Tutu Skirt tutorial

I fell in love with this little skirt when I happened upon it via pinterest and I made it using sewing in no mans land's instructions. I thought her instructions were hard to understand though, so I decided to make my own little tutorial. What I liked was that the instructions work for any size and that this project took all of three hours to complete. Have fun!  

What you need:

1 yard main fabric
1/2 yard lining fabric
1/2 yard soft tulle
Small length of 1/2 inch wide elastic

1. Measure your little girl's waist and double it. Mine was roughly 17 inches (they never hold still, do they?) doubled to 34. I am going to refer to this number as your magic number.

2. Cut three rectangles out of your main fabric. One will become the waist band and the other two, the skirt. If you want to tier the waist band like I did, then cut the first rectangle the length of your magic number (mine was 34 inches) and 8 inches wide. If you don't want to tier it, then cut it the length of your magic number and 5 inches wide. Cut the other two rectangles the length of your magic number and 5 inches wide. 

3. Grab your first rectangle and hem the top wide enough so that the elastic will eventually fit within. Then, if you don't want to tier the top, go to step 5.

4. Form the tiers. If you have a good method of doing this, then do it your way. Just make sure the finished product will have a width of 4 to 5 inches. How I did it was by creating three folds, pinning them, and sewing them exactly how I wanted it to look, right onto the right side of my fabric. The picture shows this a little better. 

5. Sew the other two rectangles together by lining them up at the side, right sides together. (I should tell you that the original tutorial that I followed made her skirt from a recycled dress shirt. She had to use more than two strips to reach the desired length (your magic number doubled) and that worked out just fine too.) 

6. Hem this long strip and then do a gathering strip along the other end, allowing a good half inch seam allowance. Gather this strip, creating a ruffled strip. Line it up and make it the same length as your waist band. 

7. Line up the edges of your waist band, right sides together, and sew them together from the bottom sewing up, making sure to leave open the top so we can thread in the elastic later on.

8. Cut a rectangle out of the lining fabric the length of your magic number and about 3 inches wider than those rectangles, so about 8 inches wide. This width really depends on the height of your little girl as the lining is what we will be sewing the tulle on to and will determine the skirt length. Hem the bottom.

9. Cut three strips of tulle, all the length of that magic number or longer. I used the whole half a yard, so the length was however long it came off the spool something like 50 inches. The three strips will differ in width though, all by an inch. Like I said, I wanted to use the whole half yard (~18 inches) so I cut my strips 5 inches wide, 6 inches wide, and the remaining ended up a little wider than 7 inches. 

10. Take your thinnest piece of tulle. Line up the raw edge of the tulle with the top of the hem of your lining, onto the right side of the lining. Pin and sew.

11. Turn the tulle down so that the tulle hangs down and topstitch what you just sewed.
12. Now we are going to attach the medium size strip of tulle 1 inch up from your first tulle strip by doing  the same thing. Sew close to the edge all the way around. Again, turn it down and topstitch. Repeat this process 1 inch up again with your widest strip of tulle. Then, sew a side seam in the lining by lining up the side edges right sides together.
13. Take your two main pieces (the waist band and the skirt, both made from the main material) line their raw edges together right sides together. Pin and baste.
14. Take your lining and slide it up in the middle again lining up the raw edges. The tulle should be poking out the bottom. Pin and sew together. You can trim the raw edge of the lining as needed.

I wish I had a better picture of this step. Look at this picture, and then imagine that the waist band was folded down. You will sew the top of the lining onto the hem that attaches the waist band to the skirt (where you already basted.)

15. Take the elastic, which should be a bit smaller than your little girls waist, attach a safety pin and feed it through your large hem.
16. Spread out the gathers of the waist band and then finish off the skirt by sewing the elastic ends together and hand stitching the openings of the waist band shut. You can trim the tulle as needed too, after your little girl has tried it on.