The first main role. Children’s song contest in kindergarten. There must be a beautiful outfit. Have you been there? If you have a daughter, when preparing any costume, always have a tutu skirt at the back of your head. There are several reasons for that, but the 2 most important are: tulle tutu is very effective and very easy to make. My daughter would be a mermaid, so we need mermaid tutu dress, let’s start.
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Supplies
- 10′ Crochet headband – I bought in Polish e-shop, but I’ve seen you can buy one here as well, however, I haven’t try it myself.
- Tulle – 3 shades of green (or other color that you choose for your dress). With a 24” skirt (girl 5 years old) 8 rolls of tulle is an absolute minimum. I had so much and I used up everything, even waste. Rolls are 6″ wide x 25 yards long. Again I’ve seen them here.
- In addition, about 50” purple tulle for a seashell bra.
- Scissors
- Measure tape
- Self-adhesive crystals (optional)
- Adhesive (optional – for crystals)
Making of mermaid tutu dress
Preparation of tulle
Begin with measuring the length of the dress, i.e. simply dress your daughter in the crochet headband and measure the distance from the end of the headband to the ground. For a 5 year old girl it will be about 24”.
Then cut the tulle to sections equal to doubled length of the dress plus 2” for the losses in the knot. That is 48” + 2” = 50” in my case.
Do not be too suggested with my colors in the pictures because I did the costume in the evening and the colors are distorted by artificial light.
Making of the mermaid tutu dress
Choose the color from which you will create a criss-cross on the dress. This is important because there should be one more strand of the chosen color. So if like me you have 3 colors: dark green, mint and light green for criss-cross, then the pattern is: 2 strands of dark green, 2 strands of mint and 3 of light green. According to the pattern on the graphic below.
Begin attaching the tulle on the crochet headband. It’s the same as for a tutu skirt, you can find a detailed instruction here. To make the dress stronger, assemble the tulle on the penultimate row. Attach the tulle according to the pattern (2x dark green, 2x mint, 3x light green) until you fill up the entire headband.
There is a big risk that in the end the pattern will not agree perfectly, so it is worth starting from the side. Then the whole front will be nicely attached. When you get to the end, you can maneuver the number of colors. I was running out of the dark green tulle, so I used 1 strand instead of 2 of dark green. Additionally 2 times I reduced the number of light green strands from 3 to 2. When you do not know about it, it is completely unnoticeable.
Criss-cross layer
Now it’s time for the criss-cross layer that perfectly imitates the mermaid’s tail. To create the criss-cross take the middle strand of the light green. Separate the tulles and tie a knot with the neighboring middle one, continue to create the first level of the criss-cross.
Similarly, proceed for subsequent levels by always tying a knot with the neighbor. Complete 4 levels of criss-cross.
At the end of the criss-cross join the neighboring knots to form a hoop around the dress. For this purpose, you can use waste of a different color, I used mint. You should tie a piece of extra tulle to two adjacent knots, leaving the ends hanging.
Optionally, you can attach crystals on the knots, imitating fish scales. They make the dress more shiny. My crystals were self-adhesive, but nevertheless I added some glue so that they would not detach.
Making of bikini top
The last part is the bikini top. It can be made from a piece of purple tulle dragged through the mesh. In this way, you form ‘seashells’. The ends of the tulle can be used to tie the bow at the back. It is better to tie after putting on the dress. If the dress needs to be self-service, tie a loose bow.
The mermaid tutu dress is ready and waiting for a great debut on the stage.
The mermaid found on thehairbowcompany.com. There is a lot of inspiration for tutu-based outfits.
Nothing gives more satisfaction than doing something yourself. I haven’t even thought about DIY as my hobby, I’ve just done different “projects” when it was needed. Sometimes it’s a disguise for the Masquerade Party in kindergarten. Another time, cutting out the pumpkin and baking the witch’s fingers for Haloween. Or simply organizing holiday souvenirs. Now I decided to share my realizations with you. Let’s go it together!
