Girls of any age dream of a fluffy skirt, wearing which you can feel like a queen or a ballet dancer. Agree, in our time, such skirts are firmly in fashion. They can go to a solemn event, or you can just walk with a dog.
If your child does sports or dances, this is great. Such exercises have a great effect on health. But there are times when a wonderful outfit is needed for a reporting concert and the question arises: how to sew a ballet tutu? The studio is too expensive and not always convenient. But after all, every mother, having elementary sewing skills on a typewriter, is able to build it. Do-it-yourself ballet tutu is very easy to sew, there is no need to build a pattern for it and there are no difficult technologies.
The story of the first costume for the ballerina
The first tutu skirt appeared in front of the audience in 1939. It was an airy skirt for ballerinas from several layers of translucent fabric. To create one instance of such a skirt, it took up to 11 m of light flowing material collected in folds using a certain technology. The appearance of these skirts is different and depends on the ballet. Classical, or traditional, a tutu is a flat rigid skirt in the form of a circle; Chopin's pack - longer and softer; "skirt-tunic" - sewn from chiffon in one layer.
Fabric and tool selection
In order to sew a tutu, you will need:
- Fatin medium hardness of the desired color (should be at least 7 m).
- Wide elastic (width 2.5 cm, length equal to the waist - 3 cm).
- Satin ribbon, suitable in color (7-8 cm wide).
- Lace, guipure.
- Beads, sequins.
- Scissors.
- Threads and needles.
- Elastic wire (about 150 cm) or thick fishing line, scotch tape.
Calculation of the amount of fabric
To sew one tutu for an adult woman, we need to take a tulle of medium stiffness up to 7 m long, hard tulle - up to 2 m. For sewing a skirt designed for a girl, we need 3-4 m and 1.5 m, respectively.
You will also need wire (or a very thick fishing line) in order for the skirt to maintain its flat shape - about 150 cm, and an elastic band for the belt (width 3 cm) - 50 cm.
Classic tutu skirt for girls
At the beginning of our work, be sure to cut the edge of the fabric and iron, without unrolling, in 2 layers. Now we fold it again in half lengthwise and with pins to facilitate labor. Trim all layers of tulle. It is best to use a clerical knife for this purpose. We trim the edges of the fabric so that 6 strips with a width of 37 cm, 34 cm, 31 cm, 28 cm, 25 cm and 22 cm come out.
For the belt, cut off a satin ribbon 90 cm long, stitch it (do not forget to leave a place to thread the gum) and bend it in half and again in half. Mark the folds for sewing tulle to the belt.
We should get 4 layers of tulle of medium hardness and 2 - of hard. We sew the tulle of medium hardness in the first rows, then hard. Sewing each next layer, we retreat from the previous one by 5 mm.
Using a safety pin, we insert an elastic band into the satin belt.
From a wire or a hard fishing line we form a circle and fix the ends with tape - we get a ring. In the middle of the skirt, under the fourth layer of softer tulle, we lay this ring and sew it with threads together with both lower layers of hard tulle.
The final part of the work consists in ironing the soft part of the skirt. We iron thoroughly, smoothing each crease and giving extra splendor. The skirt for the little ballerina is ready!
How to sew a bundle without sewing: the easiest option
As the famous ballet dancers say , the costume should be like a second skin. All because this attire should be as comfortable as possible, not restrain or hamper the ballerina's movements.
Tutu is the main part of the costume. Its formation is insanely complex and painstaking work. An experienced seamstress can create only one such outfit per day! But this is just a pack with a corset!
But if you do not know how to hold a needle with a thread at all, and the topic of how to sew a ballet tutu with your own hands remains open, you can make a skirt of strips of tulle of medium stiffness or dense organza with almost no sewing.
All we need is a suitable fabric and a wide elastic band. So, let's begin!
First, take measurements from our child. We need only two dimensions:
- Waist in girth + 2 cm is the length of the elastic.
- The length of the skirt is to your taste. We multiply this figure by 2 + 2 cm - we get the length of the strips of fabric from which we will collect the skirt.
Cut the fabric into strips 20-25 cm wide. Sew the elastic into a ring and stretch it on the legs of a chair. We tie a strip of tulle on an elastic band so that the ends from different sides of the nodule are equal to each other. We do such manipulations with each strip. We do not tighten the knots so that the elastic does not twist. The more stripes - the more magnificent skirt. After the gum is full, the ballet tutu for the girl is ready! We decorate it with a satin ribbon, beads or rhinestones - it depends on your imagination or the idea of the choreographer.
Dressing tutu skirts
The classic model of such a skirt is, as a rule, a simple and even ascetic version without finishing with any decorative materials. To enhance the elegance, you can decorate the product with ribbons, beads of various sizes, rhinestones, artificial flowers, etc. You can go even further in your imagination and cut the top layer of such a skirt out of thin guipure or lace. Along the edge, more skilled needlewomen have the opportunity to sew a satin ribbon as a border. This will give the finished ballet tutu additional volume and brightness. You can embroider the top layer of tulle with sparkling sequins. In general, the opportunity to make a skirt more elegant is endless! Be patient, turn on imagination - and go, in your creative work!