Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Tutu birthday bodysuit

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If you can't stop time, might as well make a dress to commemorate it!

My baby will turn 1 year old in a month and a half. Believe me I'm not particularly thrilled about it - I wish for her to stay my baby forever! But being that it's inevitable that the day will come, I figured I best make a dress for our little princess' Pretty in Pink birthday celebration. I've seen some easy DIY tutu tutorials, but I wanted something that would not move and twist... plus I never make things easy for myself :P

I used the general idea/pattern for my craft show onesie dresses as a go by (sorry, I'm not so eager to offer those details up!) In short...
  1. I measured the chest circumference of the bodysuit and multiplied it by two.
  2. I cut a strip of fabric that length and about 2" wide and drew a line all the way along the middle - this is where the center of the tulle is placed. 
  3. Then cut nearly 70 strips of 6" x 16" tulle, because it wanted it super full.
  4. The next step involved pinching the middle of the tulle, placing it on the center line drawn on the fabric strip and sewing right over it to secure it in place. Repeat again and again and again.
  5. Make a casing with the fabric strip the tulle is now one, add elastic (same length as the bodysuit chest circumference measurement) and sew to bodysuit.
As you can see I also dabbled in applique. I'm not a pro just yet. I cut out all the shapes and used Heat'n Bond Fusible Web to make it all stick together. The "1" was fused to the circle first, then appliqued. Next the letters were fused to the circle and "1", then appliqued. Finally the entire circle now containing the "1" and her name were fused to the onesie and appliqued. 

And that about covers it. This was a little more tricky and time consuming than the other onesie dresses I've been working on, but definitely worth it - anything for our little girl!

2 comments:

  1. A special dress for her BIG day and yet something that can be saved for her for years to come. Love it!

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  2. Thanks Heidi! We've talked about it before - is the craziness over early birthdays really worth it? And my vote is HECK YES! Like you said, although they aren't likely to remember it, they'll look at the pictures and see the hype, hopefully appreciate it and know they are ever so LOVED!

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