Tutu tutorial

I was asked to make a tutu for my niece, Baby A's birthday this weekend. My sister-in-law wanted purple and black, with some matching skull clips! I'll be making the clips later this week, and I'll do a quick how-to for those too! I can't wait to see how cute this tutu looks on Baby A!

What you'll need:

Tulle (I like to use 2-3 colors, I think too many start to look kind of clown-ish)

Elastic (I suggest using something between 1/2 inch to 1 inch wide elastic. It's really a matter of preference which one you use. Normally I use 1/2 inch, but I had 1 inch in the house, so that's what I used)

Scissors

If you buy your tulle on a roll, you just saved yourself a TON of time. If you bought it by the yard from a bolt, you've got a LOT of cutting to do. To save a couple dollars, I bought mine from the bolt. I've learned a few tricks for cutting tulle, so it wasn't too bad.

Cut your tulle in strips. I like to cut mine 6-12 inches wide. (If you buy it on a roll, it's 6 inches wide.) This makes a lot less cutting for yourself. How long your strips are is really up to you. I wanted the tutu to be pretty short, so I cut mine to be 1/4 of how long the tulle was coming off the bolt. Keep in mind, the tulle is already folded in half on the bolt, so it was half the length of the bolt. 

Measure your elastic around the waist of who's going to be wearing it. Keep in mind that it stretches, so you want it to be slightly smaller than their waist. You don't want it falling off! Sew the ends of your elastic together to create the waist band.

Once you have your tulle cut, you're ready to begin. Take a strip of tulle, and fold it lengthwise until it's a thin strip, like this.

Making sure it's centered, make a loop and place it behind the elastic, like this. 

Bring up the ends of the tulle and stick them through the loop, like this. 

Pull down and tighten the knot.

You can do your colors however you want. I chose to do black, purple, black purple.

How many you'll need to do depends on how full you want your tutu. I kept sliding mine over and squishing them together so I could fit more on. In the end, I had a nice full tutu! I had bought 2 yards of purple, 2 yards of black, and had a decent amount of tulle leftover (maybe 1/4 of the strips). It only cost $5 to make!
Good luck, and I'd love to see what you come up with!