PASTEL RAINBOW TUTU DIY

SUPPLIES
Pastel Tulle Netting - 6" Rolls (pink, peach, yellow, mint, aqua, lavender)
1" Elastic Piece - about 24" per skirt
Fabric Scrap - roughly 6"x24" I used a pale blue

Interfacing - cut about 5"x24"

Thread (to match fabric)
Straight Pins

Scissors

Safety Pin - 2 Large

Sewing Machine

1" Ribbon - 4" long

PROCESS
1. Cut a 45" strip of each of the tulle colors x3.
2. Cut the Fabric and interfacing strips.

3. Cut the Elastic strip.

4. Lay out the fabric strip on a large, flat surface with the right side down. 

5. Lay out each tulle strip in order of the rainbow, side by side and overlapping each other about 2". Keep the center of the tulle strip over the fabric strip. The easiest way to do this is to fold a piece of tulle in half and place the folded edge in the center of the fabric strip's height, then unfold the tulle. You may have some left over pieces by the time you get to the end of the 24" strip of fabric. 

6. Place the interfacing strip on top of the tulle layer right over the fabric strip. You won't need to fuse it (iron it) to the tulle.

7. Pin a large safety pin to each end of your elastic strip and place that on top of the interfacing. 

8. Pin the outer left end to the edge of the fabric, interfacing and tulle layers.

9. Carefully fold the entire thing in half, keeping the elastic inside. This is the tricky part because it can't be done all at once, but rather sections at a time. The top should be the fabric outer layer with the fold at the top edge.

10. Then carefully fold under the fabric and interfacing layers and straight pin along the width of the skirt every few inches.

11. Once that side is pinned, gently flip it over and do the same on the other side, but use the same straight pin from the other side. You don't need double pins, but you do need both edges tucked under.

* This is where my non-sewing skills shine through, this is probably not the most effective way to do this but it works for me and my crafting-sewer skills. 

12. Sew along the pinned line, just 1/8" in from the folded under side. It won't matter which side you sew on, but choose one, and sew one big long straight line, taking out the pins as you go. Make sure you don't sew into the elastic. I sew about 1/2" away from the elastic to avoid that problem.

13. When this is complete, you can fish the elastic through, if needed. The interfacing keeps the path smooth and the pin makes it easier to fish through. If the elastic is long enough, and already shows through, proceed to gather the waistline by pulling the fabric band toward the left pinned edge.

14. When the waistband is at the desired width, bunched to create some fluff, take out the pulling pin side and pin it to secure the elastic to the skirt. 

15. Cut the excess elastic.

16. Sew the elastic to that edge and repeat for the left edge. Now you should have a bunched tulle strip with elastic inside and a fabric waistband.

17. Connect the ends by meeting up and sewing the two ends together, keeping the seem inside the waist. I finish it with ribbon folded over the ends and sewn (see bottom photo).

* See how I'm not really a seamstress? I am SURE there's a better way to do this but I have tried making tutus before and this has been my most successful one. The knotted one and full sheets of tulle were both a fail. I suppose you could say this DIY is for the non-sewer. It's really not too hard though. If I can do it, so can you.

18. Cut off the bottom to the desired length of skirt. Mine are cut to about 14" long.