DIY Baby Tutu

The completed 'Starry Night' tutu is available for sale at 'Sweet Little Shmoogle Beans ~ Photography Props'

NOTE: You may sell items made from this tutorial with proper credit back to this blog and tutorial. You may not copy/sell/reproduce any part of this tutorial. You may not use photos from this tutorial for any purpose. Please respect the time and effort that goes into the production of free craft tutorials :o)
What you will need:
Braided elastic - mine is 1/2 inch thick but any size between 1/2 and 2 inches in fine.
Tulle of course! - I picked up 2 kinds from the scraps bin at my local fabric store for only $10. They're about 2m by 80cm-ish each. Since we're doing this on a budget, if you can manage to pick up an assortment of smaller lengths of tulle that would be perfect for this! The tutu is only small so you won't need alot.
Scissors
Sewing machine (and matching thread!) You can sew this by hand though if you like!


Cut your elastic to comfortably fit the waist of the bub you are making the tutu for or if you are making for a newborn baby as a photography prop or a gift, then make your elastic 15 inches long and it should fit just fine! If it's a bit big, have no fear bub will grow! :o)

Now cut your tulle into lengths. For a newborn tutu you don't want to have the tulle too long so cut each peice about 16" by 5-7" wide. (You will fold the tulle in half when sewing onto the elastic so your tutu will only be 6 - 8" long when finished) I am using two colours and I used 22 strips of each to make the finished tutu.
Sew the ends of your elastic together (overlapping about 1/4 inch should do) with a zig zag stitch. Sew back over a few times for extra hold.

Take two pieces of tulle, one of each (or whatever you're using; you can overlap two of the same colour or different colours, it's up to you!) and lay them on top of each other. Now fold the two pieces lengthways. Fold it at the middle over the elastic and scrunch up the tulle a little to gather it, sew over the tulle just under the elastic.

Fold your two layered pieces of tulle (that have been folded lengthways..we did that to add extra puffy-ness) over the elastic.

Be sure not to sew over the elastic when adding your tulle

Continue adding your layered tulle! See what I mean? By layering the pieces you will get an extra fullness than if you were only using one layer at a time

The tutu is taking shape!! only a little bit more to add and you're done!

ta da!! That wasn't too hard now was it? :o)