Thursday, October 25, 2012

Tutus and Slippers

 
Early this month, I wrote five posts about K's Sir Topham Hatt costume - his vest, his pants, his tie, his jacket, and his top hat. The time has finally come! On Saturday we will head to a neighborhood Halloween party hosted by the kids' community center and staff are expected to dress in costume. K will sport his Sir Topham Hatt gear. As staff, I had to come up with an outfit for myself. The previous two years I have been a butterfly and a monkey. This year, I decided to girl it up - I'm going to be a ballerina!
 
OMG did I have fun making this outfit. I started out with pink, soft tulle for the tutu. I bought two meters of it, folded it in half, and sewed a line down the length wide enough to case elastic. It was so simple to make, but because the tulle was soft, it just kind of fell. It didn't look ballerina-y at all.
 
 
 
While you can't tell from the photo, it was also almost to my knees making me look more like a waitress than a ballerina. I folded the fabric up and thought about cutting it a few inches shorter, but it would do nothing about the lack of fullness. I asked a few friends for their opinions. One friend suggested I cut and then sew the cut bit to the bottom in a ruffle of sorts so that a bit of volume would be added to the bottom. Another friend suggested I get really stiff tulle and make a tutu to go under this one that would force a poof. I opted for the second suggestion as it seemed like less work.
 
 
I got to sewing a second tutu and voila! The poof was born. It sticks out a huge amount. So much so that the pink tutu is no longer too long. This version looks much more like a ballerina. For the second tutu, I only bought 1.5 meters and then cut the fabric into 3 equal widths (about 38cm each). Then I sewed a small casing on the top of each and strung an elastic through. This gave me HEAPS of volume!
 
 
The slippers were a simple pattern I'd bought on etsy years ago and just finally put to use. I ended up having to adjust the pattern due to the thickness of my yarn, as well as how far I wanted them up the top of my foot, but they worked up really quickly - about an hour and a half in total. Ballet slippers are not complete until the laces tie up the ankles, so I chained a really long line and then strung it through the back of the slippers. 
 
 
This was a super fast costume to work up - and it is adult sized. That means for a kid it would be even faster and you'd use way less fabric. I will say that it was my first time working with tulle and I was really scared. If you have the same concerns, take my word for it - tulle is super easy to sew. Since it isn't slippery at all, I didn't even pin it. I just folded the first bit, started the machine up and then folded as I went along. SIMPLE!
 

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