Guess what we have for Christmas this year? Go on, guess! Give up? Ok, I'll tell you. We have not one but TWO little girls! And guess what else? (You don't have to guess, I'll just tell you.) They are each the perfect age! Mary Jane is still a teeny tiny baby which means A.) I get to eat her up and B.) she'll wear whatever I make for her! And my sweet Iron-Willa (Little Miss NO-I-DON'T-YIKE-IT!) is finally three (!!!) which means A.) she has HAIR! and B.) for those of you not in the know, three = teeny tiny toys! Polly Pockets, Playmobil, tea sets AND barrettes and bows...I can barely contain myself. There are buttons, barrettes, fabric, tulle, and ribbons knee deep in the studio. I'm in heaven...
So the first project was for baby Mary Jane. The tutu ties on so it is a very simple project but I think it's going to look so cute with a pair of ballerina tights...*swoons* I cannot wait to smush her into this and eat her up!
If you'd like to make your own Tie-on Baby Tutu, I have put together a quick tutorial (I hope you all appreciate that I resisted the pun there):
First you want to cut a sash out of some nice wide ribbon. It needs to be long enough to go around the waist with enough left over to tie the tutu around the waist with a big bow. I cut mine 34" long for a 14" waist so my bow would have nice long tails. Then you want to cut a rectangular length of tulle. I cut mine about 12" x 42" but you can adjust this to any length and width depending on the size of your child and how long and/or poufy you want your tutu to be. You will be folding the tulle in half lengthwise so make sure you cut it twice as wide as you want your skirt length (waist to hem) to be (for example, my finished skirt is 6" long so the raw piece was 12" wide). The waist measurement is also variable. I made mine 42" (3x as long as the waist) so it would be super fluffy.
Once you have your tulle cut you need to add a stitch down the center lengthwise. Keep a nice long tail and tighten the tension on your machine as high as it will go and make the stitches as long as you can. You can also hold onto the thread at the spool to add extra tension (but don't hold it too tightly or it will snap which is kind of a pain). The high tension and long stitches will gently gather the tulle. You'll still have to make adjustments but this gives you a nice headstart. The center stitch can be done by hand as well. Just make a nice running stitch down the center with a long piece of thread.
Once you have your stitch in place just grab a thread tail and hold it as you slide the tulle towards the center, gathering it as evenly as possible until it reaches the pre-determined waist measurement (again, mine was 14").
Now take your ribbon and fold it in half to find the center (you can also measure but this method is way faster). Add a pin or a mark to the center and then center your gathered tulle on the mark. Pin if you'd like, making sure to adjust the gathers to your liking. I only pinned the ends so I would be able to adjust the gathers as I went along.
Now stitch along the edge of the ribbon making sure to get all the tulle as you go. Move slowly, tulle is squirrely! Once you have it all stitched into place you can go back and cut all of the long thread tails.
And that's it for the skirt! Super easy, right? I had originally planned to fold the ribbon in half to hide the rough edge of the tulle but i liked the look of the wide waistband so I kept it open. You could do either. It's really a very flexible project.
For the onesie, find some matching skinny ribbon, tie a bow, stitch it on and add some Fray Block to the ends of the ribbon. Even easier!
And so cute, holy cow. I'm dying to see it on her!
Ok, moving onto hair accessories now...stay tuned.
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