A Tutu for Pony and a Tututorial for You

A few weeks ago, Buttercup and I made her sister, Pony, a Christmas present. We made her a tutu. The tutu was very easy to make for a 4 year old. Buttercup caught right on and did lots of the work. She just got bored of all the tying towards the end and wanted me to finish it. Here's how we did it.

Materials:

2 colors of tulle rolls (I think they were 25 yards?)
scissors
a length of cardboard to wrap tulle around so you don't have to measure each one. We used a quilters cutting guide made from plexiglass. It was the perfect size and sturdy.
elastic to fit around waist (it does stretch as you make the tutu so you might want to make it smaller than you think or find better elastic than I had)

• Put the tulle roll on a long pencil or broom handle or anything else you have lying around.

• Take one end of the tulle and either hold it or tape it to your long rectangle of choice (cardboard, plexiglass quilting thing, or anything similar you have lying around (you do have stuff lying around right?))

• Next I just started flipping while Buttercup held the spool. We used the entire length of tulle but ended up not needing all of it. We didn't want too poofy of a tutu.

(no photos I was too busy flipping)

After you have all the tulle wrapped around the quilting ruler thing, cut along the bottom of each edge. You should now have long rectangular sheets of tulle all stacked together. This is what your stacks will look like after a 4 year old has worked with them for a bit.

• place elastic around a stool or chair or have someone hold it for you. It's easier to work with this way.

• put 2-3 (depending on fullness desired) pieces of tulle sheets together (any color combination, mix it up and have some fun)

• fold sheets in half making a loop at the top.
  

• Put thumb and finger through loop and hold up to front of elastic.

• bring loose ends from bottom of elastic around the back of the elastic and grab with thumb and finger through the loop. You should now have made a knot onto the elastic.

• Are you still with me? Did I loose you? Here I'll show a few pictures to help.

• Keep on tying on the tulle until you've reached your desired fullness.

Here's Buttercup showing off the finished tutu for her sister Pony. I think this project took less than an hour to do. Buttercup had a bit of difficulty figuring out the tying but she quickly got it and didn't need any further help until she got bored and wanted me to finish it.