![\"1016764_4923823342944_98326472_n\"](\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1016764_4923823342944_98326472_n1-300x239.jpg\")
Happy World Ballet Day!\u00a0 Most of you know that ballet is close to my heart.\u00a0 I\u2019m a dancer, teacher and choreographer but you may not know that I\u2019ve also been a costume maker.\u00a0 My specialty?\u00a0 Tutus.<\/p>\nHappy World Ballet Day!\u00a0 Most of you know that ballet is close to my heart.\u00a0 I\u2019m a dancer, teacher and choreographer but you may not know that I\u2019ve also been a costume maker.\u00a0 My specialty?\u00a0 Tutus.<\/p>\n
It started when I was a senior in high school and my mommy was tasked with making 10 professional ballet tutus (the pancacke\/platter\/flat kind) for the ballet company I was in.\u00a0 So she and I spent every afternoon after school with the yards and yards of net, making tutus.\u00a0 That was the first tutu I ever wore and it was magical (and I still have it, it\u2019s the one I\u2019m wearing in many of the pictures in \u201cBallerina Mama: Moments in Pictures<\/a>\u201d).\u00a0 I also made a set of tutus for my students when I was teaching in Oklahoma<\/a>.<\/p>\n I made them each one for dress-up using extra net\/tulle I had where I just folded over the fabric, sewed a 1\u201d seam at the fold and put a piece of elastic through.\u00a0 These are not the fanciest tutus, nor the \u201csticky-outiest\u201d but they work just perfect for dress-up and playtime.<\/p>\n But when Honeybun wanted to be a funny dancing bunny for Halloween (in honor of the statue she was scared of near our home in Dublin<\/a>), I decided she needed a proper tutu for her costume.\u00a0 She wore that tutu again the next year when she was a ballerina and there are rumors that Sugarplum might wear it this year too, so it\u2019s definitely gotten it\u2019s use even though I don\u2019t let the girls play with it.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the secret to a make a tutu as beautiful as the pros wear: layers of different length net, attached to a basque (the torso piece of the tutu skirt\u2014I used wide satin ribbon for Honeybun\u2019s tutu), sewn upside down.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s what you need for a \u201creal\u201d tutu for your little ballerina:<\/p>\n And here’s how to make a tutu:<\/p>\n![\"SONY](\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSC01314-300x199.jpg\")
\u00a0And now as a mommy to two little girls, you can only imagine the number of times I\u2019ve been asked to buy them the tutus they see everywhere we go, but I have never given in!\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t mean my girls have a lack of tutus in their lives, in fact they have many!<\/p>\n\n
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![\"wpid-IMAG1436.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/wpid-IMAG1436-179x300.jpg\")
<\/a>With the edge where you sewed along the top of the net matching the edge of the ribbon, pin one end of the shorter strip of net at one of the seams you just sewed on the ribbon, pin the middle of the net to the middle point you marked on the ribbon and pin the other end of the net at the other seam.<\/li>\n![\"wpid-IMAG1437.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/wpid-IMAG1437-e1412165130273-179x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Repeat steps 4 and 5 for your second layer but sew it above the first layer with the edge of the net 1\/2\u201d or so from the first layer (it helps if you pin the first layer down to keep it from interfering as you attach the second layer)<\/li>\n![\"wpid-IMAG1438.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/wpid-IMAG1438-300x179.jpg\")
<\/a>Sew two eyes\u00a0 at the edge of the layers on the end you just trimmed and line up two hooks to match on the underside of the other end.<\/li>\n
![\"SONY](\"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/DSC06946-2-1024x681.jpg\")
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