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| No sew tutu for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon, Jan 2012 |
I loosely followed the instructions on this blog making changes where I felt that I needed to. I had never worked with tulle before and let me tell you, it took me a while to figure out how to handle the stuff! Once I did figure it out though things went much smoother. Here are the steps that I actually did to make my tutu:
Supplies -
5 yards of shiny purple tulle (88¢/yd)
2 yards each of shiny lime green, shiny red & shiny orange tulle (88¢/yd)
1 roll of 2" purple ribbon ($1.98)
Tape measure, ruler or yard stick
Scissors
Note: This was way too much tulle for what I wanted. I used all the purple, all the lime green and only 1 yard each of red and orange. I'm taking out some of the strips because I don't want it as full as it is, but if you want a fluffy tutu by all means use it all!
Steps -
1. Fold each piece of tulle in half so that selvage is as even as possible.
2. Cut into smaller sections if needed. (I cut mine down to easily handled 1 yard sections.)
3. Cut to desired length or simply trim selvage so that it's even. I wanted my length at about 15" so I cut my tulle at 16" from the fold which allows for 1" in the waistband.
4. Fold the tulle in half along the length (selvage to fold) and repeat until it gets to a width of 3-4".
5. Using your measuring device and scissors cut the folded tulle into strips at a width of 3-4" wide. Save the two end strips as standbys since they tend to be a little uneven.
6. Measure the length of ribbon needed to tie around your waist. I suggest leaving an extra 6" on each end which you can trim as needed when you're done making the tutu.
7. On one end of the ribbon at approximately where you want to tie the tutu on your waist (leaving a tail) tie a knot. You'll use this as a "stopper" of sorts for the first tulle strip.
8. Tie the ribbon snugly around the back of a chair so that the tulle will hang loosely after tying it on.
9. If you will be using more than one color, determine the layout of how you will spread out the colors and put the strips on in that order. Alternatively, you can do what I did...which was to put the dominant color on first, then determine where the other colors will fall within that. For mine, I put the purple on first, then determined that I'd use all the green and place it before every third purple strip. From there I decided that I'd put a red strip between every other set of purple strips and orange in all the other strips.
10. To apply the strips hold the fold in front of the ribbon waistband. Reach behind the ribbon and pick up the ends of the tulle and pull it through through the loop created by the fold of the tulle. Pull to desired tightness...I'd recommend leaving it just loose enough that you can slide the strip to adjust if needed. Slide to the knot in the ribbon.
11. Keep applying the strips as above until you either run out of strips or feel that the tutu is as full as you want it.
12. Try the tutu on and make sure that there will not be a gap of tulle when you tie it on. If there is a gap, you'll either need to add more tulle or spread out the tulle on the ribbon. The fewer tulle strips and the further spread out the strips are, the less fluffy the tutu will be.
13. At the point that you want to tie the ribbon closed tie a knot in the ribbon after the last strip of tulle.
14. Finish off the ribbon however you want (cut off the end in whatever design you prefer).
Now, I'm not quite happy with how the waistband looks because I don't every piece of ribbon covered up with tulle since I don't want it extremely full. So, here's a tutorial out there as to how to wrap the waistband (based on a child's tutu) using 7/8" ribbon to make it look cleaner so that's what I'll eventually do...that'll also help to maintain an even spacing between each piece of tulle.
All in all when I look at what I actually used of the supplies, this tutu cost less than $12 to make and less than 2 hours to put together (including the time it took for me to figure out how to work with the tulle). Not bad for someone who does not have a crafty bone in her body!! lol!
I am now all set "costume"-wise for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. Now, I just need to be able to run and train again!! :D
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