Tutu Tips

I got caught up yesterday making this for String Bean that I forgot to blog! Whoops. I'd say, "It won't happen again," but I'd probably be lying.

A few notes about that tutu if you plan to make it. My baby has a pretty small waist and is pretty short for 19 months old. I suggest you measure your kid to see where you want the tutu to fall. I made 20" tulle pieces instead of 24". Combing the shorter pieces with a smaller waist, I only needed 25 yards of fabric instead of 50. Of course, your mileage may vary as you make this, so be sure to do a bit of measuring before you start cutting!

We hired our music pastor's son to come over and clean our house today. Paying him $6 per hour, we are out $33, but our house is livable again! Crevices that haven't seen a vacuum or dust cloth in years (gulp) are now clean and tidy. Even our refrigerator and freezer were emptied and wiped down! If you need a house cleaner and you're local, let me know. I'll pass along his info and you can hire him. He's looking for summer work.

Now to enjoy the evening with a clean home and a well dressed toddler!

Easy No-Sew Tutu Tutorial

I saw this tutorial over at paigeandbrooke and just had to share it with you. I'm seriously considering making this little craft for String Bean.


If you need some quick and easy tutu instructions you're at the right place. These are great gifts and great for the kids to play in! They love pretending to be little ballerinas. Great for pictures too!!

All you need is: 6" wide tulle (2 or 3 rolls) and some No-Roll wide elastic. That's it!!

You can make these tutu's as long as you would like them to be but this one is the average shorter tutu. I cut a bunch of strips of tulle using a 2 foot measuring stick. Each piece will be folded in half later so if you want your tutu to be all the way to the ground you will need to cut extra long pieces. I use about 50 yards of tulle for one tutu. Sometimes more but at least that much. Cutting more strips makes the tutus look fuller.

Make sure you buy the "No-Roll" elastic. This is very important. You can decide how wide you would like for the elastic to be but I think the wider the better.

1. You will need to measure your child's waist and subtract that number by 3. That is how long your elastic needs to be. Then you can zig-zag stitch your elastic together.

2. You are going to tie knots with your tulle all around the elastic so it's easier just to put the elastic around your leg so that it stays in place.

3. Take one piece of tulle and fold it in half. Make sure the folded end is at the bottom and place it under the elastic like the picture above.

4. Now, here is how you are going to tie the knot. It's a little hard to explain but I hope the pictures will help. Take the two ends of the tulle that are at the top and loop them down and under where the hole is from the folded tulle.

5. Continue pulling the tulle down and use your thumb on the other hand to place the knot and tighten as you pull.

Hopefully this picture shows it a little better.

6. When you have pulled it all the way through your know should look like this on your thumb. You can adjust it as needed to make sure its tight.

7. Your first knot is complete!

8. Now you just need to make a bunch more!

9. Continue all the way around until it's as full as you would like for it to be. When you stretch the elastic you might see empty spaces to fill in.

10. Let them play their hearts out!!

Originally posted by brooke at paigeandbrooke. All photos owned by paigeandbrooke. Re-posted with permission.