I’ve been meaning to make one of these, but wasn’t motivated until my niece was invited to a birthday party where attendees were requested to wear red tutus. Challenge accepted! Since she’s a teeny tot, I decided to go with the dress, rather than the skirt version.
For this particular craft, I would suggest that you go to Joann’s, where they (bless their hearts) will accept as many different coupons as you have, unlike their more persnickety competitor, Michael’s .
You’ll need:
Bandeau Tube Top $5.99
2 Rolls of Tulle 2($2.99) For a toddler sized dress, I used 1 full roll and a few strips off the 2nd.
Sharp Scissors
I also grabbed appliqués to decorate but they’re not necessary. After using 40-50% off coupons on everything, you should come out well under $10
To start, I folded the tube top in on itself to make it shorter and thicker. Because these are like stretchy crochet, you can definitely see through them if you just use one, without folding. To get around this, you can either wear something under it, use two, or fold one in on itself (which is perfect if you’re making this for a toddler!)
The next steps pretty much go along as if you were making a standard tutu with elastic. Cut your tulle into strips. To get strip length, measure how long you want your tulle skirt part to be. Then, double that number and add one more inch (to account for what’s used in the knot).
Fold a piece of tulle and thread it from the back and out of a section of the top. I used the second to lowest sections, rather than the lowest, to make sure it’s sturdy.
Bring up the tail end of the tulle and loop it through the piece you’ve just threaded.
Pull the tail down and tighten to make the knot.
Continue along the sections.
When you’re done, you can take another piece of tulle (I used some ribbon that I had lying around) and thread it through the top of the bodice to make a halter tie.
You can find instructions for the 4 inch boutique bow here.
Have fun and feel free to ask any questions
