I love it when clients want something outside of the square. Here are a few photos of putting together a traditional tutu in a beautiful fuchsia taffeta with a bit of a Spanish flair in the choreography and music. Instead of a rose in her hair she wore a pink and white peony

Bodice with shaped nude insert

The client already had a fabric in mind and brought it along with her. Unfortunately it was a stretch taffeta so I had to stabilise it with iron interfacing. This meant there would be no stretch in the bias panels and too much stretch in the piping … but we managed! We were going for a design where the colour would sing so the bodice design was pulled back to simplicity; venise lace and a bit of bling.

venise lace, rhinestones, filigree sequins and seed beads

A lovely touch to the skirt was the addition of a layer of soft fuchsia bridal tulle as the very top layer. It was 2/3 the depth of the skirt but cut into very long points to give a graded effect but not the smooth effect of ombre painting.

top tulle layer

The plate echoed the design on the bodice and was decorated simply with rhinestones. We kept it very small, really just a hip plate to allow the colour of the bodice to extend to the skirt without overwhelming it.

small tutu plate

I added some sleeves with the same trim and here we have the beautiful tutu.

completed tutu

And it goes without saying that this looks so much better on a real dancer.

The beautiful Jasmine

strong colours are beautiful on stage