We are excited to welcome a new guest writer and crafter to the blog this week! Denise from All Dressed Up Couture has created some amazing tutu dresses with supplies from The Hair Bow Company and she is joining us to share a little bit of her knowledge and a little inspiration for creating your own tutu dresses! Not feeling crafty? You can get a finished dress from Denise's shop All Dressed Up Couture! Or get your supplies right here at The Hair Bow Company and start creating!
Hello! I am Denise, the owner of All Dressed Up Couture. At All Dressed Up Couture we are "saving the world one princess and super hero at a time"!
Every year one of my biggest sellers is my 'Lil Punkin Dress and this year I decided to change it up a bit and make it a bit more fancy. The HairBow Company asked me if I would show you how I made it, so here goes.
My dresses are very time intensive. If you decide you would rather not DIY you can find a large selection of tutus and tutu dresses at All Dressed Up Couture.
First, you need some great materials and embellishments. I went to The Hair Bow Company and found what I wanted!
Materials:
Orange tulle
Green tulle
Orange dot sparkle tulle
Large crochet top
Green satin ribbon
Orange and green shabby flowers
Hair clips
Headband.
Additional items:
Scissors
Glue Gun
Planning for Your Tutu Dress
I know that there are already several tutorials on here about making tutus, so I will be brief. The key to this dress is the LAYERS. First you need to measure your little punkin from her belly button to her knee. In this case I cut my tulle 14 inches x2 so each peice of orange tulle was 28 inches long. On average the large tulle top has 60 holes around so I went ahead and cut 180 pieces of orange tulle at 28" long each. Now keep in mind... each top is different, so counting the holes in the top all the way around is a good idea. I make my dresses three layers so you have to times those holes by three... hence I had 180!
Creating Your Tutu Dress
Now comes the fun part. Turn on a good t.v. show and get to work! Again there are tutorials on how to do this. Some people use a crochet hook... I don't. I just use my fingers. Fold the piece of tulle in half and slip it through a hole like shown. , pull the tulle through the loop it has made and pull tight. You have done ONE piece of tulle! Keep repeating until you have gone all the way around, and then repeat till you have three layers of orange tulle.
The next layer is going to be the beautiful orange dot sparkle tulle! I cut this two inches shorter than the orange tulle was, making each piece 24 inches long. I cut ONLY enough for one time around so for my top that was 60 pieces. Add them to the next layer of your dress the same way you did you plain orange tulle.
The top layer of the Lil' Punkin dress was green tulle. I cut this tulle 8 inches long and I cut enough to go one time around (60 pieces).
Embellishing Your Tutu Dress
Voila! You now have a beautiful, full tutu dress for your Lil' Punkin. Honestly, you can stop here and she will love it, but I like to embellish everything I make! I added Green ribbon to the waist and tied it in front in a bow. And then I wove green ribbon through the top of the bodice to make shoulder straps that tie in the back. (That's a bit complicated and hard to show in a photo... but I tried!)
Lastly, I made a flower clip for the front of the bodice by gluing two small green flowers to either side of an orange flower and gluing it all to a clip. Then I clipped it to the front of the dress!
I also made the headband the same way, just gluing the flowers onto it.
And I then tied some tulle around the wings, added some of the fancy Orange dot tulle and a green flower.
My Lil' Punkin was ready to go!
Resources:
Process photos, DIY & Crafting Expertise courtesy Caitlin of An Enchanted Box
Model Photography by Ava K Photography
You can find tulle here at The Hair Bow Company.
You can find crochet headbands here at The Hair Bow Company.
You can find Fairy Wings and other dress up items here at The Hair Bow Company.
You can find other crafting supplies here at The Hair Bow Company.
Shop Denise's ready made tutu dresses here at All Dressed Up Couture.
