Punk Rock Princess

Lea asked me to make her a tulle skirt to wear over jeans. (That's sort of a lie. She asked me to make her a tutu.)

I had some pink tulle lying around (don't you?) so I said, let's give it a shot. Keep in mind, please, that I am not a seamstress, so anyone who actually sews could probably do a lot better job of this, but this is what I came up with:


Cute, right?

Here's how I did it:

I had an approximately 2 yard length of tulle. I folded it in thirds lengthwise, then folded the top over about an inch and a half to form a casing. I pinned this fold in place and basted it down.

I cut along the bottom folded edge, now giving the skirt three distinct layers.

Then, along the lower edge, I used black crochet cotton to define and clean up the raw edges. Using a very small crochet hook, and working directly into the tulle, I created a simple single crochet-chain three border. I did this for all three layers.


I then fed 1 1/2 inch elastic cut to fit Lea's waist through the casing and she tried it on for size. It looked pretty cute, but there was a lot of bulk around the waist. Lea is quite slender, so she can sort of pull that off, but I still wanted to clean it up a little bit.

My first thought was a wide black ribbon belt, tied in a big pretty bow in the front. Every time we tried to use ribbon, though, it slipped and scrunched up. This called for something stronger. We found a black leather tie belt (from an old coat, I believe) and thought that would fit the bill. It worked pretty well, but we quickly realized we were going to need belt loops. I wanted to use black ribbon, but we didn't have any around the house, and at this point I was bound and determined that we were going to complete the full project without spending a penny. So we used a sheer pink ribbon. I cut four lengths of ribbon about the length of my arm and folded them over the casing. I held them in place by sewing some decorative skull buttons. (Which, yes, I also just happened to have lying around...)


I never DID do more than baste the casing down, but since Lea (and her friends!) love the skirt and it may see more than a little wear, I think I'm going to have to attach that more securely.


Here's the total look. Not bad for a mom who can't sew, eh?