Repurposing Tulle Skirts into Dresses!

So I found something super simple to do and thought that maybe you guys would like to try too I think this is handy if your girl needs a new outfit fast or perhaps you have a new girl(like me) and you'd like to make a quick dress for her so she has more than one thing to wear.

 

I was cleaning out my old clothes and tossing stuff out, and I came across a tulle skirt/tutu I had worn once. Instead of just throwing it away, I thought it would actually make a cute dress for my MDD, but with how long it was, you can likely do this for DD too. This is a super fast project that can be done in 20 minutes or less!

 

What you need:

 

-A skirt(if it has a noticible band, this will be be much easier, I think)

-Scissors

-Measuring tape(optional)

-Seam Ripper(technically optional, but it will make it cleaner to take the skirt apart)

-Thread in your desired colors

-Pins

 

 

First, take your skirt and locate its seam. Use your handy seam ripper to take it apart, or just cut along with your scissors. That part is now not gonna look so pretty, but the nice part is that you don't have to use it!

 

Next, measure around the chest, or simply take the now cut skirt and wrap it around the chest. Mark where you need to cut(mentally or with an actual mark). Try to cut as straight as possible as you go.

 

You can either hand sew or machine stitch the next part. I pinned the top band(the black part) together and simply sewed it together. Since this one is made of tulle and it fluffs nicely over itself, I did not sew all the way down, as to not give it a super visible seam line. So it can open in the back.

 

Final step is to cut the fabric to the length you want. Hard to tell in this photo, but I did short in the front, and let it turn into a long back. Very idol-ish! (Or Junior prom lol. That's sort of what I think mine looks like at the moment.)

 

Bonus step is to add personal touches and extras! The real fun part if you ask me. It makes a decent base so you can find cute glitter(I plan on adding silver glitter stars to this, or just round silver glitter) or bows, or buttons, different trims for the top or for straps(the white at the top of mine is her body stocking. I haven't fully stain tested this fabric yet. Better safe than sorry!), or whatever strikes your fancy! It's easy to get creative with this. And it's easy to match with different jewelry, hair accessories, socks, and shoes.

 

And that's basically it. You can also just make skirts this way too! Turn a human skirt into a mini one lol. I had enough excess fabric to do so, but I haven't sewn it together yet. But now it just looks like a mini version of what it was!

 

Tulle skirts are easy to get, and with Halloween approaching, they will be all over the place for costumes and as "petticoats". I know I'll be taking advantage and getting lots of colors!

 

I hope this was mildly interesting and that it was maybe helpful! I know this isn't really anything new in terms of tutorials, but maybe the idea hadn't hit people the way it just seemed to hit me last night

Thanks for the tutorial/idea♡

 

i hope you dont mind, ive saved your pic as inspiration/future reference ^×^ i dont have any old tulle skirt but its cheap enough to buy and its actually really easy to make gorgeous things from!

 

I hope its ok to share another way to repurpose tulle?

Inspired by coolcat (and other tulle skirts)

 

simply fold over the amount of tulle you have, sew along the folded edge leaving enough room to thread your elastic waistband through.

 

*** i bought my tulle new. I got half a meter and The length of the fabric bolt itself is like 2.5m (rough quick measurement) for longer skirts you could get a meter, or 1.25 for super long princess style :p

 

The waist band should be the length of the width of the hips/waist plus a small seam allowance

Thread the waist band through the tuelle, bunching it up as you go. Pin the ends so you dont loose them!

Sew up the open edge at the back, making sure to do a few back stitches over the elastic band

Then just space out your bunches til they're even

Lastly, but very carefully!

Place the seamline in the centre, hold/clip the waistband perfectly horizontally and trim the bottom of the skirt evenly to make it level. ^×^

 

 

Pastel girls by Shoujo Magic, on Flickr

 

Pastel girls by Shoujo Magic, on Flickr

 

Pastel girls by Shoujo Magic, on Flickr

 

 

For the rainbow skirt, i folded it at an uneven length to create the layered effect

 

Happy birthday mariko by Shoujo Magic, on Flickr

 

Thanks for sharing this Noxxbunny! While I was shopping at Target I was in their $1/$2/$3 section looking at everything. They had these tiny tulle skirts for very small children and thought of your post. It was $3 so I bought it and worked my newbie sewing magic haha. I did snaps on the back of mine. The tulle already came decorated with gold glitter pieces. And since it was for a DDdy I didn't have to change the length. It was a fun project that took no time at all. And I have enough to make another one

Oni-Chan Thanks for adding yours too! And no problem that you saved for later! I LOVE the rainbow one and I gotta try a layered one like that some time too! It looks so pretty with your girl's pink hair too!

 

Also...I am in love with your girls' star t-shirt. Do you mind if I ask where you go it?

 

Innocentsake I'm glad this came to mind! That ended up making a really pretty dress! I'll have to keep my eye out in that section now too! I love how she looks like she's ready for a night out!

This is an awesome guide~ I did something similar with an old cloth skirt a few years ago and this guide reminded me of it. Now I need to go hunt down some cheap tulle skirts

This is an awesome guide~ I did something similar with an old cloth skirt a few years ago and this guide reminded me of it. Now I need to go hunt down some cheap tulle skirts

 

Thank you! I hope you find some good skirts to use too! I'm probably going to go digging around the Halloween stores when stuff starts going on sale myself

I actually went out and found those skirts at Target too! I went and made one into a skirt:

 

 

And the other is for my incoming DDS. Modeled rather unwillingly by my boy who's still on a DDS body

 

 

I was really feeling bows this time around

Friday by Shoujo Magic, on Flickr

 

Dropping by to show off the dress i made :p

 

Its a skirt and top, the skirt part is double the width of the pastel ones i made (so not as see through) the bodice is just some stretch lycra with cotton trims and hand sewn beads. The waist beads are just a strand of beads held onto the skirt waist band with a small piece if jewellery making wire bent into a hook shape ^×^

Holy crap.

 

I was really feeling bows this time around

 

I love bows. And I really like this one, more photos please!

 

 

This is so gorgeous!

 

You all are making want to try my hands at this. Good thing I just bought my own sewing machine so that I can't mess my wife's up if I really goof something up.

Sinclair: No problem here! Though the back of this one isn't sewn yet since I seem to have misplaced my hot pink thread at the moment. I have a box of thread I need to dig through...

 

 

Hotaru is modeling a little more willingly today. After all, is it not in a fox's nature to decieve? Plus, after a couple days, he's just used to it maybe. My new girl will be in later this week...so he won't have to model much longer

 

I made the neck bow fluff out some more, and I'm making a better color matched resin star to put on the center permanently. But it needs to cure for another day. Went with a light pink + white combo, so hopefully it comes out nice! And for fun, I added MORE BOW as a hair accessory. But it might be a little much.

 

Oni-Chan: That dress came out so beautiful! Love it! And I love the little tiara to match! Super pretty!