Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls

How to Make a Halter Tutu Dress

Posted on 03. Oct, 2008 by Trish in Tutorial

Recently I was looking around the web trying to find free instructions on how to make a halter style tutu dress. I wanted to use it to make my daughter’s Halloween costume. I really couldn’t find anything, except a lot of other people looking for the same information! So I decided to post my own tutorial after playing around and figuring out how to do it.

1. First you need to decide how long to make the bottom part of the skirt. Using a measuring tape, measure from the chest where you want the dress to start, down to where you want it to end on the leg. Double that number. Then add one inch to one and a half inches depending on how big the elastic is that you use. (If you are using a thicker elastic, add the 1 1/2 inches. If it’s a thinner elastic, add one inch) This is to allow for the knot.

5. Then place the elastic around something, like a lampshade.   I used a CD tower, because I didn’t have any lampshades that were small enough. This makes it so much easier to tie the tulle on.

6. I gathered three layers of the red tulle for each knot, so after it was folded in half, there were 6 layers. I would try it with just two strips, and possibly even just one next time to make it a little less poofy. I only did 2 layers of the green. Now there are a couple of different ways to tie the tulle on. I did a square knot to tie it on, because I wanted to make sure it really stayed. Basically you just thread the tulle under the elastic and figure out where the middle is. Then tie a square knot. Here’s a great guide to tying a square knot. Or you can use this method as an alternate method to the square knot. It’s completely up to you. You’ll want to alternate the long tulle strips and the short ones, so here I tied the red, then the green, etc. I then pulled the red down, so the knot was near the bottom, and the green up, so it had two distinct layers.

7. Make sure you squish the knots together on the elastic, so you can fit more tulle on. You don’t want any gaps where you can see the elastic.

8. Keep alternating the short and the long layers until you have filled the elastic.

9. Then you take a piece of ribbon that is long enough to wrap around the neck and tie in a bow (I just estimated, but you can measure with the measuring tape, and then add an inch to 1 1/2 inches for the knot!) You will tie this on the same way as the tulle, and pull the knot to the top of the elastic, so the ends of the ribbon face up.

10. Voila! You are all done! You can add a bow or a flower at the base of the ribbon if you want by gluing or hand sewing it on. Or you can do this without the short layer of tulle, and then add flowers or ribbon around the chest line. There are lots of different ways you can customize this. You can even add a ribbon or belt at the waistline to make it look like an actual dress. Get creative!

I haven’t quite finished this for my daughter’s Halloween costume, so I will add pictures to my blog when it is all done. You could make the bottom layer of tulle orange and have a pumpkin, or make it in black and add cat ears. Or use any color for a princess. Let your imagination
run wild.

I have also written another post about a different way to create a layered tutu dress. Go check it out!

Please note that these instructions are for private use only! If you would like to use this to make dresses to sell or other commercial use, please contact me first to buy a commercial license! Also, please link back to me if you create your own and show pictures of it online. Give me credit for all my hard work! All images and instructions on this site are the copyrighted property of Sweet ‘n’ Sassy Girls. It is illegal to save, copy, alter, or redistribute any images or instructions without my express written permission. All rights reserved.

If you have any questions, or like what you see, feel free to leave me a comment! Oh, and if you really like tutus, you will LOVE these tutu hairbow holders from Bambina Ballerina. Go check them out!

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