Tiny Dancer Costume

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Big sis is re-using her ballet recital costume for Halloween this year. I thought it would be fun to create a ballet outfit for little sis. First on the list was a tutu. Can't be a ballerina without a tutu, right?

I purchased 1/2 yard of pink tulle, which was much more than I actually needed but left me plenty in case of error. I gathered some pink silky ribbon from my stash, pink thread, pins, a needle, scissors, and my sewing machine and got to work.

I envisioned a simple dainty pink tutu that would not scratch her and would not get in the way for someone to hold her since she is only 2 months old. We'll save the big frilly tutus for later.

I began by measuring one of my baby girl's skirts since she was asleep so I could get an idea of how big to make the waist of the tutu. I went with 15 inches and added 8 more inches for gathering so I cut my tulle to be 23 inches wide.

Next I folded my piece of tulle in half and decided I wanted the tutu 6 inches long so I made that cut.

Next up was the ribbon. I knew there had to plenty of length on each end for tying a bow so I just went 3x the waist size. The waist size was 15 so I cut the ribbon to be 45 inches long.

I lengthened the straight stitch on my machine.

And then I sewed the open ends of my doubled up tulle together. Then I pulled on one side of the thread at one end to gather the tulle together. When it was gathered enough to be 15 inches long, I double knotted each end to keep it in place.

I laid the piece of tulle down on the ribbon measuring to make sure it was the size I needed (15 inches) to fit my baby's waistline.

I then folded the ribbon in half and pinned it over the sewn part of my tulle.

I then sewed at the bottom of the ribbon to attach it to the tulle.

I took my pins out and tied a bow to my liking and cut the ends of the ribbon to be the same length. And there I had a mini tutu.

Now the little ballerina needed a shirt to go with her tutu. I used a plain white onesie from her wardrobe and decided to give it a little flair. I picked some white w/ pink dot material. I wrote "B is for Ballerina" on the computer in pink and printed it off as a mirror image onto iron-on transfer paper. I ironed it on a piece of material and then cut it to the size I needed. I then turned the dial on my machine to zig-zag and sewed the material right onto the onesie.

I actually meant for the material to be straight on the onesie. However, onesies are stretchy and hard to sew on. I did not use anything except a few pins to secure the material to the onesie so it moved on me and came out crooked. I was sad at first but then realized that it added character and looked like a stamp/patch. So, I'll just pretend I planned it that way.

Lesson learned. If you do want things straight when sewing on onesies, I would definitely recommend using heat & bond or something to attach your material first!

Now my tiny dancer costume was coming together.

But it definitely needed something else. I had pink felt and elastic on hand, so I thought a headband would be a great finishing touch.

First, I cut some random flower-like shapes out of my felt in 4 different sizes. Then I cut a long and skinny rounded rectangle. I rolled the rectangle up and put in the middle of the flower. I then threaded my needle and sewed the flower pieces together underneath so you didn't see any stitching. I then cut my elastic to the size I needed for baby's head leaving some extra on each end. I overlapped the ends and sewed the elastic together.

Then I sewed the flower over the sewn ends of the elastic. I didn't use any kind of systematic approach to the sewing, just some random stitches making sure the flower was secure to the elastic.

The final step was to cut some ribbon and glue it over the stitching on the under side of the flower. This hides the stitching and makes it comfy for baby's head.

Baby girl wasn't as excited as I was when I tried her costume on. I added bloomers to cover the snaps on the onesie. I also put tights on her little legs and cut 2 pieces of pink ribbon the size I needed to wrap around and tie on each leg to look like ballet slippers.

So for under $5, my baby girl gets to be a tiny dancer for Halloween! (even if I am the only one who really cares) : ) Now if I could only get my little boy's costume together, we will be all set!

Thanks for stopping by Lemon Tree Creations! I'll be linking this costume to these parties this week!

Happy Tuesday!