One of the reason I blog about my tutus is to help my remote clients see how out a design together from fabric choices and consultation about choreography, music and dancer’s personal style. It must be hard to try to develop a design with a person you’ve never met so I think the blog fills in a few gaps.
This post is about a pink tutu I put together for a client and her daughter in Victoria about 1000 km from where I live in Sydney. We went through a few different coloured pinks fabrics and laces but finally settled in this combination.
Next we decided on skirt colours. We decided on a white top layer grading down to a dark pink to match the leotard fabric. I do a bit of hand dyeing of net and I often dye a few extra pieces or experiment with colours ( or just make mistakes) which I stash away for future use. In this case my dyeing frenzies yielded great results.
And from chaos and experimentation comes order with the addition of a layer of glitter tulle for a bit of sparkle.
Putting this skirt together was a dream. The different pink layers played against each other so beautifully. As i tacked the layer together the skirt’s personality changed. There are some things about make tutus I love and the transformation of a formless puff to a tutu skirt is a miracle of engineering!
My client just wanted a flat plate like she has seen on my lemon and lime tutu. The trick is to make a piece of linear scalloped selvedge curve around the tutu skirt. I had to judiciously snip out some pieces of the lace and bring the lace over to fill the gap. This creates a gentle curve. The arrangement at the sides is a little different because the curve is steeper around the dancer’s hips but with a bit of cleverness I can divert the eye from these differences.
Corded lace lends itself beautifully to bodice decoration giving a rich textural feel to the embellishment. The lace had a lot of holographic flat sequins so it didn’t need much more bling. I added some pretty little flower shaped sequins and secured them with red AB seed beads to continue the textural feel. A few large rhinestones finished the look.
Using the lace as a bodice decoration ties it in perfectly with the flat plate.
And the whole effect was really very pleasing.
The studio cat was also pretty pleased … really he was!
and then of course on a real dancer
This tutu is stunning 🙂 I am looking for something like this for my 8yr old for next year (2015). She is roughly a 6-8, first time doing a classical number. How much would this be?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Emma.
Hi Emma,thanks for the comments! Yes this tutu defied all expectations. I knew it would be pretty but as it cam together it kept surprising me with its loveliness. This tutu was $425. From a base price of $300 I added $25 for hand beading on bodice, $25 for the nude insert, $50 for the plate and $25 for the clipped net. The graded skirt was complimentary as I had the more unusual colours already in my stash so I did not have to custom dye the net. Where are you located? Postage in within Australia is about $20. Overseas postage maybe up to $80 (including insurance).