Tutu's and Tutu Wands!

     My friend Jen and I really wanted to learn how to make tutu's and now was the perfect time.  Her adorable little daughter is going to be turning two and she has decided to have a two-tu cute birthday party for her and her friends.  This meant lots of tutu making for us and a ton of fun!  These tutu's are really very simple and my two girls are even able to make them all by themselves.  They have now made several for their friends.  We also decided to make some tutu wands for the kids at the party.  So, I will try to keep this How-To as simple as possible.  You will need elastic and tulle for the tutus.  We found it much easier to buy these rolls of tulle as opposed to buying it by the yard.  We tried both ways and the rolls seemed much faster.  

So, just measure out a yard of the tulle and cut.  Next, fold the tulle in half so there is half a yard on each side and begin rolling it up into a small roll.  The whole point of this is to be able to cut the roll in half so that you will get two long strips out of that one yard. These are going to be your strips for the tutu.  Two of these rolls did about a tutu and a half.

This is what your rolled strips should look like

Next, measure out the amount of elastic that you will need for the child's waist and sew the two ends together.  The elastic does seem to stretch out a bit as you tie on the tulle.  This is the next step.  We found something to place the elastic around and started to tie on the tulle strips.  Take your strip and fold in half so you are grabbing the center. Place the center fold behind the elastic and so that the fold part is at top and just pull the tulle through that fold. (loop or whatever you want to call it)

It should look like this

You can get creative with this and alternate colors, do multi-color, or just one.  There are so many fun colors to try and they even have some with glitter which looks very pretty.  Here are a few of the finished tutu's we made. 



Here is a quick tutu wand tutorial.  Using the same tulle rolls, cut 16 6x5 inch squares. 

Using embroidery thread, place eight of the squares on top of each other and tie very tightly in a knot in the center.

Do the same with the next set of eight squares and the tie both sets together. 

Cut off all the extra string and begin to separate all of the tulle so that it begins to form a ball.  We bought the sticks for the wands at Michaels for .29 and we were able to get three wands out of one stick.  Cut the stick and place some hot glue on the tulle in a spot that looks like it's not as fluffy and glue onto the stick.  Add some matching ribbon and you are done!  Hope you enjoy!