Most little girls love a tutu. I don’t like to stereotype my daughter through her clothes, but I couldn’t deny her of a tulle skirt if that’s what she wanted. When I told her I was finally going to make her one, her eyes lit up, she was so excited.
I found some soft pink tulle at a local fabric shop, only £1 per m, it was destined to come home with me. The lining (a light weight cotton), I already had in my stash. And a strip of 20mm wide elastic (I would have used wider if I had some).
Using the circle skirt from the Spin Dress pattern, I folded the tulle vertical and horizontal so that I had a fold along both sides because I didn’t want a seam in the skirt.
I cut 2 x size 6 length with a size 10 waist, since I wanted some gathering at the waist.
For the lining I used a rectangle of fabric approx. 110m wide and slightly shorter than the circle skirt length. I joined the two short ends with a neat French seam.
I made a 5mm fold onto the right side of the the lining fabric, all the way round the top/waist. This is so it has a neat edge, rather than a raw edge on the inside of the elastic waistband.
Next I gathered the lining so that the waist was the same width of waist of the tulle circles.
I pinned and basted them all together so that the the two layers of tulle were held in place on top of the lining fabric.
I cut a piece of elastic to the size as my daughter’s waist (no bigger) and joined it together to make a loop.
I divided the skirt and the elastic into 4 equal parts and pinned the elastic to the skirt at each quarter. The elastic goes over the top of the skirt, just overlapping the 5mm fold that I made earlier.
The elastic loop is smaller than the skirt waist, this is so that the skirt can be gathered into the elastic.
Then using zig zag stitch No.2 on my Bernina 350, I joined the elastic to the skirt, pulling on the elastic making it the same width as the skirt waist, one quarter at a time.
Finally I hemmed the lining but left the tulle hem raw.
And this is the beautiful result.
My daughter was thrilled.
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