Here are simple directions for a no-sew tutu made of tulle. This is a pretty little project to gift to a future ballerina, to use in a costume, or to add to the dress-up bin. It’s simple enough that even a non-crafyt person can make it. The materials are very inexpensive, but they look great.
Easy instructions below.
Materials for No Sew Tutu
-Piece of elastic long enough to fit around the waist
-1 25-yard spool of 6-inch wide tulle (or two of these if you want the tutu to be extra full)
-3 spools of 1/4″ satin ribbon, 3 yards each
-Scissors
Instructions for No Sew Tutu
Step One: Cut the elastic to waist size and pin together with a safety pin or a few stitches.
Step Two: Cut 35 two-foot lengths of tulle from a 6-inch-wide tulle ribbon roll (they don’t have to be perfectly exact). Then cut
For the tutu pictured, I used an entire roll of champagne colored shimmer tulle (25 yards). It provided 35 pieces, that were each about 2 feet long.
You can also find 6-inch-wide tulle in bigger spools of 100 yards or more. So if you’re making more than one, watch for a larger spool.
Step Three: fold each tulle piece in half, and then thread the ends through itself around the elastic. To demonstrate, I’m using a spare piece of elastic and a spare piece of ribbon (not the same elastic and tulle I used in the tutu), but this is the exact same technique you would use with a strip of tulle.
Fold your piece of tulle ribbon in half, place the loop end under the elastic.
Pick up the loose ends of the ribbon. Pull them over the elastic and through the loop end of the ribbon.
Pull the loose ends of the tulle ribbon to tighten it around the elastic. And that’s it!
Step Four: Repeat step 3 with the rest of the tulle ribbon pieces, and do the same thing with satin ribbon pieces as accents. You can keep adding pieces of ribbon and tulle until the tutu is as full as you’d like.
For the tutu pictured at the top, we used an entire roll of champagne colored shimmer tulle (25 yards). It provided 33 lengths (about 2 feet long each) to tie to the waist band. We also used 3 rolls of satin ribbon in peach, cream and sage green. They provided 11 lengths each and were attached between the tulle pieces for accents. The materials were under $5 total.
You can make the tutu any length you like, by using longer or shorter pieces of tulle. You can make it as full as you’d like by adding more tulle pieces. And you can create different looks by choosing wider pieces of satin ribbon.
I just posted an EXTREMELY detailed tutu tutorial (including where to buy tulle, etc) last week in case any of your readers would be interested in even more details! :)
http://vermillionrules.blogspot.com/2008/12/extremely-detailed-tutu-tutorial.html
Thanks so much for taking the time during all the busy preparations for Christmas to put up the Tulle Tutorial. It’s extrememly helpful and could not be more appreciated.
And many thanks to vermillionrules for the link and the additional tips.
I made two of these for my goddaughters Christmas presents – I am abysmal at sewing so was thrilled to find these instructions – they turned out great! Thanks so much x
Wow, those colors are spectacular!
I just love this project. SO easy and FABULOUS instructions. I’m so glad I found your blog, what a fabulous Christmas gift! I’ll be linking.
I followed your lead and had my 7 year old make a tutu for her 3 year old sister, and vice versa (though I ended up doing most of the work for the 3 year old). I can’t wait until Christmas and they open up their coordinating presents
AWESOME! Thank you…that is VERY helpful…I’m about dead as far as making more things for this christmas, but I forsee one of these in an upcoming birthday for my little girl. *GRIN* Thank you again!
i cannot wait to make this for my daughter! baby tutu’s are extremely expensive and i just couldn’t see spending 40 dollars on a tutu for pictures/her birthday outfit! this is great.
I know that having this project be no-sew was helpful since it was a gift from a child–but this is soooo helpful to those of us who have given up any hope on sewing! I’ve been wanting to make a tutu for my daughter and I so appreciate these directions.
Hey,
I really want to make this for my friends newborn – the pictures for the tutorial are not working. Could you help with that in some way?
Its such a lovely idea!
Thanks so much for the great tutorial! Looking forward to making a few of these for the studio! :)
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The pictures don’t seem to be working. I’m not a crafty individual and I can’t picture what you’re saying. Is there a chance that this could be fixed?
I luv this, & want to make it for my baby. However, I’m having the same problem that Matilde & Firemom are having. The pictures are not loading. Thank you so much.
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This was such a great tutorial! I made a fabulous tutu and it was incredibly easy.
Neat! I’ll add this to the wing tutorial I found and make my daughter some fun dress-ups, thank you so much! And a fun bit of trivia if anyone’s interested- the knot described is called a lark’s head knot (learned when my little sister went through an “I want to be a Boy Scout” phase and I found her the handbooks at local thrift sales) and it’s reasonably easy to learn to do, if the pictures aren’t loading maybe google the name of the knot, see if you can find a diagram? Not exactly the same as seeing it done here, but could help.
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Love this tutorial! My daughter loves all things ballet, but tutus can get expensive. I’d love to make her some!
Cheers,
Kristina
We just made a royal blue and orange one and my daughter is wearing to dance the the music in White Christmas. Needless to say, it’s a huge hit in our house!
My niece is going through a stage (hopefully?) where she even needs to wear her tutu to nap time! Cue the tulle tutu making! Here are my holiday homemade crafts. Her nickname is “Laney Bug”, hence the red & black color theme.
http://bread-n-chocolate.blogspot.com/2011/12/homemade-holidays-childs-play.html
me, encanto gracias, soy mexicana, y te admiro mucho, por todo lo que crean, son unas personas tan maravillosas, ojala me acepten
I like to do this with our bag of playsilks. Makes for a super-puffy temporary tutu!
My sister and I loved this idea so much that we made the tutus for our daughters and nieces for Christmas. Check out the finished product:
http://www.calmcradle.com/1/post/2012/02/tutu-tastic-adventure-no-sewing-machine-required.html
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Gorgeous, I will definitely be doing this one for my little girl for christmas
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