Tutorial: No-sew tutu

Exactly zero of you have been clamoring for tips on making a tutu after my Color Run recap last week, but I already took the photos so I'm gonna post a tutorial anyway, mmkay? As the title of this post says, this is a completely no-sew project. It's super-easy, but a bit time-consuming I thought, so maybe have your favorite movie or a TV series you need to catch up on all queued up.


Supplies:
- Tulle. I used about eight yards of tulle that was cut to 54 inches wide. Emily (in the photo above) used half that, but she cut her fabric in half to make a shorter tutu. So it depends on how long you want it to be, and how full. Whatever the width of your fabric is, your tutu will be about half as long.
- Waistband-quality elastic, a few inches longer than your waistline.
- Scissors
- Safety pins


You'll notice there's a measuring tape in that photo. I thought I'd need it. I didn't. So let's all pretend it's not there, shall we?

First, you'll want to cut your tulle into strips, about an inch to two inches thick. At first, I folded my eight-yard cut of tulle in half width-wise (so I was cutting through 27 inches of material instead of 54). But you guys, tulle is hard to cut. Especially when you're trying to cut it while sitting on your grey-ish carpet. I may have cut up my carpet a little. (Okay, I did. Oh well.)

Then, a brilliant idea struck me: Keep folding the tulle! So I folded it in half, then in half again, and again until I had an almost-rolled tube-thingy of tulle. It was much thicker than the single-half-fold, so it was easier to cut through, and it was SO MUCH SHORTER, so it was faster to cut through as well. So I cut the eight yards into one-yard sections, then folded/rolled those sections and cut them into strips. Does that make sense? Here's a picture. In fact, here's two.




So all those little rolls are actually 54-inch strips. So. Then I just had to attach them to the elastic. (Forgive the weird half-full-to-empty-elastic switch. I made this thing in two sittings, and I may have been a tad wine-drunk on during one of them. Or both. Hey, it's an easy project...I had to keep myself entertained somehow.)

So anyway, to attach them to the elastic, you unroll the strip, then just fold it in half lengthwise. The closed end of the folded strip will go "upside-down" against the elastic, like so:


Then you bring the open ends of the strip down under the elastic and through the loop. It's kind of hard to see, but here's what it looks like:


Then you pull it tight!


And then repeat approximately eight hundred quadrillion times until your wine is gone and your DVD ends and your eyes are crossed. In all, it took me about two or three hours, but if I had figured out the no-duh method for cutting the tulle faster, I might have cut that time in half. Once you have all your strips tied on, you just loop it around your waist and safety-pin the elastic to itself so it's like a belt. Voila!


And if my rambling is completely throwing you off, here's the video I used as a guide. The girl's narration kind of bugs me, but she gets the point across. Probably more effectively than I do, haha.

So, have any of you ever made a tutu? Did you use this method, or something different?