I decided to finally make an attempt at one of those DIY tulle tutus. The first tutorial I saw was here on the Make It and Love It blog. Ever since then I was hooked on researching DIY tutus.
So while at Hobby Lobby, I picked up a few spools of tulle in light purple, pink and white (it was pretty much unanimous from all the blogs I've read that buying the spools over getting yards of tulle cut off a bolt was the easiest/best way to make a DIY tutu), some elastic and a small bottle of food coloring that I've been dying to try (when I figure out what to do with it, I'll post about it).
There was definitely a learning curve in the beginning, but once I got the hang of knotting the tulle around the elastic it got easier and the time it took to complete the skirt went really fast. And finding the right chair to wrap the elastic around almost didn't happen as my kitchen chairs are rounded and too wide. Thankfully, Julia's desk chair was just what I needed. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the finished product because my model refuses to try it on for me. Claire took one look at the tutu and said "No." So I guess that was the end of that. LOL I hope to wear her down and eventually get her to wear it so I can get a picture.
For now, one of the only pictures I have is a "progress report" I sent to my friend Mandy (I think she gets as excited as I do when I'm crafting something) when I was halfway through with the tutu:
And this picture of the finished product resting on top of my wrapping paper caddy:
So - everything I did wrong with this tutu? First, I think I chose the wrong elastic. I wasn't paying attention to what I was buying (thanks to antsy 19 month old) and I bought a package of woven elastic and a package knit elastic. Not really sure what the difference is, I chose to use the woven for this project. It was really hard to tie the tulle around the elastic and slide it along to make room for more tulle. Second, I used 1 inch elastic and it curled when I tightened the tulle. Next time I hit a craft store, I will get 1/2 inch. Third, I didn't take into consideration the "stretch" of the elastic and cut it too long - but that was easily fixed with some scissors and my sewing machine. Oh and lastly, I also didn't take into account that once the tulle was a single layer the color is even lighter than it shows on the spool - so choose darker colors.
I was really hoping to make a few of these for my girls, but Claire doesn't seem to be interested at the moment. ~sigh~ Maybe Julia will be interested. I will have to check with her when she gets home later today.
