Tulle Flower Girl Dress

Guess what?!

Today is The Hubster’s birthday.

He’s an old man--just turned the big 3-5!!

Yikes!

Happy birthday, Love Muffin!  :)

Smooches!

Aaaaanywayyyy…

 

It’s wedding season.

 

At least, I think it is.

I’ve been doing lots and lots and lots of wedding sewing.

I’ve sewn flower girl dresses for three weddings, and thought I’d share with you one of the dresses.  It’s super cute and super fun.

 

I can’t give credit to the person who came up with this dress, because I have no idea who it is.  I couldn’t find a tutorial for it online anywhere.  All I had to go off was a picture the mother of the bride took at a craft fair.  Sorry!  :)

 

Ready to see this pretty dress?

Isn’t that fun?!

It was pretty easy to make, but sewing on all that tulle was kinda tricky.  It was thin, stretchy, and slippery, but it all worked out!

For this dress, you’ll need:

• 13 yards of tulle--go with the non-stiff/itchy type, and it’s really pretty if you use the shimmery kind.  Oh.  P.S.  This is by-the-yard fabric; not the kind on the spools.
• one nine inch crocheted headband--you could have it match the tulle, but it would be really cute with different color, too.  You could do whatever you wanted in the wedding colors.
• 1/4 inch braided elastic
• a spool of tulle--hey!  That rhymes!!
• whatever else you want to use to decorate the dress, ribbon, flowers, etc…
• a pillowcase, slip, or other fabric for lining

Take the 13 yards of tulle and fold it in half so it is still 13 yards; just doubled up.  Make sense? 

Now, at the very top where the fabric is folded, sew a casing.  Just start an one end and finish at the other.

You need the casing to hold the elastic.  The elastic is very thin, so I just used my presser foot as a guide.  I moved my needle as far left as possible and just kept the fold of the fabric lined up with the right side of my presser foot.

Okay, now that you’ve sewn a 13 yard casing, it’s time to thread the elastic through.  Measure your little gal’s waist, and cut the elastic the same length.

Just pin the elastic to a safety pin and thread it through all that tulle.  Just to be sure I didn’t loose the other end of the elastic, I pinned the other end to my pant leg.

You know.  Just to be safe!  :)

Oh my gosh.  I am in my pajamas.  How embarrassing!

Oh well.  Don’t mind me.  I’m just keepin’ it real!  ;) 

The tulle/bottom of the dress is going to be really, really bunchy, but keep going until you have the elastic threaded all the way through.

Once you’ve reached the end, knot the elastic and clip the ends.

Do you want to know what’s really awesome about all this tulle?!  It won’t fray, AND since there’s so much of it, you don’t need to sew the ends together.  Sweet!  That saves us a few steps!

Now take the headband (with the right side facing out) and put it inside the top of the tulle skirt.  Pin it into place.

Sew it into place.  Do the same thing we did with the casing; move your needle as far left as it will go, and use the right side of the presser foot as a guide.

Sew all the way around the dress.  This part was kind of crazy, since there was so much fabric!!

When it’s all sewn, turn the dress right side out.

This is where we finish with the sewing.  Not too hard, right?!  Finish up the rest of the flower girl dresses, then we’ll decorate them.

These dresses were decorated with 6” strips of glimmer tulle (on a spool) with matching flowers.

We added a strap with the tulle strip by threading it through one of the crocheted holes.

*Note:  You definitely need a slip or other lining with this dress. 

Then we added a tulle waist tie with the ends of the tie going the full length of the dress.  We clipped on a matching flower.

Didn’t it turn out so pretty?!

FYI--the other dresses were done in lime green and hot pink. 

A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.

 

P.S.  There are so many different ways you can do the straps, sashes, and flowers for this dress.

• you could double up the straps on both sides and make some cute cap sleeves
• you could add more sashes/streamers/puffiness around the waistband of the dress with tulle from the spool.  How cute would that be with different colors?
• skip the flowers and add bows
• add small flowers to the ends of the straps
• tie the straps as a halter top
• use a beaded necklace as a halter top instead of tulle
• use ribbon in the straps and sash instead of tulle
• braid the ribbon and/or tulle for the straps and sash
• weave some ribbon in and out of the crocheted headband
• etc…

The possibilities really are endless.  You could do anything you want, and if you use safety pins, you can change it up each time you wear it.  If you try this let us know how it worked for you and how your little lady wore it.  We’d love to know!  :)