Rainbow Tutu

First off, I love rainbows. My roommate has a saying, "my favorite color is rainbow". I often challenge myself to pull off wild color combinations, and have delved into a new medium recently - the world of tulle!

This year for Halloween, I was a clown. To support my clown costume, I decided I needed an AMAZING RAINBOW TUTU! This is a departure from how I have made Tutus in the past, as there is no elastic in it, follow my Step-by-Step directions to make one of your own <3

Nikki found these awesome rolls of tulle fabric that are 6"x25 yards! They were perfect for making Tutu strips. I used those, some facing, and hot-glue, and a hook/eye fastener as my materials. I also used some yarn stretched between to dress forms to drape my tulle piles on to - more on that later. 

The tools I used for this Tutu were: a pair of scissors, a glue-gun, and a sewing machine

Cut ALL THE TULLE! It takes a while, but for each color I used, I made 3 40" pieces, and 3 30" pieces. I ended up with over 100 pieces of cut tulle.

I recommend listening to this song while making your cuts, and to dance safely with fabric shears.

The tulle really starts to pile up, so as I was cruising along, I stretched out a piece of yarn between two dress forms to hang it on. This allowed me to configure how I wanted the colors to flow, and also if I would have enough tulle pieces to fill a whole tutu.

It was spectacular to look at, and handling the tulle felt really nice.

I went through color by color and stapled the groups of tulle together. 

I did this, and later realized it was probably unnecessary, but it certainly helped me keep it organized when I was pulling it off the string. Using some wire snips, I was able to easily cut the staples out of the tulle without damaging it.

This part took a second. Have a bowl of cool water next to where you are gluing, because you are going to get burned.

I measured my waist, and then cut 2" longer than my waist in 2" facing. I completely opened the facing and began gluing down the center folds of my lengths of tulle to the center of the facing.

Figuring out spacing and patterns was an organic process, you're going to have to do it by feel.

After all the glue is set, I folded the facing back in half, and began to pin it. This is when the tutu magically started coming together. It became this great fluffy rainbow cloud that I was pricking with pins to get a good waist.

When I finished pinning it, I ran a straight seem down each end, and then VERY CAREFULLY ran a seam down the edge of the facing.

Watch where the tulle is resting, you don't want to sew any of it into your waistband.

I didn't want to use elastic in this tutu because I hate the way elastic feels. Instead, I used an eye/hook fastener. Make sure you sew the hook on the side you want on the inside, and the eye on the outside.

If you have a trick on how to put these on with your sewing machine, I would love to hear it. I hand sewed these on, which was a little bit of a fluffy fight with the tutu, I am sure I looked hilarious trying to wrangle all this puffy stuff.

I went out on adventure with friends to the Exploratorium, and then went and danced to RL Grime! Everywhere I went, the Tutu was a hit, and I had a great time clowning around all of Halloween. 

This tutu feels like it is built to last, and I can't wait to find another occasion to wear it. <3