This tutu brought together my favourite applique, beautiful emerald green velvet and a new shade of net I fell in love with at Dani Legge’s tutu course in Woodend earlier this year.

applique

Layers 1, 3 and 5 of the skirt were a warm champagne colour withe remainder ivory. I use stiff ballet net that is imported from Italy. I find it has plenty of body and keeps its shape well without hooping or hand-pleating.

champagne and ivory net

I trimmed the applique a little to fit the inverted scallops and played around with a few other appliques to fill in the gaps.

playing with trim

When I was happy with the arrangement I overlocked the edges and then placed the appliques in their final position. While these are iron on appliques, the glue isn’t really strong enough for a reliable attachment, so I pressed them lightly into place to save using pins and then zigzagged them on with gold embroidery thread. I was careful not to let the iron mark the velvet.

final placement

After the trim was in place I glued on rhinestones and started putting the skirt layers on while the glue dried. When the skirt was finished I cut an ellipse from the centre of the skirt 2cm smaller than the high hip measurement. I clipped the inner circumference and sewed the plate to the top layer of net as close to the bodice as possible. This technique gives a neat finish and a flat plate. I use a curved upholstery needle as I’m sewing into a more or less flat surface.

attaching the plate

Just a sprinkling of rhinestones and the embellishment is complete.

bodice and skirt detail

The beautiful subtle colour of the skirt complements the richness of the bodice and plate.

finished tutu

and a lovely emerald and gold tiara to match

tiara