There are five million no-sew tutu tutorials out there. I used to make those, but then I realized how much awesomer sewn tutus were, and that you could make them HUGE, which you can’t with the no sew. I’ve had a couple of people ask me how I made the ones for the wedding, so I thought I’d post a tutorial.
SUPPLIES:
Tulle
3/4″ wide or 1″ wide elastic. Doesn’t really matter. Just not small elastic.
Tulle
sewing machine
Matching thread, whatever kind is the cheapest I guess, I don’t know the difference.
First, buy your tulle on ROLLS- not bolts. I’m not kidding. Sure, it may be a little bit cheaper to go with the bolts, but it’s not worth your freaking time. You can get them at Joann’s for about $3 a roll. They never go on sale so you can always use your coupon- you can even just hand them your phone with your coupon on there and they’ll scan it (I get my coupons at: http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/).
You’ll need at least 3 25 yard rolls for each tutu. More or less depending on how awesome you want the tutus to be.
Decide how long you want the tutu to be- I measure from the waist to the knee and then add an inch or two. The tulle sticks out when you sew it all together, so a tutu that is measured to go to the knee won’t ACTUALLY go to the knee, but a few inches above. Then take that measurement and double it. So on this one, Abby was six inches from hip to knee, I added an inch, so all of my pieces of tulle were 14″ or so. It doesn’t have to be exact. Cut all of the tulle.
There are some standard measurements out there, but I’ve found that they run REALLY big. So ask the person already. It’s not hard. Text them or something. If they don’t have measuring tape, have them use a string and then measure the string with a ruler. If they don’t have those things, they’re cavemen and don’t need an fabulous tutu.
The elastic can be cut to the measurement of the girl’s waist, and then add an inch for where you’re going to sew it together. But don’t do that yet. It’s much easier to sew it together for the final step. Take the end of the elastic and tie a FAT knot in it. Or put a hair clip on it. Something so that the tulle doesn’t come off the end as you sew it on.
Now take three or four pieces of your cut tulle and put them in a pile. You’re going to loop the tulle pieces around the elastic and stitch NEXT TO the elastic. You don’t ever stitch the tulle straight to the elastic. This gives you the space to pull down the sewn on tulle- making the tutu fuller as you go along. When you’ve got your first set on there, leave the machine where it’s at. Just add your next bunch of tulle and continue to sew. I just butt my tulle right up to the edge of the tulle that is already sewn on it and then sew straight through:
Keep adding tulle until you get to the end of the elastic, then take all of the tulle you’ve sewn on so far and push it towards the knot in the elastic.
On the other side of your sewing machine, you’ll start to see a fluffy tutu taking shape. This is where you get to play with how fluffy you want your tutu. Simply keep adding tulle and pushing it down until you either get all the way around your elastic (try not to stretch it when you’re pushing the tulle down- this happens when you’re trying to get entirely too much tulle on one elastic, which is kind of hard to do, so if you’ve run into this problem, kudos! You’re die hard!) or run out of tulle.
Untie the knot in the end, loop it around to the other side and sew it together. Voila! You’ve made a tutu. Not too hard, right?
Abby as a butterfly:
Does any of this make any sense at all?
Lexi Mag 
Awesome! I'm gonna put this tutorial to good use one of these days. 😉
Lexi, you're awesome! Thank you for posting this! I like it when people share their wisdom.
thank you for this! I could only find non-sew tutu's but it wouldn't have been as big and fluffy as I wanted it! so I got 200ft of tulle and set to work I now have the biggest fluffiest tutu that I am so proud of 🙂 thank you for your help.
Thank you so much for posting this i have been dying to make a tutu for my princess. She is turning 3 in January and is persistant in having a pink john deere Birthday party and I think a yellow, green, and pink tutu will be perfect to top off the look of the party girl. So thank you again, your awesome!!
Ok Lexi I think I just volunteered myself to make these fabulous tutus for the Sleeping Beauty ballet my kids are in! Can you imagine black and gold poof balls for scary little minions!? I love it! You are the best!
Hey Lexi I think I just volunteered to make these for the evil minions in my kids Ballet of Sleeping Beauty! They are going to be fabulous! I can't wait! You are the best!
Fabulous, thanks!!
This part made me LOL~"There are some standard measurements out there, but I've found that they run REALLY big. So ask the person already. It's not hard. Text them or something. If they don't have measuring tape, have them use a string and then measure the string with a ruler. If they don't have those things, they're cavemen and don't need an fabulous tutu." Thanks for the fab tutorial! I love these way more than the new sews. ❤
This part made me LOL~"There are some standard measurements out there, but I've found that they run REALLY big. So ask the person already. It's not hard. Text them or something. If they don't have measuring tape, have them use a string and then measure the string with a ruler. If they don't have those things, they're cavemen and don't need an fabulous tutu."Fabulous tutorial – I love these *way* more than the new-sews. Thanks!
This is beautiful:)
What thickness would you use? I see the option to buy 3",6", 9", etc. I am planning on making these for three adults for an Ovarian Cancer cure and awareness run. We want big, poofy and ridiculous – but I wasn't sure what thickness of tulle you would start with! Your tutus are great and I'm so excited to have stumbled across this! Thank you!
Yours was by far the best tutu tutorial out there. It was hard to find any that required sewing. Thanks for posting! It was a breeze.
I've been looking for a tutorial for a tutu for my Halloween costume, and they are all no sew and I didn't like the way the had been coming out, so now that I've found yours I am so excited! Thank you sooooo much! You saved me a lot of tying!
lovely tutuorial, thank you … ive been making hand tied tutus but looking to make something a little more robust and child friendly … can i just ask, do you put all the layers in a neat pile before sewing, or spread them out abit before hand ..just wondered how bulky the waistband would be?
I promised my brother I would make 15 tutu's for my niece's third birthday party next month. And then I started researching it. Not the best order of things, but I love the way your's looks in comparison to the no sew. Definitely going to give it a whirl. Wish me luck!
I made 10 of them for the wedding pictured. It sucked. Best of luck to you! muwahahaaa. how's that for encouragement?
I just finished making a tutu using your sewn version…Love it. My 3yr old is going to flip when she sees. I was donein no time. Thanks for sharing!
finally……i found this awesome tutorial after going through all the no-sew versions. this is what i was looking for. ur tutorial inspired me…..and i have another idea! how about using a lovely satin ribbon (in the place of elastic) which is long enough to be tied as a bow at the back of the tutu….i'm planning to attatch it to a simple strapped bodice for my friend's baby
I hardly write responses, but after reading through some of the remarks here "How to SEW a super fluffy tutu (a FREE tutorial)".I do have a couple of questions for you if you do not mind.Could it be simply me or do a few of the remarks appear like they are written by brain dead visitors? 😛 And, if you are posting at other social sites, I would like to keep up with you. Would you make a list of every one of your social community sites like your twitter feed,Facebook page or linkedin profile?My homepage … skin bleaching
I have been wanting to try to sew a tutu (instead of tying, which has just been very *meh*) but figured it’d be hard. You make it look doable though. I’ll have to try it! Thanks for the instructions!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I had the instructions for a “NO SEW TUTU.” I was making for my FIVE granddaughters and I CUT all the tulle for all of them and made 2. Very easy!!! But it was bugging me that they seems very SHORT. Since I live in FL and they live in NY, I couldn’t just try on. Then after RE-READING the instructions on the 5th time I realized I CUT ALL the tulle the wrong size.!!! I was suppose to DOUBLE what I needed, instead I cut to the actually size I wanted. Thank goodness you had these instructions, because now I can use the tulle already cut and make the tutu’s. Very easy and I like this much better than the NO SEW one. Comes out much fuller. Thanks
I made one of these today and got it pretty fluffy, but as it was worn it fell down flatter. Any tips on keeping in fluffy? More tulle maybe? I only used a 13″ piece of elastic, so I could only sew one bunch of tulle at a time and bunch it up at the end then spread it out after I sewed it closed. Does that sound right.
Ugly babies.
Better post tutorial about sewing the adult tutu!!!
You are disgusting Justice. I am pretty sure that baby has DS. Shame on you. ALL babies are beautiful!! PPL can be such jerks.
That’s my daughter. She has Down syndrome. Die in a fire.
Thank you for these instructions! I’m making my 5 month old daughter a Dalmatian costume for Halloween and this is what I was looking for!
Abby as a Butterfly is so amazingly beautiful! I just want to hug her!
Thanks for this simple instructional tutorial I needed this !!!
Sewing now 😉