller cat applique on my "light box"

And if twirly poodle-less skirts are good enough for the girls, they are good enough for the dollies too.   I had a pattern for 18” doll poodle skirt, but I wanted to replicate the appliqués from the full-size skirts.  How to downsize the appliqué pattern to the right proportions for dolls?

Since I had photographs of the finished child-sized skirts, I simply put them into a photo editor and sized them to fit the doll skirts.  Then I taped tissue paper to my monitor and traced the pictures turning the screen into a makeshift light box. 

 

Voila! 

Just like the ones Maggie and Lily have.

Poodle-less Poodle Skirts

A few years ago, my sister (Borg #7 of 8) bought some fabric and patterns to make costumes for one of our nieces.  That niece has since outgrown dress-up, but the fabric was still around.  She gave it to me in hopes that I might find the time to make up the garments before we ran out of nieces little enough for dress-up play.

One of the costumes was a poodle skirt  for which she had bought pink felt.  I happened to have some lime polyester green felt sitting around from a time when I had planned to make a tree skirt with it.  (After purchasing the felt, I realized this fabric choice may have been fine in the 70s but fleece would be a better fabric for a tree skirt since it is much more washable, has a nicer hand and comes in a greater variety of colors and patterns.)

So I had it in my mind that I had the fabric on hand to make a pair of poodle skirts some day when Maggie announced that the theme for her birthday party this year would be a Cat and Dog Birthday “Pawty.” Now "some day" had a deadline.

No poodles here. 

Neither Maggie nor Lily are really poodle people, so I was inspired to use the cat appliqué in the pattern for Lily and the Scottie for Mags. 

I envisioned designing the skirts to coordinate by using this lime green polka dotted ribbon (from my stash) to make a bow around the neck on the pink skirt and a matching hot pink ribbon for the green one. I had pale pink soutache on hand from the Victorian velvet coat which was perfect for the traditional leash. (Probably the one traditional element left by the time I was done)   The cat appliqué pattern included a face, but it looked too much like those mean Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp.  I came up with this design for green eyelashes and a little hot pink embroidered nose which I adapted to the Scottie as well.  (These are clearly not faceless Amish pets.)

Detail of embroidery and matching ribbons

I mailed off the skirts in time for the party. Their mother (Borg #6 of 8) reported to me that it is impossible to wear a poodle skirt and not spin around in it until you’re dizzy if you are Maggie.  

Dizzy Maggie kerplops with her Scottie skirt

Here, she and her friend Caitlin take the skirts for a spin. (Lily is boycotting dresses at the moment.)  

 

They just can't help themselves.

I wonder what it will take to get me to make the other costumes my sister entrusted me to finish for her.  Tick-tock.  Maggie and Lily are not getting any younger...