Most of the tutus I make are traditional classical tutus with a relatively flat skirt. There is, however,  a  style mid-way between classical and the long romantic style; the bell tutu. The skirt is a little longer than a classical tutu and more loosely tacked.

This bell tutu has an ivory bodice and plate with gold embellishment and a champagne coloured skirt. The net has been feathered to assist the colours to blend. Usually tutu skirts are lighter than the bodice but a slighter darker skirt can look really lovely. I planned an elaborate plate to fool the eye a little.

ivory, champagne and pink net

I used gold venise lace to trim the plate. I removed the solid line from the trim so I could bend it around the curves of the plate.

venise lace

Here you can see the trim pinned to the plate. I inverted one of the heart-shaped pieces in the apex of the plate scallops to define the shape.

pinning on lace

I extended the plate into points with venise lace and gold glitter tulle.

plate points

The venise lace and points were sewn on by machine with gold metallic thread.

plate ready for rhinestones

The bodice was decorated with similar venise lace and encrusted with rhinestones. Bodice appliques were sewn on by hand on a body board to accommodate the stretch fabric.

bodice detail

The champagne coloured skirt looks quite pretty with the elaborate plate decoration.

skirt detail

The bell skirt was steamed into a soft shape. You can see here is slopes down more steeply than a typical classical skirt.

bell skirt

I was very pleased with this pretty bell tutu.