Blog Swap with Wildflowers and Whimsy

I'm delighted to introduce you to April from Wildflowers and Whimsy. She has an amazing blog, and I encourage you to check it out! Plus since it's a blog swap today, I have a little tutorial over there, so head on over to see what it is!

Hi!  I'm April and this is my husband and our three munchkins. I am a sah mommy who loves God, my family, homeschooling, & football.  I spend most of the time I should spend, cleaning, sewing, crafting, and blogging...if you take a look at my blog and browse through some of my pics, you'll see what I mean... ; P

 

I am super excited to be here today.  Thanks so much Macey for allowing me to guest post on your blog.  I am really honored!

So what I want to share today is one of my favorite crafts...tutus!!  They are so easy to make and unbelievably adorable.  I know you have probably seen all the tutorials for your basic everyday tutu, so today we are going to jazz it up and make a Criss Cross Christmas Tree Tutu!

What you'll need

Tulle

Elastic

Thread

Embellishments (buttons, pom poms, etc)

Start out with a classic tutu.  If you don't know how to make a classic tutu already or need help figuring out how much tulle you will need you can check out this post.

To make the criss cross:

Divide the inches of the waist band by 2.  (ex.  my waistband was 19.5"  so I just rounded up to 20/2 = 10)  so cut 10 strips that are twice the lenght of your tutu strips.  (mine where 27" so I cut 10 - 54" strips)

1.  Separate the tails of the the slipknot.

2.  Pass the one of the strips under the waistband and in between the tails of the slipknot.

3.  Tie a double knot on top of the slip knot, keeping the ends as even as possible,and push the knot to the top of the waist band. 

4.  Repeat steps 1-3 on every fifth slip knot.  (You will be tying your double knot on the fifth slipknot, ie there should be four slip knots between each double knot.)  Continue doing this until you have gone all the way around the tutu. 

*Note:  when you get to the end you will need to look at how many slip knots you have because you may need to adjust the amount of slipknots btwn your double knots....for my last two I had to tie on top of every fourth slip knot...just make sure it looks as even as possible...

5.  Working with two double knots, take the right tail from the left one and the left tail from the right one and tie them together 2-3 inches below the waistband.  You can measure if you want, but I just eyeball it.

*I used red thread because I wanted to go back and put little "decorations"  but you can use tulle like on my petti tutu (you should probably use 4" x 6" strips instead of 5" x 6") or ribbon and tie little bows.

6.  Go all the way around the tutu, then, repeat on the next row, and continue to do this until you reach the bottom of the tutu.

7.  When I got to my bottom row, I tied a bow instead of using thread on every othe tie.  I just thought it looked more festive!  : )  (If you choose this option, you will have to make sure you tied an even number of double knots...if you didn't you will have to tie a bow on every knot because you will end up with two bows next to each other)

8.  The tails from your double knots will still be a good bit longer than your tutu, so you will need to trim them.  I trimmed mine a little shorter than my tutu because I thought it would make it look more like garland on a Christmas tree if it didn't go all the way down.

I found this pack of buttons and at Hobby Lobby for like two dollars.  It's called Christmas Potpourri.  It's got buttons and some other little things in it.  I just picked my favorites and tie them onto some of my knots,  in the same manner you would when decorating a Christmas tree.  And that's it!  All done!  Told you...really simple....

but soooo adorable!

Sophie was so in love with it!

I hope you liked it!  If anyone makes one I'd love for you to email me a link for your pics or post them to my Flickr.  I really enjoy seeing other people's craftiness, and I really, really enjoy discovering new blogs!

Macey thanks again for having me!

♥  April