Supplies

  • 2 or 3 6″ wide 25-yard spools of tulle in your choice of colors
  • A length of ribbon long enough to wrap around your tutu wearers waist and tie a lovely bow
  • A pair of scissors

If you are unsure about the waist size or tutu length check out the no sew tutu size chart here.

Directions

  1.  Choose something to wrap your tulle around that will give you double the length of the tutu you are making – plus one inch. If you don’t have something of a suitable length measure your tulle out on the floor and cut each piece individually then skip step 2!
  2. Now carefully cut through all of the layers of tulle on one side of the bundle only, leaving you with several lengths of tulle. I usually cut three rolls worth of lengths of tulle to get started, then cut additional pieces if I need them.
  3. Now that you have some tulle cut to length and ready to go, you can begin to assemble your no-sew tutu. In this tutorial I am tying one piece of tulle to the ribbon at a time, but you can double up for a thicker tutu.
  4. Fold your strip of tulle in half then lay your ribbon across it, approximately 1 inch from the top of the hoop.
  5. The the two ends of the tulle over the ribbon and through the loop, creating a knot
  6. Pull on the ribbon and tulle creating a snug knot
  7. Repeat for all of your tulle pieces, pushing the knots tight against each other as you go
  8. When making the tutu I always end up with pieces of tulle sticking out in all directions. This is fine, leave it until you have tied on all of the knots then adjust all of the pieces until they are all facing the same direction.

Top Tips

Having made countless no-sew tutus here I have a few words of wisdom that may help:

  • If you use glitter tulle – the glitter will go absolutely everywhere – don’t say I didn’t warn you!
  • A good tutu ratio is 4 pieces of tulle per inch of waist, in case you’d rather do all your cutting first.
  • I loosely tie one end of the ribbon to my scissors so it is weighted at one end. I find it easier to tie on the tulle that way
  • Other people swear it’s best to tie the ribbon around your leg. – Whatever works best for you.
  • If you are using multiple colours in a pattern, start at the centre of your ribbon and work outwards on both sides
  • I prefer to have a slightly uneven look to the tutu – that way if your lengths are not exactly the same it doesn’t show
  • If you want to finish the edges with ribbon, finish each piece of tulle before you make the tutu. Trying to ribbon a finished tutu is a nightmare!

9 COMMENTS

  1. HOw fun– I don’t know any little girl that wouldn’t want one– Thank you. I have two little princesses that will love this.

  2. This is such a cute idea(: I love the ribbon idea because you can kind of fit it on multiple sizes since you can tie it instead of it just fitting it how it is usually. If that made sense lol! Thanks for this tutorial(: