A little tutu!

A couple of weeks ago I received a message from a relative asking if I could make a baby tutu. Well I hadn't actually made a tutu before but how difficult could a tutu be, especially one for a 3 month old baby?  A quick google search would no doubt find the necessary tutorials and I felt quite confident. The only fly in the ointment was the request to make it from my nieces wedding gown! Mild panic ensued at this point.  Did she really want me to chop up her wedding dress? Yes she did! 

The dress had plenty of netting I could use for the fluffy tutu but she also wanted me to add an over skirt from the dress satin and could the sparkly trim be removed to put on a head band?  I think this was the point at which the mild palpitations and sweaty palms started. Good job I'm not easily spooked though and love a challenge so I promptly got out the seam ripper! In just a few minutes I had removed the trim, released a bunch of netting from the underskirt and split the dress panels. (It's amazing how quick you can undo stitching when you use a seam ripper correctly, something I have only just learnt to do the last six months!)

So Tutu making began! Having looked at a number of tutorials I decided to follow the more traditional pancake tutu method,  so out came the ruffler ! Love this gadget. Pity mine broke at the end of the project mind but I think I can mend it. It is such a time saving foot for gathering. I had 6 layers of net to gather. 2 long layers each of 3 different widths, 5", 4" and 3". Once gathered I layered them all up and stitched them together to make one piece of netting. The shortest width was placed on the bottom to make the tutu stand out from the waist. 

The over skirt was cut from the satin dress panels. I really wanted to make a full circle skirt overlay but unfortunately the width of the panels was just too narrow so I had to cut 2 half circles. Being used to working with cotton I was a bit nervous of stitching the slippery satin but I was pleasantly surprised to find the panels were underlined with muslin and stitched out without a hitch. I used a new size 60 needle and Aurifil 50 weight cotton to stitch it.

Net and over skirt were joined at the waist and a small narrow elasticated waistband added. To prevent the scratchy net irritating the baby I also added a fluffy underskirt made form the chiffon lining. Finally I hand stitched the trim from the shoulder of the dress around the waistband. The sparkly gems took me longer to hand stitch in place than I expected so when I prepped the jewels off the front of the dress for the hairband I mounted them on white felt first. 

All in all I was quite pleased with the tutu and I think my niece liked it. Baby wore it for a photo shoot just before Christmas. She is such an adorable baby don't you think!