(Right off I’ll say that I have no good pictures of this project because I was very foolish. )So I had this great idea to make a tutu for Clark’s friend’s birthday–what 3 year old girl who loves ballerinas wouldn’t love having her own sparkly dress up tutu, I thought. And how hard could it be?
Well, harder than I thought. Here’s what I had to make this creation: many yards of pink and white tulle, bright pink satin ribbon, pale pink satin blanket binding, some bright pink flowers with an adhesive back, and a bunch of fake pink and white roses. I had in mind that I would cute apart the fake flowers to get petals and glue them on to the various layers, which I did do and the affect was just what I wanted. I was just completely unclear on how to do the top, though. I looked around online (I was not prepared to spend $30 for an e-pattern, especially when I thought it should be easy and saw many cute ones on Etsy that I figured someone not unlike me had made) and consulted with friends, my mom, and the lady at the Wal-Mart fabric counter and finally just decided i would sew the layers of tulle onto elastic. Then I would sew that into the binding or onto the ribbon. Have you ever tried to sew tulle? It’s like sewing air. Meringue-y air. I had six layers and just kept over and over trying to count them to see how many I had in my hand before approaching the needle of the machine and then I’d be counting all over again and one of the layers would have drifted off. I did finally got the layers sewed onto the elastic and though my mom had said “Just stretch the elastic as you sew and then when you’re done it all cinches up”, I found the not to the case and so I sort of bunched as I went along. This was really the first time I’d sewed onto elastic so I was unaware that it looks like total crap as far as stitchery goes. Then I sewed it onto the bright pink ribbon and again, sewing elastic to something made the stitching total crap. So then I sewed another layer of ribbon on top of it creating a sort of double edged look, which was nice and had nice stitching. I adhered the flower decorations evenly spaced along the waistband. By the way, it was just too much for me to figure out how to make it like a true skirt, so I was going for more like a cocktail apron. I hot glued on the flower petals and voila! a frothy creation.
The next morning I asked my son to try it on, having taken no measurements of any kind. Apparently I am a terrible estimator of size because it was enormous. But no matter because the birthday girl tried it on it was big enough to wrap the sash around and tie it in the front and she was very happy with it and looked adorable.
I’m going to make another one, having learned from the first one, and this one will be layers of blue and purple tulle with matching flower petals.
So what? Sew buttons! 
Sarah, over the years I have made quite a few of these for humans and dogs. I found it works best forgoing the elastic, using wide satin ribbon and gathering as you go. The time I made them for Anna, Esther, and Hope instead of having an unfinished edge at the hem I folded it over and enclosed little things in the hem (flowers, trinkets, whatever lite weight things you like, sequins,etc.) You can add more layers as you go. Once I made a red tutu for Annie. She wore a white Swiss blouse with red embroidery split down the front to fit, and red grosgrain ribbons laced all the way up her four legs. She got “best in show” as the French maid dog. She was a Bouvier after all.
I should have gone right to you from the start! You know, gathering as you go was my instinct and people kept dissuading me from it. I had also thought to do a folder over layer and enclose the goodies in it, but I wanted to try the petals all over and was pleased with the result.
I realized I’m not explaining the folded over part correctly as it is not a hem, but the whole skirt. The raw edges are affixed to the waistband.
yes, that’s what I thought you meant. the other reason I didn’t do it is because the width of the tulle was just right to cut into thirds and be a good length. I will bear in mind next time, though, that children’s waistlines are very small.