Tutu Tutorial Tuesday

A few weeks ago I won a contest on my craft-friend Tess's blog. Check out her site here - misstess.com. In addition to being beautiful, she's wildly creative and fun. The prize I won was a tutu kit - 4 colors of tulle pre-cut into long strips, elastic, and tutu-making instructions. Fun!

 

 Since McKenna's the dancer in the family, I decided to make one for her:

 

It came out very fluffy. I'm afraid she's going to tickle all the dancers around her with her great big tutu. So I made her a more manageable one:

And I still had several strips left over so I started playing with them and ended up making this:

Simply take a strip of tulle (approximately 3" x 40"), fold it in half, cut the loop, fold in half again, cut the loops, and continue until you have a handful of tulle strips approximately 4 inches long. Then take one of the strips and tie all the other strips together with it tightly in the middle. Viola! A tulle ball. Now what? Well, you can stitch a barrette to it:

and wear it in your hair.

or tie a couple to some hair bands:

and make tutus for your pigtails:

 or stitch a pin to it:

add a fancy button, and wear it on your chest.

I thought this pin and barrette looked rather Christmassy. It's a cheap and easy present you can make for the funkier ones in your family.

I also made these by going one fold further and ending up with tiny 2 inch tulle balls:

I'm not sure what to do with them though. I finally found what they're good for - a cat toy!  Now I  know why Tess likes tulle so much. The possibilities are endless!