Tulle Tutorial


Many readers have asked for more concrete directions on how to make the no-sew tutu, so here’s a more detailed post with photo directions.

Cut elastic to waist size and pin together with a safety pin or a few stitches. Cut lengths of tulle from a 6-inch-wide tulle ribbon roll. Fold the 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, but this is the exact same technique you would use with a strip of tulle.


Start with your band of elastic and piece of ribbon or tulle. Fold your piece of 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 ribbon to tighten it around the elastic. And then repeat with additional pieces of ribbon and tulle until the tutu is as full as you’d like. Yay!

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 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.

Another note about this project. You can make the tutu any length you like, by using longer or shorter pieces of tulle. Also. If I’d had another roll of the tulle, I would have used it and made the tutu twice as full.

31 thoughts on “Tulle Tutorial”

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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!

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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!

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  9. 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?

  10. 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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  13. 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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  17. 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!

  18. me, encanto gracias, soy mexicana, y te admiro mucho, por todo lo que crean, son unas personas tan maravillosas, ojala me acepten

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