Tutu mania
- Apr 21, 2017
- 3 min read
Win my heart with a bouquet of netting and ribbon
All journeys have a beginning and my costume one started with tutus. The big poofs of netting and jewels got me hooked the first time I saw them, so now my carpet is forever ingrained with them! There is such a beauty in the craftsmanship in them, and how 13 or so layers of netting can hold itself up to stand so straight. God they're amazing!
During my A levels I went a little tutu crazy, really I was just procrastinating so i didn't have to revise for my exams but lets not tell anyone that!
It started with Halloween, I was determined to make a tutu to wear as Dorothy, you would't think the two would correlate but they did in my mind. For this I made a knotted style tutu around a length of ribbon, using 3 colours. It was easy and I was hooked. I then covered it in some gingham and made a matching bodice, alongside some very glittered up converse.
Disclaimer: Yes, I forced my boyfriend to dress up as the cowardly lion...
........ No, he wasn't happy about the bow.....
Next up was two pink tutus for the race for life! For anyone who knows me, you'll know pink is my all time fave colour so I was in my element here. The race for life is also really important to me so i really wanted them to be perfect. However these tutus were going to be the subject to a torrid torrential rain and mud*sad face* Also I was running with my mum I wanted to make these tutus a little longer so booty shorts weren't needed like before and our legs wouldn't get ripped up by running thought the forest (yeah its through a forest and a few fields) Personally I loved these, they were perfect for twirling in if I'm honest.
So after that triumph I decided to up the anti and make a proper tutu that had the thousands of layers and a lot more work required. So much work in fact, I ended up using it as a year long project in my final year of A Levels.
This project proved that tutus weren't just for twirling about in and I ended it with my fingers ripped to shreds and my blood pressure though the roof. But it was worth every agonising second for sure. My teacher knew as much as I did about tutu making, which was nothing. So the internet and YouTube tutorials were my best friends for a year. There was a HUGE amount of research for this undertaking and who would have known there was so many types of tutus (there's a shit tonne) I made all the patterns myself and draped them on a dress stand.
I started wanting it to be pink and really girly. something fun and embellished. I had this initial design to work off... then changed it completely to be blue and based of the Rococo era because it was great to do the historical research on top of it all. Yeah I know I make my life hard for myself.
There is a great part of tutu making, when all the 12 layers were sewn onto the pantie you get to tip it all upside down and steam press it, ready for it all to be tacked together. One could only describe this process as a wild netting puffball creature that refuses to be tamed....
It was massive, made only bigger by the fact it was in a tiny class room up turned like that for a week.
From here all the layers are tacked together so it becomes a stiffer flat "pancake" It is also a great time to trip any layers that aren't completely even (I may have missed this bit out a little bit opps) Most classic tutus have a hoop in them, which is a bit of boning or wire inserted into the the middle layer to make it stick out straight and flat but i chose not to add one in as this was just for school.
Ready for the finished product?
These are just the main tutus I made that year, the rest I don't have pictures of, also that would make this post a lot longer than you would wish to read.
Over the summer I plan to make a few more, so watch this space. There may be a Tutu part 2 sooner then you think!
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