Tutorial: Crazy for tutus!

Here’s another project inspired by Dana and Pink Picket Fence.

Here is the original skirt. Here is the revamped version by Dana. Lil sis completed Pink Picket Fence’s version while I attempted Dana’s gathered tutu skirt. Now, since I’m still learning how to make clothes, step-by-step instructions with pictures are. so. very. helpful. I attempted to create a “visual” tutorial based on the 2 ladies’ instructions but I made some mistakes along the way so my measurements created a skirt perfect for a 4-5 year old 😦 The good thing is that my daughter does not know the difference and still loves it! And believe me, she will be wearing this skirt for a few years!

What you need to make a skirt for a 3-5 year old (if you are interested in my measurements, let me know)

1 yard of lightweight cotton

1 inch elastic

1 yard of tulle (you may or may not need all of this depending on much you want to gather your tulle)

3/4 yard of contrasting tulle, if desired

Step 1: you will need to cut 2 pieces for your waistband, 2 pieces for each layer of your skirt. I used Dana’s 15 X 4 waistband since it worked for my daughter’s market skirt. For each layer, you will need to add to your width. This is where I made the mistake. I only added a few inches to each layer but at the end, the skirt looked like a poodle skirt and I ended taking out stitches, shortening layers, and spending MUCH longer on the skirt! Here’s what you should end up with.

(sorry about the lighting, taken late in the evening)

Step 2: Gather your layers. Dana gives a great tutorial on how to gather. Do this for each layer. Make sure you zig zag stitch or serge your seams!

(as you can see, my seams do not line up perfectly. but no worries, your tulle will cover it all up!)

Follow her directions on creating the casing for the waistband as well as the hem. WAIT to put your elastic band in until the end. Another mistake I made. Still doable but will make the project a bit time consuming.

Step 3: How to gather your tulle. I cut 2 inch pieces in the fuschia pink and 1 inch pieces of the light pink. Place them on top of each other and gather the tulle just like you did in step 2. For this skirt, I placed the light pink on top of the fuschia b/c I knew I was going to use purple thread to topstitch the tulle and wanted the colors to pop.

Now, here’s where you make a big decision…how much do you want your tulle to gather? The more you want it to gather, the more tulle you may need. If you are unsure, I would DEFINITELY recommend that you leave yourself “thread tails” (yes, I just made this up), i.e. pull your top and bottom thread about 10 inches before you start gathering so you can adjust your tulle and not have your stitches fall apart.

Step 4: Make sure you change your settings back. Lay your gathered tulle somewhere in the middle of each layer and begin sewing using a reg stitch. You could get technical and measure exactly where that center is, if you’d like. When I got to the end of the row, I overlapped the tulle slightly, backstitched, and then cut the excess off.

And without further ado, here are the girls in their tutu skirts!

big sis

Update: No Sew Tutu can be found here.