This is pinned to my "DIY & Crafts" Board
Ella is a tiny little thing, she just had her one year check up and she only weighs 19 pounds. Most of the Tutu patterns were sized 2T and up, but I could just picture her opening her birthday presents wearing her tiny tutu. Adjusting a pattern like this was not big deal, right? A couple of days before I bought all the material needed, she came over for a visit and I measured her waist size as well as the length from her waist to the floor. Her waist measured 19 inches while she was fully dressed. Didn't think that was a big deal since she would probably wear the tutu over her other clothing anyway. From her waist to the floor was only 12 inches. The pattern I had chosen said the tutu would end up measuring 12-14 inches long, I thought that would be perfect, a long flowing tutu for our little princess!
For Christmas presents, I also had made all three of the youngest grand kids shirts with various decals ironed on and used fabric paint to put their names on them. They were some of the very last gifts I made before Christmas Eve and apparently I was pretty tired and made Ella's backwards!! She has a shirt with a cute little heart & crown that says "Princess" and her name painted on the BACK of a shirt!
We all got a good laugh from that one and just a little teasing from my kids, since they always say that I lock myself in the Art room for an entire month before Christmas. So, since her birthday was so close to Christmas, I decided it would be perfect to make her another one, taking care to make sure it was on the front, of course, and also to match her new Tutu. A whole little princess outfit for the Birthday girl! Perfect!!
The pattern called for 4 1/2 yards of tulle. I knew I wanted to make it two colors. I had two of my older grand kids with me and off to the fabric store we went! We found the tulle and my 9 year old granddaughter and I thought the extra sparkly tulle was perfect! We picked out a pale pink and a white and Lainie carried it over to the cutting station. Luckily, we weren't the first in line, so we stood and waited a few minutes and while waiting, we found that the "extra sparkly" was definitely not the best choice for a one year old! Lainie was COVERED in glitter!!!! Her coat, her shirt, her face, it was even in her hair!! Not only her but even Landin, who didn't even hold the tulle had it on him! We were cracking up, talking about how Aunty J's house would be covered in glitter, and headed back over to pick out a less sparkly tulle for the project. Got the fabric and the rest of the materials needed and headed home.
The pattern called for 27 inch strips cut 3 inches wide. Knowing that it needed to be 12 inches long and I would be doubling the fabric, I cut mine 24 inches long instead. I have to tell you that if you don't already have a rotary cutter, I would highly advise investing in one!! I can't imagine doing some of my projects, this one included, without one!!
I got all the strips cut and unattached them from myself! Tulle attacks!!
In the instructions it had said to just tie a knot in the elastic and measure to the child before sewing, but I didn't quite follow that part. I had already measured after all, right? I had also noticed on the pattern the lady said "I use extra tulle because I like my tutu very full". Sounded good to me!! Nothing worse than a flat tutu!! I started knotting the pieces to the elastic as per the instructions. Like I said, there is a lot of static in the tulle, that was the hardest part for me, just trying to keep it from clinging. A premonition of what was to come? Maybe. I got into a rhythm and it moved along pretty fast. I had also decided that I wanted a satin ribbon around the top to cover all the knots and the elastic. The original pattern I used did not have that, but it was pretty easy to go back onto Pinterest and find instructions for that too. Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest?
I finished it pretty quickly and was happy with the results. My granddaughter, Lainie, came over and saw it. She said it was super cute but the waist seemed "kinda' big". I'm still thinking that with clothes underneath it would be perfect, even though with all the "extra" tulle the lady had said to use to make it "extra" full, it was as wide as it was long. I still wasn't deterred! She was gonna' be adorable!!
Her birthday arrived. Our baby is now one!! She ate her birthday cake and enjoyed it thoroughly! Her Mom took off her cake covered clothes . Since it was time to open gifts anyway, I pulled out my gift bag, my vision of her opening gifts in her new outfit dancing in my head!! She put it on and first of all the elastic was WAY too big, even with clothes underneath, her mom took the satin ribbon and tied it around twice to keep it from falling off. Also, it really was EXTRA full, she couldn't even see the floor!! Not such a good idea, especially since she is just learning to walk!!
This is the only picture I have of her in her new tutu because she only wore it for less than a minute! She couldn't reach her other gifts to open them and it was so full and clingy she kept trying to push it out of her way!! Oh well......we will save it for when she's a little bigger and can tame the beast, so to speak!! At least her new shirt has her name on the front!!
Even though this didn't turn out quite the way I had envisioned I know there will be more tutu's in my future. I still think it was super cute, just not right for Ella.......yet!!! I learned a lot this time around!!
Better gifts to come Ella!!
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