DIY No-Sew Tutu

Tell me if this has this ever happened to you - waking up remembering that you said you'd do something and then completely forgetting about it, only to realize that you now only have a couple days to make it happen when you had an entire year to do it? Good grief. Last year a bunch of us ran/walked a 5k together and joked that for the next year we should do something silly as a group like matching socks or wearing tutus...and naturally I volunteered to make the tutus. And even more naturally I completely forgot until 3 days before the race! 3 days! To make 10 tutus!! Yikes.

Fast forward to that same afternoon when I had 5 done in a couple hours. Probably not even that long actually - these came together so quick! (A few people had to back out of the race this year so ended up I only needed to make 5 - whew). I am very happy to report that making tutus is extremely easy, doesn't cost much, and guess what? They are adorable (but you already knew that because - hello - tutus!).

Granted I did not make amazingly professional tutus measured to fit each person - I made them adjustable by tying strips of tulle to a length of paracord so one size fits all. That's all there is to it! Seriously, so easy.

I bought tulle at Hobby Lobby on spools 6" wide by 25 yards long and used 3 spools per tutu (for a total of 75 yards), regularly priced 2.99 per roll but it was 1/2 off - so each tutu cost me less than $5. I debated making them on elastic bands or ribbon, I bought ribbon thinking it'd be easier to size them for everyone that way; but back home I saw that I had a full skein of paracord so I used that instead of the ribbon.

Cut the cord about 66" long, I attached both ends to closet handles so it stretched out and I could tie the tulle on easily.

To make the tulle strands I layered 3 rolls on top of each other - initially I cut individual pieces and stacked them together but that took too much time and it was hard to get them to stay together; by laying 3 rolls next to each other I could feed the tulle out together and then cut all three at once. Make sense? I took pictures to help with the directions:

Cut the layered tulle into 24" long strips; for each bundle you're tying on, fold in half the long way so it's 3" wide x 24" long, then fold in half so it's 3" wide x 12" long - feed the fold under the paracord, bring the ends up thru the fold and pull making a lark's head knot. That makes the tutu about 11" long. You can easily change the length by making the strips longer or shorter. Also, I used 3 different colors of tulle but it could be all the same color, or 3 shades of the same color - whatever!

Continue cutting, folding, and tying the tulle strips onto the cord until all of the 75 yards is used - I got about 40 strip bundles in all. I went thru each bundle and separated the layers making it much fuller and more colorful.

Then just tie around your waist and go run (or be a princess, whatever).

One note: the tulle stuck to our leggings while running - I doubt this will happen if you're wearing it as a costume hahaha. If that happens to you, just wear them higher around your waist - problem solved.