The Tutu!

I made that I did!
Originally uploaded by *Puss*

Project Tutu is complete... here is a tutorial if you fancy a bash... there was a lot of swearing here but a, the children didn't hear me and b, I am still a very novice sewer and this is my first off piste go if you get my drift! Still, I hope Dimitra likes it!


Tutu

(I have measured for the size of my nearly 4 yr old….)

1 m x 8.5 cm strip of satiny fabric
1.5 m tulle
4m ribbon (matching colour to the satin)
1m 1 inch elastic
1 iron
1 sewing machine

1. Bribe child long enough to measure tulle against them and the amount of elastic you will need to go around their waist. I have done the skirt to her ankles with the idea that I will trim some bits when the thing is complete. Cut tulle into 4inch wide strips at what ever length you are going for. Cut the ribbon into similar lengths. Cut the elastic to length too.
2. Cut satin fabric to length, fold in half and iron (Right side up), turn over and fold up a small hem and iron again (muttering as you go about how you should have had this bright idea before you went to see your friend with the marvellous 4 thread overlocker machine so you didn’t have to do all the stupid ironing & Hemming… or that might just be me ;)). Repeat on the other side, try to make the hems match but don’t worry too much, I doubt the child will point out your sub standard hems… at least I hope not!
3. Hem one side of the satin, as close to the edge of it as you can manage and trim the excess off.
4. Right now it is time to lay out your tulle, I found the easiest way to do this was to count how many tulle strips I had and then divide by 10, I had 60 strips so I did 6 piles of 10, 1 piece of ribbon on each and then sewed them together in piles, I didn’t bother cutting the thread in between batches, I just kept on going. Then I put the first pile in the satin, folded up the satin over it and sewed, adding more tulle in as I went until all 6 piles were sewn in place.
5. Attach a safety pin to the elastic and feed it through the satin waistband (I found it useful to pin the other end of the elastic to the ironing board) gathering it up as you go. Overlap the elastic and sew it together firmly
6. Redistribute the satin so it is fairly even around the waistband and sew the edges together.
7. Trim the tulle to the effect you want.
8. Reward yourself with a large glass of Vino and keel over…!

** No using this tutorial to make and sell on - I will send the kids round if you do and they take no prisoners!**

**If you do make one, do post or send a picture as it will give me that warm happy feeling, I thank you! **