What turned into an explosion of tulle, glitter and tutu fun started quite innocently with a picture of a dancer that inspired me.  In response to that  inspiration, I decided to make myself a tutu.  Normal, right?  Once said tutu was created, I thought, “This would be a great project for all the kids I take care of!”, not fully realizing I was secretly on a mission to invade my world (and employers and friends houses) with glitter.  That was followed by the creation of several more tutus for my friends and their kids.  Dropping surprise tutu packages in the mail for a bunch of little girls is pretty stinking fun.  At the end of the day, which I doubt the “tutu project day” has officially ended, I created or helped create 11 tutus.  Okay, yeah, touching story I know, but shall we get to how to make the tutus???  Yes.
What’s great about this project is that it is fairly simple and inexpensive and has the potential to infuse joy/expression/fun for quite some time.  I had heard that there was a no-sew way to make tutus, so I just googled it and found a video on youtube, which I am also including as a link at the end of the post.

What’s Needed:
fabric (which will probably be mostly tulle)
hairband or ribbon
scissors

What To Do:
1.  First, a trip to the fabric/craft store is in order.  I ended up on several trips and buying a variety of colors and types of tulle.  I also found some rolls of tulle, which saved some of the cutting.

(I find the thinner tulle to be more clingy and glittery tulle to be very generous in sharing its glitter with anything it touches as random fyi’s)

In addition to tulle, pick up ribbon or stretchy fabric headbands for the waistband if you don’t have those things.

2. Cut fabric into strips.  The size of the strips will depend on the size and style of tutu that you want to create, but they should be twice the length desired for the tutu (because they will basically be folded)
The width doesn’t really matter. but I made most of mine about 3 or 4 inches wide.

The easiest way to cut the strips is to cut a large piece of fabric to the correct length, roll it up and then cut into pieces.

3.  Attach the fabric to the waistband.  This process is absolutely easy enough for a child to do, but might take a few tries to get the hang of.

First, fold a cut strip of the tulle in half.

Then, hold the loop side next to or under the ribbon or hair band.

Finally, pull the ends around the waistband and through the loop to secure.

(check out the link to the video below if that doesn’t make sense) 🙂

Once a strip of fabric has been secured, it can be pulled tight or left loose.  It is really a matter of preference.  I like them a little loose so that I can still move them around a bit if I want to squeeze a different color in somewhere or simply get more strips onto the tutu.

If a ribbon is being used, I recommend measuring it around the waist and tying knots on both ends where the ribbon meets, leaving plenty of ribbon for making a tie in the back when it is worn.  This way, all of the tulle will stay secured within the knots and it will also be easier to tie later.

When using the hairbands, try them on the childs waist first to make sure that it doesn’t feel too tight.

Attach tulle strips to the waistband until you are satisfied with the amount of fabric on the tutu!  Have fun with the colors and varieties of fabric.

4. Dance! 🙂

Check out this youtube no-sew tutu tutorial if you need a more visual instruction.

Also, here is a photo from my other blog that I took of one of the kiddos dancing around in their new tutu if you feel like checking it out.

Have fun!