Tuesday, November 9, 2010

ToToo Easy

I have always wanted to make a tutu for my girls, that they can use for dress up or whatever. I just always thought they involved gathering and sewing. Well, last week I found out they are so easy to make. So here is a quick tutorial for anyone as intimidated as I was about tulle.

First, I bought two yards of tulle. This seemed like a lot at the time, but you can tell from my picture that two yards does not make a very full skirt. You can buy tulle in six inch strips at craft stores, but I only have Walmart so I bought it off a bolt. This means I had to cut it all down to six inch strips. It didn't take too long. So that left me with 6'' by 45'' strips. (45'' is the width of the fabric)

Those strips folded in half will be around 22'' in length. I was making the skirt for Zoe so I took each strip and cut it in half making each strip 22 1/2" and the final length 11''.

I used 3/4'' elastic, because it is what I had, but I suppose you can use a different size or even an elastic headband. I measured Zoe's waist then made the elastic 2 1/2 inches smaller. This is because the elastic will stretch as you add the tulle. Trust me you will want to make the elastic smaller or your final product will be way too big.

To start assembling the skirt I used my sugar canister to stretch out the elastic for me to tie the tulle to.


Gather the tulle and fold in half. Make a slip knot and push knots close together to make a full skirt.

Continue around until the skirt is as full as you like. I kept my first skirt pretty simple, but I'm thinking of making Ever Joy one and adding some embellishments like flowers. Enjoy!

1 comment:

susansspace said...

This is just TOO clever! Great tutorial, Kate!
I'm going to make one of these for my little niece!
S: )