Tag Archives: Stretch Classical ballet tutu

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Two Ivory Tutus

This year I have put aside a little time to make some ready-to-wear tutus. I’ve made a few dramatic ones but also a few that appeal to quieter tastes. And for that you can’t go past ivory. Here are 2 tutus that both sold in under 30 minutes on my FB page.

This first one is made from Danielle Legge’s beautiful Aurora tutu pattern. Please have a look at her FB page Tutus By Dani to see some of her inspired work.

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The back detail is lovely on this pattern.

The appliques on this tutu are made up from tiny opalescent sequins bordered with gold.

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I’ve used pale pink and light topaz stones as embellishment.

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I’ve left a little of the net background fabric so I could suspend some rhinestones on it.

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In this close up you can see the pink blush on the sequins and even a little pale green … I love seeing colour wheel opposites so comfortable together.

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It’s one of my favourite trims.

The next tutu is decorated with corded gold lace. It’s a great standby for classical appeal.

3Q (2)

The skirt alternates ivory and white layers.

The corded lace is light but with a lovely warm golden glow.

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A little detail on the back finishes the tutu nicely.

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Green, Mint and Teal Tutus

Green is not a common colour in ballet except for variations like Esmeralda but sometimes a Tinkerbell will sneak through.

Vavrina Tutu (3)

Beautiful dark green velvet, dramatic light gold appliques and a soft gold tulle overskirt are teamed with emerald and turquoise rhinestones.

This lovely little tutu has a light soft design of pale blue and mint rosebuds and a soft airbrushed edges.

Mint RTW (1)

The little flowers are teamed with crystal AB rhinestones. The whole effect is kept very light with a net plate.

Here is another lovely little pale green tutu, this time decorated with embroidered net lace.AbiFrances (3)

The lace has been embellished with eau de nil pearls and crystal AB stones.

And the ensemble was completed with some little arm frills.

AbiFrances (1)

Aqua looks lovely with both silver or gold trim. Here is an aqua tutu with gold trim on an ornate and richly embellished plate.

Aqua RTW (2)

The white skirt has a layer of pale blue on the top layer and glitter tulle underneath.

The corded and embroidered appliques are decorated with aqua rhinestones and crystal AB for a little bit of pink sparkle.

Stradijot (1)

Silver venise lace and long jewelled points make this tutu rather light and airy. The top layer of the skirt is silver sparkle tulle.

The venise lace was also used to make a little headpiece.

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This lovely teal tutu looks gorgeous with gold trim and a simple gold lace overlay.

Foster (3)

This was the last of one of my favourite corded laces. It’s very delicate and I’ve trailed little tendrils onto the skirt.

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The ensemble was finished off with some little arm puffs.

Turquoise and Gold is a lovely combination. Thus tutu is winging its way to the UK.

Heighton (3)

The sweetheart neckline has a richly textured applique that is duplicated on the plate.

Heighton (4) I have used enhanced sparkle tulle on the top of the skirt for some extra glitter.

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Finally, a lovely bright green Tinkerbell.

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This tutu was a delight to put together using light aqua, gold and green lace to create the deeply textured plate.

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The skirt is made up of several different greens. Rhinestones ranged from turquoise through to emerald.

The arm cuffs were made from nude cosmic mesh to make the trim appear to be floating on the dancer’s arms.

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And a lovely little crown of gold leaves and tendrils.

 

 

 

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Pale Blue Tutus

Pale blue tutus are beautifully ethereal. Here are a few bluebirds and other pale blue tutus I’ve made this year.

3Q

This pretty tutu teamed pale blue, ivory and light gold. The top layer of the skirt is fine gold sparkle tulle.

This versatile trim makes a lovely plate

Parker (3)

Here, light blue is teamed with silver and blue rhinestones.

And in this one, cornflower blue lycra is embellished with deeper cornflower French lace.

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The skirt has been lightly airbrushed to make the lace float

This little bluebird flew off to the USA for a competition early in the new year.

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I really love doing these floating points on the skirts.

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The costume was complemented with some little feathery arm frills.

 

Webb (3)

This pretty little tutu was made up as a blue version of her first tutu that was pink. This tutu is as cute as the little dancer who wears it.

The costume has delicate little French lace drapes, mounted in fine glitter tulle.

Pale blue works equally well with gold as it does with silver

Pale blue works equally well with gold as it does with silver. Here it is embellished with metallic appliques on net plates.

And again, silver and gold are equally at home against pale blue.

 

and one last light blue tutu made with a warm gold applique trim

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Lovely pale blue is so versatile.

 

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A selection of Blue Tutus

Blue is a very popular colour for tutus from pale blue, through mid blue, royal blue and dark steely blue. Here is a selection of mid blue tutus.

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The air-brushed skirt adds a delicate lightness to the costume.

Hanrahan (3)The gold trim on the plate floats over the airbrushed skirt.

 

Using the same trim, a different feel is giving by using a light gold lace over the skirt.

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These appliques can be aligned in many different ways. This client was after a little swoop in the front but not too rounded.Skazlic (6)

I repeated the swoop at the back as well. Here you can see the lovely lines of Danielle Legge’s beautiful Aurora pattern.

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This royal blue tutu is a copy of a purple tutu I made for this dancer last year. She loved it so much she wanted a reprise. We chose different trim and tweaked a couple of other things but it still had the essence of the previous tutu.

Bolam Blue (4)

This tutu has a lovely deep back that is kept secure with nude mesh

Corded lace embellished with rhinestones sits just under the embroidered appliques to give a textural depth to the bodice.

Sparkle tulle in layer 2 gives an overall ballet glimmer.

RINDO (2)

I air-brushed the top layer of glitter net to match the plate and grade down to lilac.

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You can see the beautiful hydrangea colours coming through the skirt.

Blue, purple and amethyst stones highlight the silver venise lace

 

 

 

 

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Apricot and Ivory

In 2018 I have resolved to make a few more RTW tutus to test new design ideas on the ballet community. This one was a classical colour combination but with a new lace type that my fellow tutu-maker Danielle Legge brought to my attention. It’s a net based trim that has tiny sequins adhered to it in beautiful baroque-style patterns, just perfect for a tutu.

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I’ve added apricot, topaz and jonquil rhinestones to enhance the pattern and break up the cream background a bit.

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The long points are arranged to give a star effect over the ivory and champagne skirt.

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Most of my RTW tutus are sold very quickly after they are released for sale. I sell them on my FB page and Tutus Off the Rack and a few other FB ballet costume platforms.

 

 

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Blue and Gold Championship Tutu

One of my clients asked me to make a championship tutu for her daughter with just a few colours a no-go and the brief … lovely, layered, textured and romantic.

Here’s my interpretation of her brief …

 

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Bodice decoration

I used a combination of 2 different laces on the bodice and a range of blue rhinestones.

 

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back decoration

 

The main applique was white with light gold cording. To bring a textural effect I used bright gold venise lace and some topaz horse-eye navettes.

 

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plate detail

I used the same applique on the plate with a few touches of venise lace. Between each of these appliques I placed a diamond of blue net edged with soft gold lace with a venise lace applique in the centre.

 

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plate detail

You can see the effect of the three different gold colours is quite loves and provides depth to the design. Here is picture of both parts of the late together.

 

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I was very happy with the design and the overall effect. I think It has attracted the most likes of any of my posts on FB.

3Q

 

 

 

 

 

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Lilac Fairy

This is one of my most requested colour schemes/variations. Lilac comes in quite a few shades and this one was on the deeper end of the spectrum with the addition of a ruched corselet bodice.

 

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Ruched bodice

The top if the bodice is ruched with hand-dyed stretch mesh made to look like a little chemise above a corset. Rather than applying the applique in the usual V-shape I have inverted it and take it around to the back of the tutu bodice.

 

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back detail

It can be a little difficult to sew a non-stretch trim around the underbust with enough latitude for the dancer to squeeze it past her hips but I put a little bit of slack in the sewing and used a number of pieces rather than one continuous piece all the way around.

 

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Plate

The plate is made of matching lycra with a soft lilac lace and silver venise lace spilling onto the skirt. I’ve added rhinestones in purple, lilac and light magenta to give a bit of sparkle.

 

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plate detail

The silver venise lace was a feature of the skirt but I wanted to mute it a little with lots of rhinestones.

 

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soft lilac and silver

The plate was really quite sweet and delicate. This lace had no bling so I had a lot of fun making it sparkle.

 

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The back featured a central motif as well as the underbust decoration that was carried all the way around.

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Ivory and Cream Tutu

I bought a cream coloured lace recently that had no bling whatsoever on it but the pattern was very attractive and I thought I’d be able to improve its stage-presence with a few (ahem) rhinestones to it to make it shine.

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bodice detail

I also used a very sparkly gold glitter tulle in the skirt … you can see how far the glitter creeps past the skirt.

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Bodice decoration

You can see how pretty the lace is and why I couldn’t resist it despite its lack of bling. The warm creamy colour is beautiful against the ivory lycra and below, against the ivory net.

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plate detail

I was very pleased with the way the tutu came together and I won’t hesitate next time I see a pretty non-sparkly lace.

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Silver and Old Gold

I like to buy lots of different trims for my inventory so my clients have plenty of choice. One trim I bought online recently was quite an old gold colour with greenish undertones. I really wasn’t sure anyone would really like it so I thought I’d try it out first as a ready to wear tutu to test the waters. It sold so fast I didn’t have time to upload it here to my RTW page.

 

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Bodice 

The trim was a lovely complement to a warm dove grey lycra I recently acquired. I used a favourite combination of topaz, citrine and crystal AB stones to embellish the appliques.

 

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bodice close-up

I then  discovered I had another trim stashed away with the same old gold tones. It was perfect for the plate but I needed a little something extra for some nice long points.

 

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Plate detail

I used another trim of a lighter gold to complete the design I had in mind. I don’t mind using trims of slightly different colour as I think it can add some light and shade to the design.

 

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plate detail

The skirt was ivory and white with a layer of glitter tulle for a subtle ballet sparkle.

 

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I was very pleased with the overall design. I think it sold within a few hours! I can’t wait to do some more RTW tutus. I’m planning on doing 1/3 of my work in 2018 as RTWs.

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Dusty Rose and French Lace

I love collecting pieces of lycra in unusual colours so that I can offer my clients something a little different from the colours available from retail fabric suppliers. However, that means I can sometimes paint myself into a corner trying to find the right trim. I was just about ready to ring my client and throw myself on her mercy for a colour change when I found the last few pieces of a very pretty pink French lace. This trim usually attracts a premium but I was so grateful to the Embellishment Gods that I used it on the tutu at no extra charge.

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embellished bodice

I used the motifs on the lace to make a delicate irregular border on the plate and to float from the plate onto the skirt. The lace really didn’t need any more sparkle but I added some crystal AB stones for a little colour shift.

 

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Plate detail

The effect of the plate was a very pretty soft and intricate edge. This perfectly suited the choreography and the dancer’s temperament.

 

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Skirt and plate

The skirt itself was a mixture or lilac, pink and white. The feathered edge complemented the delicate design and colours.

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