If we haven't met before, welcome! We are The Hair Bow Company and we have a bit of a tutu dress addiction.
We are so excited to be gearing up for Halloween this year and we have some great new tutu dress tutorials headed your way! This week we are featuring our no sew mouse dress. And it is SO simple y'all, and how cute?!?
Need costume inspiration? Don't like to sew? Don't want to spend big $$$ on your costume? Need something easy to make?
Us too. You've come to the right spot! You are our people. So let's get going!
First, let's start off with our supply list. These are all available on our website.
Mouse Tutu Dress Supplies
1 roll hot pink glitter tulle**
9" lined hot pink crochet tutu top*
1 5 yd spool black 1.5" grosgrain ribbon
6 packages of felt dots
6 small black shabby flowers (optional)
1 large black shabby flower (optional)
Hot glue & low heat glue gun OR fabric glue.
Tutu making kit (optional)
Recommended optional accessories:
Black Gloves
Black Lace Trimmed leggings 4-8y
or Black Lace Trim Leggings 2-4y
Mouse Headband Instructions:
Start by cutting a piece of tulle for the center piece of your bow. (6-8" is fine)
Find the center in between your mouse ears and tie it around.
Use the instructions and video found in the Tulle Hair Bow blog post from last month to make the center piece of the bow. I used 3 yards of regular hot pink tulle to make a 6" bow on the example.
Tie the 3 yards of tulle to the headband securely and cut off loose ends of the tulle and any edges to give the bow great shape.
Take 3 felt dots, fold them in half and cut into smaller circles.
Attach the small circles to tulle in desired places. I used a low heat hot glue gun on mine. I am a firm believer that a glue gun can be used to do about any crafting project. Glue gun lovers unite! #amIright? Lol. However, if you are one of those super crafty adults and have a high heat glue gun (I don't because I'd wind up in the hospital, sigh), use caution or fabric glue. The hot glue if it is hot enough, can actually melt your tulle.
Remove the backing to the circles and arrange the small dots in a pattern you like. Once you are happy with them, attach to the bow using your low heat glue gun or fabric glue.
Mouse Tutu Dress Instructions
Cutting your tulle:
First, determine the length of your tulle. For this dress, I wanted a 14" skirt for a 4-6 yr old. That means my pieces of tulle need to be 28" in length. You can measure from your daughters waist down to about her knee to get the length you want for this style dress.
Once you know how long you want the tulle, scour your house for a box, a lid to a container, anything that is about that length. Trust me on this. You are going to save yourself an hour cutting tulle. I used a cardboard box and cut it to size.
Tape one end of the tulle to the edge of the box. Wrap the entire roll of tulle around the box. Cut at both ends.
Repeat with all 4 rolls of tulle.
Now you are going to take 5 pieces of the shimmer tulle, and set them aside for the shoulders of the dress.
Cut 1 of the 5 saved pieces in half.
Lay the other 4 pieces and any scraps you have (if you had a piece that isn't quite long enough to go on the skirt during wrapping) on top of each other in a single layer and cut them into approximately 1-1.5" strips. I eyeballed it (recommended), but if you want them to be exact you can measure using a ruler so they are precise.
You now have your tulle cut for the ENTIRE skirt of the dress in less than 10 minutes!
Amazing! Genius, you say? Why, yes, it is! Thanks!
The Skirt Pattern:
For the skirt we are going to use a 2 layer tutu. I know it looks like more, we have dresses that are 3 layers that didn't turn out this fluffy but that has to do with 3 factors: the length (longer dresses will lay flatter), the glitter tulle is thicker and coarser, and the way we tied it. I'll go into that in detail next.
The entire bottom layer of the dress is going to be regular tulle.
The top layer of this skirt is going to rotate: shimmer, regular, shimmer, regular all the way around.
How to tie the Mouse Dress skirt:
Get your lined crochet tutu top. Look at the holes in the photo.
For this skirt, you want all of your knots to be on the OUTSIDE of the tutu top That means you have to weave your tulle from the outside-inside-outside and tie.
To tie the first piece of the bottom layer of the tutu l take the tulle, hole your tulle on the outside of the top and go in hole #1, pull it 1/2 way through and tie it at the bottom outside of the tutu top as shown in the photo. I used a single knot, you an double them up if you desire, but with the glitter tulle, I HIGHLY recommend sticking with the single.
For the top layer, take a piece of glitter tulle weave it through hole 1 (the same hole you used for the bottom layer) from the outside to the inside of the top. Pull it half way through and weave it back to the outside through hole #2.
On the next set of holes: Repeat the bottom layer using regular tulle, repeat top layer regular tulle.
Set after: Bottom row: regular; Top row, glitter.
This is what it will look like when you are a few ties in:
Repeat rotating regular and glitter tulle on the top layer until the skirt is complete.
Tip: If you notice you are getting close to the end and running short on tulle. Don't panic. It is ok to skip a couple of pieces on the top layer. This skirt is SO fluffy, I promise you can't see it. I had just enough tulle to finish, but depending on how tight you rolled it around your cardboard, or if you tore a piece, etc. you may be 1-2 pieces short. That's ok. By the end I couldn't see where I was supposed to tie next. I had to search several times.
Tip #2: if you have a crochet hook: use it. Our tutu making kits have them and with this particular dress using the glitter tulle, it makes life SO much easier.
Mouse Dress Shoulders:
Locate the seam of the tutu top. This will be the back center for the dress.
Take both strips of tulle you cut in half for the shoulders.
On the front side of the tutu top, you will want to tie the tulle through hole 1 and the edge, just like you did for the lower layer of the skirt. I forgot to take a pic of this, but at this point in our tutu making relationship, I trust you to tie a knot.
At this point, I recommend you do what I did since our model wasn't at the office and eyeball it to tie in on the backside. Do NOT cut the excess strands of the shoulders yet. This way you can adjust the length of the shoulders later to fit your princess when the dress is complete.
Layer 3 strips of your 1" tulle and tie them around the left tulle strap. Repeat on the right shoulder. Tip: Don't be like me and start in the middle of the strap. Start at the front of the dress and work your way back.
Repeat over and over and over and over until you think you can't possibly tie anymore tulle ever.
Tip: By rotating shoulders you made sure you have equal amounts of tulle on each shoulder and you don't have to count out/divide strips. #winning.
Mouse Dress Belt and Polka Dots
Take the black ribbon and wrap it around the dress where the knots meet the tutu top. You will need to glue it. I glued mine a little over half way around and tied a simple bow in the back.
Tip: Due to the angle of the dress, the ribbon will ride up the tutu top and will not stay in place if it is not glued. You can finish the belt out and add your shabby flowers or do the dots at this point! You are almost done!
Shabby flowers:
I glued 1 large shabby flower in the front center of the dress. And glued 3 petite shabby flowers on each side of the large flower.
Polka Dots:
Lay the polka on the skirt with the adhesive and you can remove and re-position them as needed. I had a mannequin, so this was easy for me...but I am assuming most of you won't have one laying around your house...I could be wrong...but let's suppose I'm not. Don't worry...hang it on a hanger. Take a pic with your phone when you are done, take a step back, look at it and move any dots around if needed. See in the last pic how I added the dot there after seeing the photo! I did this several times while placing dots on the tulle. Then glue them into place.
Allow the glue to fully dry.
Now the fun part: call your princess in and let her try it on, twirl and have fun!
If you haven't seen our past costumes, girl (or guy ;), because, hey, let's face it - dad's can make these too!), you are missing OUT. So go check out our other tutu dress and costume tutorials for more fun ideas! If you aren't already join us on Pinterest and pin this dress! And be sure to follow us on Facebook where we will be giving this and other dresses away this Halloween season! We are on IG too, so tag us in your pics in your costumes! #thehairbowcofan and #thbchalloween
*9" headband is for a 4-6yr old. We have all sizes available on our tutu tops page for other ages.
**If your daughter is older than 4-6 and you are making this dress, I would recommend adding 1 additional roll of tulle. Glitter or regular, your choice. We did not have leftovers! Our hot pink and hot pink glitter are different manufacturers. They are NOT identical shades of pink. As you can see from the dress, when unrolled, they blend and it turns out gorgeous, but if this bothers you, order all one type of tulle. We prefer them mixed.