Make your own tutu dress / skirt - instructions with and without sewing

What could be better for a little girl than jumping through the living room and playing ballerina in a homemade tutu ">

Today I would like to show you how you can easily make a tutu skirt yourself without much effort. On the one hand we will make a tutu without a sewing machine, on the other hand we will make a tutu dress ourselves with needle and thread and a sewn-in elastic band. If you want to do the tutu without a sewing machine, this will take a little more time and patience, since the fabric panels have to be knotted individually.

The cost of materials is relatively low here, because all you need is tulle fabric, which you can buy from your fabric dealer for just a few euros per meter. For both variants you also need an elastic band, either a normal rubber band or an elastic decorative band, which is now available from all well-stocked dealers.

content

• Material and preparation
• Make the tutu dress yourself
  • Without sewing machine
• Sew with tulle
• Make tutu skirt yourself
  • With sewing machine

Material and preparation

You need the following utensils to be able to make the tutu dress yourself:

• approx. 3 m tulle fabric
• Satin ribbon or other decorative ribbon (variant without sewing machine) - as stretchable as possible
• Rubber band or decorative band (variant with sewing)
• pen
• ruler
• a safety pin (variant with sewing)
• fabric scissors
• our instructions

Cost of materials 1/5
5 to 10 EUR for the fabric

Difficulty level 1/5
Both variants are suitable for beginners without any problems.

Time expenditure 1/5
One hour with a sewing machine, about 3 hours without sewing.

Make the tutu dress yourself

Without sewing machine

In this variant, we do not sew with machine and knots, the fabric panels of the fabric on a ribbon. This requires a little more patience, but the result is just as nice.

Step 1: First measure the hip size of your little darling. Multiply this length (in my case it was approx. 45 cm) by 2 and cut the tape in this length. We then use the excess of ribbons as decoration - for example to tie and fix a beautiful bow on the front of the skirt.

Step 2: Now pin the middle part of the tape the size of the hip circumference with Wonderclips - or alternatively with adhesive tape. This part in the middle is now knotted with the tulle.

Step 3: Next we cut the tulle strips: Don't forget that the tulle strips are twice the length of the finished skirt. For example, if the stripes are 70 cm long, the skirt will be 35 cm long. I choose a length of 60 cm and a width of 7.5 cm per strip of fabric.

Step 4: The finished tulle strips are now tied to the ribbon. Fold each strip in the middle and form a small loop, which you pull under the ribbon. Now take the two ends and pull through the loop.

TIP: Tighten each knot relatively tightly and pluck the fabric so that the end looks approximately the same with each stripe!

I also tied parts of a carnival disguise into the tutu.

Of course, you can also add color-matching ribbons, threads or strips of fabric.

This is what your result looks like now!

Step 5: When you have reached the other clip or adhesive strip, remove it.

The tutu is now spread out in front of you.

The following picture shows decorative parts between the tulle fabric. Then make a pretty bow with both ends of the ribbon.

Now tie the two loose straps together, as shown in the following pictures.

Your finished, bound loop result now looks like the following pictures.

Sew with tulle

Before I show you how to sew the skirt with the sewing machine, here are a few tips for sewing with tulle.

Weight the tulle and fix it

This fabric sometimes presents some cropping problems because it warps very easily. Weight the corners of the fabric when cutting with stones or books to fix the material better. Instead of the usual pins, I recommend sticking with clips because the needles can easily fall out in the large spaces between the tulle fabric.

cut edges

Since tulle does not fray, the interfaces generally do not have to be hemmed . We will therefore no longer clean the bottom edges of our skirt.

stitch length

The coarser the net structure of the tulle fabric, the longer the stitch length should be. For a fine tulle fabric, I recommend a stitch length of 1.5 - 2.

Make tutu skirt yourself

With sewing machine

Step 1: First of all, we cut the tulle fabric here. We need 3-4 panels of fabric in the size of approx. 80 cm (with a hip circumference of approx. 40 cm) x 30 cm.

TIP: Double the length of your child's hips so that the skirt later has the characteristic “folds”.

Step 2: The fabric panels are now sewn together on the shorter side. Place the fabrics on top of each other on the right and sew the fabrics together using the zigzag stitch of the sewing machine to form a tube.

TIP: The more panels you use, the "fuller" the skirt will be!

Step 3: The fabric strips are then placed on top of each other and fastened with clips. I use my overlock to sew the fabrics together. Of course you can use the zigzag stitch here as well.

Step 4: The seam just created is now folded inwards and the whole thing is again about 3 cm down and pinned.

Step 5: Now step with the straight stitch of the sewing machine around the opening.

The seam should be close to the lower edge, so that we have enough space later to pull the elastic band through the hose.

ATTENTION: At the beginning or end of the seam, a small opening (approx. 2 cm) is left. The rubber band is threaded there.

Step 6: With a safety pin, we now pull the elastic band through the hose.

To do this, push the needle in with one hand, hold it there and pull the fabric back.

Proceed as shown in the following picture.

This is what your result looks like now!

Now you can make a cute bow with the remaining rubber band. If you have other decorative ribbons on hand, you can sew the ends of the elastic together and form the other ribbon into a loop.

I hope you enjoy sewing your tutu dress / skirt and hope that your little darling will enjoy the tutu as much as we do!