Guest Post: TuTu with Autumn

Meet Autumn, The Queen of Chaos! My sister in law has been in my life for a LONG time. She was friends with my oldest sister, and then married my oldest brother, way back in the early 90s. Some things I remember about Autumn is how much Warren loves her. I remember watching him watching her. She has a catching laugh, and is awesome to chat with. Autumn and my brother have 6 kids, their newest is the model in this post. I'm so happy to have Autumn in my life, she's so creative and has an awesome style. Stick around while Autumn teaches us how to make a TUTU too cute!

Tutu supplies:
* 4 separate yards of tulle- same or different colors.
{For this demo I used 2 yards of brown, 1 yard of light pink, and 1 yard of dark pink.}
* Ruler
* Elastic
* Sharp scissors
* Sewing needle
* White thread
* Measuring tape
Instructions:
Time: Approximately 1 hour
1} Measure the waist of your child.

2} Subtract 2 inches from that measurement.{Believe me. If not, your tutu will be too big!}

3} Cut the elastic to the second measurement.

4} Take your cut elastic, and overlap by 1/2 inch.
5} Take your needle and white thread- sew the ends together. Do several stitches to make sure it's sturdy.

6} Put your sewn elastic around something tubular and sturdy. I used a ceramic jar. A new roll of paper towels on a dowel works well. This makes it easier to add your tulle.

7} Fold tulle in half - the widest part.

8} Lay your tulle flat on at table, with a short cut side in front of you.

9} Roll up the tulle. Make sure it's evenly rolled, with no wrinkles.

10} Once rolled up, cut the ends off. It's the thickest, and uneven, part of your roll. It's about 1-2 inches off each end.

11} Cut your roll every 3 inches. Do this to all your tulle until all are cut into mini 3 inch wide rolls.

12} Take a mini roll and unroll it. {These are my brown mini rolls because I forgot to take a picture of the pink ones. You get the idea though.}

13} If you want a short tutu {which is what I am making} fold the mini rolls in half and cut.To make a longer tutu, like for an older girl, skip this step.

14} Take a strip of tulle and fold in half. Tuck the strip of tulle under the elastic- half way.

15} Tie a knot of you tulle strip onto the elastic band. Important: As your tying a knot- make sure the ends of your tulle are even at all times. Also, make sure not to pull the knot too tight or it will cause the elastic to curl.

16} Tie another knot, while keeping the tulle ends even. You should end up with a double knot and your tulle ends are even. Again, don't pull too tight so the elastic doesn't curl.

NOTE: If you pull the knots to the top of the elastic it will cause the tulle to be more full. Do this to ALL of your knots.

17} Repeat this over and over until your elastic band is full of knotted tulle strips. If doing different colors- tie four strips on the same color then add another color of four strips and so on. It just looks better with a 'chunk' of one color before adding the next color.

18} The completed project! It's not hard at all, just a little time consuming.

Pull off your 'model' and put on your little princess!