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For her second birthday, I made Grace a tutu. It is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
A Special Birthday Skirt
You know we’re anti-princess around here, but I thought a tutu would be a perfect dress up piece. Tutus are all about imagination and whimsy. Tutus can work for ballerinas or fairies or special birthday girls.
Worn for about three minutes, never to be put on again
It was the perfect project for a momma who was injured and lying on the couch. It’s very simple and most of it can be done while lying down.
Homemade Tutu
Materials
- Tulle – I used about 10 yards of tulle, sold by the yard. You could get rolls of 4″ or 6″ tulle, but I couldn’t find any. I allowed Grace to choose her colors, and she picked purple and yellow. I bought 5 yards white, 3 yards purple, and 3 yards yellow, but if I was starting over, I’d just do half purple and half yellow. The white diluted my colors more than I would have liked.
- A length of 1/2 inch elastic or ribbon
- Spools of matching grosgrain ribbon (I omitted mine at the last minute because Grace hates her tutu, but if she decides to like it some day, I’ll add them.)
Measure Your Child
- Waist – If you’re going to use elastic, cut a length of 1/2″ elastic that is 2 inches shorter than your child’s waist. If you’re using ribbon, you will need to cut her waist measurement plus 2 feet or so, enough to tie the tutu onto her body.
- Waist to knee – This one is simple. How long do you want the skirt to be? I think Grace might have hated her tutu less if it was shorter. I’m thinking about cutting it off at the bottom.
Instructions
- Joe did this part for me. Cut the tulle into strips that are 4″ to 6″ inches wide and twice the finished skirt length. I made my tutu 18″ long, so my strips needed to be 4″ by 36″ wide. I had more strips than I thought I’d ever need. That’s just about the right number.
- If you’re using elastic, overlap the ends and sew. I couldn’t use my sewing machine, so I did it by hand. I would have preferred my machine. No matter.
- Grab 3 pieces of tulle and stack it nicely.
- Fold it in half. Loop the center point under your waistband
then pull the ends down over the waistband and tuck them into the loop. Pull the ends so that the top makes a loose knot.
- If you pull the knot too tight, it will curl and stretch the elastic, be difficult to work with, and need to be loosened later. I’m just saying.
Good. Not too tight and not too loose.
Too tight. I had to pull these all out a bit.
- Repeat that process another thirty or thirty-five times. I started out with a pattern, but I abandoned it in favor of whatever looked nice. I ended up with 38 knots, and my tutu is sufficiently fluffy.
- If you’re going to use ribbons, you can tie them over top of the tulle in the same way. Alternately, you can tie them in shoelace-type knots over top of the tulle. Either way would look nice and leave long tails hanging down in the tulle.
- That’s it. Your tutu is finished.
- I considered a waistband to finish off the top and make the whole thing less scratchy. I also considered gluing some little flowers or some glitter onto some of the pieces. I’m not doing either of these things since Grace hates her tutu, but I might some day.
Alternate uses for a homemade tutu
If your husband spends two hours cutting tulle, and then you spend four or five hours tying knots in tulle, and your child refuses to even put her feet in her tutu, you will find alternate uses.
- Tulle makes nice scrubbies for the shower. I didn’t take it apart. I’m hoping that some day, she’ll change her mind.
- All of those panels would work nicely for dusting knick-knacks.
- You can play peek-a-boo with a tutu around your neck.
Project Cost
- I bought tulle at 99 cents a yard.
- I bought two small rolls of ribbon, each for 99 cents.
- I had elastic in my sewing stash already.
- Total cost – Under $13
Happily submitted to
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That is hysterical!
The tulle I got was about 45 inches wide, so we cut 11 strips across the width of the fabric. That’s about 110 yards of strips. I had a lot left over, though. You could probably go with 3 or 4 rolls per tutu and have plenty.
Thanks! That’ll work out great since I was planning on doing 3 colors per tutu (and of course, they don’t like the same colors;).
I love the tutu…I started making hairbows for my daughter and she won’t keep them in(she is 17 months) so I started making them for my niece and friends. I decided to add more projects and wanted to try a tutu for my little girl. I just finished it. It is adorable. I didn’t use as much tulle as I probably should have, but next time will. Didnt want to lug 4 kids back to the fabric store:) Thanks for making this so easy!! YOU ROCK
I sat down and made two of them tonight for my husband and I for an upcoming race. I need to make one more, since they will both be destroyed shortly after the race starts, and I refuse to spend the rest of the day in a dirty tutu.
This is really cute. I just made a couple of red tutus for a class I used to teach her in Thailand and the little girls loved them. It only took me a couple of hours, yet they will be the best dressed girls in the school show, LOL. Thanks for the nice photos too!
Thanks for the great instructions!! I’m going to make one for my 16 month old grand daughter.
DeeDee
ps: fabric.com and joanns.com have the tulle in the 6 inch width size. fabric.com has it for 2.99 a 25 yard spool.
I made one of these for my 3 yr old. She loves it! I bought smaller spools of tulle that were 6″ wide. I think they were thicker than regular tulle, so I ended up just knotting each individual strand. The only drawback was the sparkle purple tulle I used was a bit scratchy. Otherwise, a success. Thanks for sharing the tutorial!
can you wash theese in the washer???
I’ve never tried. I think it would be okay on my washing machine’s hand wash cycle, but it would depend on your machine. It might get tangled or fall apart. If you don’t have a hand wash cycle on your machine, you might be better off to do it by hand. Let me know how it comes out?
Are the pieces of tulle just cut into little rectangles or did you have to do anything to the ends that show to make them look good?
The pieces of tulle are cut into very long rectangles. You don’t have to do anything to the edges because tulle doesn’t fray.
Hi I was wondering , where did you buy the tulle ?
I got mine at Walmart, I think. Fabric stores always carry tulle, too. I think there are also online retailers where you can buy it. That might be the easiest because you could get a roll that’s already cut to the right width.
How would I go about putting a band around the waist? I would like to use satin ribbon. Would it need to be something stretchy? or should I stretch out the elestic then sew the ribbon around the top?
Thanks!
I just found your blog because i was looking for how to make a tutu. Great tutorial!! Very funny too! I’m going to be your new follower, haha!! Happy Thanksgiving!
I was searching for ‘tutu tutorial’ and I found you! I love finding out that my peeps have all my answers for me
Dawn´s most recent post…On Forgiveness
THAT is a riot, especially since you are my hero.
How did you get the tulle so gathered in step 4?? No matter what I do, it doesn’t even come close to looking the same. When I pull them tight the “knot” at the top is HUGE! :/
The tighter you pull the ends, the smaller the knot should get. Can you take a picture of what you’re talking about?
I can’t. But, if I pull the ends tighter the elastic curls? If you take 3 pieces of 6″ wide tulle and fold it in half, the loop I get does not look that together and when pulled into the ‘knot’ it’s big and puffy.
Yes, the elastic will curl if you pull it too tight. It sounds like you’re not getting the tulle pinched tightly enough to start with. It has to be stacked together for the knot to pull down nicely. You may just have to adjust the layers of tulle so that the knot looks better.
I’m going mess around with and see what I come up with. Lol. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Thank you so much for replying to me.
It’s refreshing to comment on someone’s blog/page and get a response. Have a wonderful night, I’ve got tulle to tame. 
It’s my pleasure.
I hope you get it to work!
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