The little girls at Emma's ballerina tea party were asked to wear a pink leotard and tights to the party, and upon arrival we allowed each guest to choose a pink, lavender or white tutu. The girls wore these for a ballet class in our dining room and twirled home in them after the party. Directions follow for these easy, no-sew tutus.
1. Supplies include tulle, scissors and an elastic headband. I used 6-inch wide spools of pink, lavender and white tulle from Wal-Mart. Each 65-yard roll yielded two to three 10-inch long tutus. I used pastel, child-size elastic headbands from Wal-Mart that come with eight headbands per package. Although I wasn't crazy about the plastic flower beads on some of the headbands, I did not remove them because I knew the little girls would like the extra "bling." You can use scissors for this project, but I preferred using a rotary cutter and cutting mat to achieve a smooth edge.
2. Determine the finished length of your tutu, and cut strips of tulle twice that length -- lots and lots of strips! Our tutus required 20-inch long strips.
3. Fold a strip of tulle in half, pinching the middle with your dominant hand.
4. With your less dominant hand, wrap the tulle around the headband, looping the ends through the fold in the middle of the tulle.
5. Pull the tulle taut to create a little knot around the headband.
6. Repeat the process with a second strip of tulle.
7. Continue around the headband using the same process. The more strips of tulle you use on the headband, the more full the tutu will be. For our party tutus, I used more strips of tulle on the plain headbands, resulting in full tutus that were a little larger. I used less strips on the headbands embellished with plastic jewels. For these, I filled in the open space in the headband with as many strips as needed, then alternated one and two strips of tulle between the jewels. Filling in the tutu can be a time-consuming process, but the process does get quicker as you go along.
8. When you have worked all the way around the headband and achieved the desired fullness, adjust the knots as needed to make an even waistband and fluff the tutu.
9. Take a bow! Your tutu is ready for a pirouette!
