Here are a few pictures of a little Giselle romantic tutu that was made for a dancer from Hong Kong. She will wear it in Paris YAGP in late October. We wanted a bright blue for this young dancer. This embroidered taffeta was perfect. I teamed it with ivory tissue silk for the bodice top, sleeves and overskirt.

embroidered taffeta

I used Tutus That Dance corselet bodice. I love that these patterns now come in student sizes.

lower bodice

I piped the inside of the insert to make it easier to attach. I just stitched in the ditch. In the following photo you can see the “chemise” inserted. The chemise insert is a piece of ruched tissue silk mounted on cotton drill interlining.

chemise insert

The upper bodice was made of cotton drill and covered with ruched tissue silk as I did with the warm cream traditional tutu. This picture shows the silk gathered top and bottom on fishing line. Steaming it sets the rough pleats which are much easier to handle than gathered fabric.

gathered silk over drill upper bodice

In the following picture you can see that the tissue silk sits nice and flat after it has been steamed.

bodice pieces coming together

The skirt was made of 1 layer if tissue silk as the over skirt, 1 layer of soft bridal tulle and 2 layers f soft dress net (not stiff tutu net). They are sewn onto a basque much the same as for a classical tutu but the seam allowances all point upwards.

gathered tulle going onto basque

When the skirt is finished I hand sewed the bodice to the basque through all the skirt layers by stitching in the ditch through the bodice piping. Not only does piping give a lovely finish but it is very handy for sewing into to attach separate pieces.

hand stitching the bodice to the skirt

The bodice sits beautifully on the skirt

bodice detail

and the finished tutu!

off to Paris!