The Ten-Minute Tutu

Abby Pecoriello, author of Crafty Mama, shared this inexpensive and easy to make costume that will delight your budding ballerina. After all a girl can never have too many shoes—or tutus!

The Ten-Minute Tutu
Make it:

Prep: Measure and cut twenty-eight 24″-long strips of organza ribbon. Cut both ends of each piece of ribbon into an inverted V or on a diagonal.
Assemble: Wrap each ribbon at its halfway point around the elastic headband and gently tie it in a double-knot. Note: Tying the knots too tight will stretch out the headband. The ribbon should be able to—with a little push—move around the headband.
Finish: Suit up your little ballerina, put on some classical music, and spend the next two hours of playgroup watching your tiny dancers plié, jeté, and arabesque around the room!

Variations:

Plié with Pizzazz! Use hot glue to stick a rhinestone, silk flower, chunky piece of feather boa, or button to both sides of the bottom tips of the ribbons. (You need to glue to both sides of the ribbon because it’s so thin that one side will stick to the work surface if you don’t.) If you don’t want to use two of everything, coat the other side with a small piece of satin or grosgrain ribbon. If you can tie the accents on (a bead or a bell), do it! The embellishments help weigh down the ends of the ribbons.

Puff Up the Jam: For a fuller, fluffier, more swanlike tutu, cut forty 6″ x 14″ pieces of tulle (instead of ribbon) and tie each one onto the elastic. You don’t need any embellishments to weigh down the ends because the beauty of this tutu is that it’s fabulously pouffy. On the other hand, you might want to accent the knots on the band with silk or satin flowers or tie on colored ribbons for flair.