Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Tutu Busy!

Happy 2013!



I didn't intend to have so much time in between this post and the last- but goodness was this holiday season ever busy! All three of us have been fighting an awful cold as of late- I feel like it's really been kicking this pregnant ladies bum. 

My crafting projects from last month included making 6 tutus for my nieces and I managed to put together a double page spread in my daughter's baby book scrapbook I'm making for her (Hopefully I'll finish that before the next little one gets here- I'm about 11 months behind!). We also got the supplies so I can make a cushion to go on the toy box we picked up for our daughter at Goodwill in the beginning of December (more on that later) and add a week of travel visiting family out of state and our month disappeared!

I'm so so happy with how the tutus turned out- and all the nieces seemed to love them.

I know there's a couple zillion tutorials out there for making tutus, but I thought I'd share a few pictures of my way of putting them together.

The first tutu I made was back in October when I made a ghost costume for our daughter. I bought tulle off the bolt for cheap and quickly found that having to cut the strips both width and length wise was not for me. As I don't have a cutting board or anything, and I'm impatient and "just want to get it done" my strips turned out all ragged and uneven but it turned out okay, after all it was for a ghost!




I attached some ribbon to the front of her tutu and also made a matching bow, which I attached to some loops that I sewed onto a plain headband. I put those loops on a plain black and a plain white headband that she has, the loops allow me to change out the bows on the headband whenever I feel like it. (Also the little chair in the background was reupholstered by my husband- it used to be pink with white polka dots. Little girl loves yellow and owls).

Despite not liking all the extra cutting I enjoyed the project and knew that I wanted to make some for our nieces for Christmas. I found a site online that I could purchase tulle on the roll for $1.65 a piece and looked around online to get an idea of how big I should make the waist bands for each girl.

Then came the actual prep and assembly.
I used one of my husband's tape measurers and some scissors. I also found that requesting my husband's help with the cutting, some hot coca and lots of episodes of the Walking Dead (thank you Netflix) were super helpful. Oh! And breaks to stretch the pregnant back are needed.




I made my strips 16 inches long. I would measure and cut one strip, then layer the tulle on top, cut to match and repeat until I had maybe 10-12 strips. Then I would move my stack and repeat the process. I used about 2 rolls of tulle per tutu, but the largest waist band I covered was 20 inches long. You would need more tulle for larger tutus.


  

The next step is the easiest part. I laid my three colors in front of me and created a pattern. I layer 3 strips of tulle and tie a knot. With the first tutu I made I used a slip knot, but read somewhere that those can come undone. So I just tied a regular knot on these. Tight enough to keep them attached, but not tight enough to make the elastic fold over.

I did a pattern of 3 color combinations: the first was the aqua, purple, aqua; the second was pink, aqua, pink; and the third was purple, pink, purple. I just repeated those patterns around until when given a stretch the elastic doesn't show too much in between each knot.

- That's where the cocoa and Walking Dead came in handy- super repetitive work calls for good drinks and good shows ;) -    

That's it! They're super easy to make :)

My craft list for the year is already pretty long- hopefully this cold disappears soon and I can get started!

  

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