Sew easy tutu

I read about them on the internet frequently and thought of trying them since most of the blogs that written the tutorials about no sew tutus are from abroad and the beautiful shops that they mentioned are out of reach for me here in Singapore. So, I decided to try one with the materials I bought from Spotlight. Well, they are not the cheapest option here but then, I can practically get all the materials here without stepping out.

So, I went to bought the materials and started doing it all in 2 hours. It's not exactly the 10minutes that the blogger declare as I can't find the nylon tulle roll in 6 inches here. So bought the 148cm purple tulle in 4 metres to try out. Oh my, oh my. cutting them in strips are so tricky. If you are interested to try, you can type in no-sew tutu on yahoo or goggle and you will get tons of them. But there's my adaptation based on what I can get here in Singapore.

Size - 4 year old. I intend for the tutu to be 13" in length.
Materials needed.
2.5m of purple tulle [Spotlight sell them at 148cm width at $5.99 per metre]
1 elastic band for the waist band [I chose the 8mm but you can go thinner if you want to]
1 pink satin ribbon to tie a bow in the centre of the tutu

Tools needed
Sewing thread / machine to sew the elastic band and ribbon
scissor / rotary cutter [these are really life saver when you need to cut long rows of fabric!]

Instructions
First to cut the material into strips. As it's long and flimsy, lay them straight out as much as possible on the floor. As the tulle comes in 148cm width, I've fold them twice breathwise first.  Width doesn't matter here but recommend to have it between 5" to 7", depending how wide you want each strip to be.  I've choose 5" for each strip. 

After I've fold the tulle (breathwise) into 4 layers, each fold will come up to about 37cm or 14". The tulle I bought curls up at the side seam so I've got around 13"+ worth of material : ( 
Anyway, take your measuring tape and measure 26" from side of seam and cut.  I cut 4 rectangular strips of 26" tulle for this project.  See below.

Place 1 cut tulle on the cutting mat and use the rotary cutter (life saver, phew!) and cut strips in 26" X 5" or about 66cmX12cm from each block. So now you will have many many strips of tulle for your project.

For the elastic band, if your intended waist is 20", you need to have extra 0.5".  This is for the part to sew the band together.  Overlap the band by 0.5" and sew them on the machine or by hand to form a continuous band.  Then, put the band over a clothe hanger so that your hands are free to tie the strips on the band. I try to find a picture to show you how soon.

Fold the 26"X5" tulle strips equally into 2 (each strips will now be 13" in length) and put the loop end over the elastic band and pull the 2 loose ends through the loop. Sound complicated but actually it's not. Don't have to pull tight now but arrange the strips side by side till you finish 1 side. Then turn the hanger over and do the same for the other sides. If you can see empty spaces inbetween the strips on the elastic band, you need more of those strips. After you are done, adjust the loop at the waist band so that it is tight enough and no visible sight of the elastic band through the strips. Too many strips will cause the band to distort so put in just nice so that it's round and full. In any case, if you child outgrow them, you can change the band and put in more strips. Flexible!

pretty purple no-sew tutu with pink ribbons

If you like, you can pin the ribbon in the middle of the waist band which I did. I looks so much better! So sweet. I'm giving it to my friend's girl who is into ballerina. I can't wait to see her wearing it.  You can also try this at home. Next time if I can find the 6" tulle roll, I'll update the blog. If you know of such item in Singapore do drop me a message so I can save time cutting those slippery strips! ok, I'll stop now. Enjoy making these pretty tutus! : )

My friend's daughter really likes the tutu. Here's a picture of her nice pose.