Crazy for tutus. Part Deux.

So for all of you who don’t have a sewing machine OR don’t know how to use one OR too lazy to pull yours out of the closet 🙂 but would love to make a tutu for your lil girl, lil sis and I did all the research and found a great tutorial on making a “no sew tutu”. I am all about tutorials with lots of pictures and step-by-step instructions. There are tons of versions out there but we really liked Plumtickled‘s “how-to”.

Lil sis is currently working on her daughter’s 1st birthday invitation, and it’s a ladybug/garden theme. So, here is lil Lila in her no sew ladybug tutu.

She used black elastic for the waistband with red tulle and made the black pom poms out of yarn which were then glued on. You don’t need a sewing machine or a pom pom maker tool to make this, so it’s not too late to make your daughter a Halloween costume or a “just because” tutu. So SO SOOO adorable. She even made her a ladybug barrette. The plain black long sleeve shirt is from Walmart. Lil sis added the tuxedo frills by cutting black strips from an old black shirt and gathered them using the long stitch, similar to previous posts on gathering. She then sewed them on to the shirt – the middle strip being two inches longer than the side strips. Just a lil something to turn a plain black shirt into something frilly.

Thankfully, my daughter decided not to be the risque cat (I would have toned it down much MUCH more. Pu-lease, no need to start them off on this path THIS early or EVER, for the matter). After perusing through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, she insisted that she will be this (and hasn’t changed her mind for the past few weeks)…

{via PBK}

$69. WHAT! I better be getting that cat treat bag, the ballet slippers, the white picket fence, pumpkins, you can forget the crow. So, I decided to piece the costume together, starting with the tutu skirt. PBK’s skirt was a lil blah so I used the no sew tutu method and fluffed it up a bit!

Ok, so you know how I’m a bit impatient? Couldn’t wait for my daughter to wake up, try it on, take pictures, load them up, post them in blog SO…that is me, holding up the skirt, taking the picture on timer-mode. gotta love me! It won’t be that full on her (don’t think I didn’t try to put it on myself!). I promise to show you her complete outfit once I’m done.

After her costume is done, I will have to price things up and see how much I saved 🙂

TUTU TIP #1: After a test run, lil sis found that it was really bare when using one layer of tulle so we both used 2 layers of 6 inch pieces. The lengths obviously differed. She wanted Lila’s to be really fluffy so she used 2 layers all around. I wanted my daughter’s to be less full so I alternated between 2 layers, then 1. Hope that makes sense.

TUTU TIP #2: The tutorial calls for 2 yards of tulle, but lil sis and I used almost 4 yards (from the doubling of layers).

Next on the list of things to do? I will be adding some sequins to her cat ears headband and spicing up her black shirt.

big sis