Tutu

The Romantic Tutu

• It has triangular panels which helps to give a slimming effect around the waist.
• For each tutu in a performance the panels are different shapes, however if there are alot of dancers you take the biggest and tallest size and adapt.

Construction

• Our panels will be 29inches wide and  36 inch's long ( some will be cut off when levelling the tutu) we will have 5 layers.
• Layer 1: 5 Panels
• Layer 2: 7 Panels
• Layer 3: 9 Panels
• Layer 4: 11 Panels
• Layer 5: 13 Panels.
• As you can see there are 45 panels that need to be sewn together neatly as the neat is fine so any mistakes will show up easily.

I drafted out my skirt pattern using the method given.  Its was up to myself to get the shape as the top as its drawn freehand.  But it needs to be smoothly curved as it is going around the body. 

Cutting out the net proved a challenge.  It came off the role in layers of 4 so i had to fold it over a few times to get 16 before i cut out.  Once doing this i discovered that the previous person had rolled it up unevenly.  This then subjected me to 3 hours of unfolding and refolding of the net which resulted me in cutting out the net in layers of 8 not 16 so it took twice as long.  This has taught me to make sure that if i do ever take fabric to roll it back up neatly as it was rather annoying to find it like that!

Pictures of the cutting process

Once cut i had to pin and sew 45 panels together. Making sure to leave an opening 10inchs from the top on one of the seams so that the dancers can get in and out of it easily when its on the basque. As pictured:

Process

• Pin down seams with a overlap equal each side of the pins.
• Start at the top (in case of stretch) and stitch down.
• make sure not to pull so it doesn't stretch.

This process was harder than i thought it was going to be.  The net was quite slippery and moved as soon as you took the pins out.  After a few attempts (luckily on the bottom layer so it shouldn't show to much) i got the hang of it.     It was important to keep the seam allowance equal either side of the stitching.  This involved many pins in all directions to keep the netting from moving around.  By the time i got to the top layer i had got the hang of it which is good as that will be the one on show.  It was important throughout it to pin securely and hold it securely so that the net doesn't stretch with the tension on the machine.  i think only one of my panels did however when i level the tutu this should be cut off.

This process did take a long time and it was very tiring as you stare at the lines for 3 or 4 hours when sewing.  i did take regular breaks which helped to keep me accurate as i had a time out from it. There are a few bits that caught up, my machine sometimes missed a stitch and jumped so the threads all gathered so i carefully had to pull it down.  This has resulted in some of the seams buckling a bit but hopefully with a bit of steam it will go.

next step is the gathering and attaching it to the basque!!