DIY Tutus and High Chair Skirts

My craftiness is limited to cake baking and scrapbooking. Yet for some unknown reason, I decided I was going to make the girls' tutus for their first birthday. I followed this tutorial to make them using crochet headbands and tulle. The tutus required two spools of tulle and two baby headbands, which cost $5 at A.C. Moore (with the 50% off coupon that comes in the Sunday paper). 

Sidenote: I had to exchange these headbands because they were too big.

I chose to use two different shades of pink tulle. I measured the distance between Amelia's hip and knee to be 7.5 inches. Since I was going to fold each piece of tulle in half, I measured and cut 40 pieces of tulle (20 in each color) that were 16 inches long.

I put the headband around a tea pitcher so it would be somewhat stretched out and stay in place. I folded a piece of tulle in half and slid it through the hole in the headband.

I then pulled the piece through the loop to create a slipknot.

I repeated this 40 times, alternating colors. If I wanted a really full tutu I could have gone around the circumference twice, using the next row of holes. I found one row to be plenty for my little girls.

The girls look precious in their tutus!

Seriously, could they be any cuter?

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I also made two high chair skirts using two more spools of tulle and ribbon. (This cost me another $5 with another 50% off coupon.) 

This was a simple project that followed the same technique as the tutus. I wanted the high chair skirts to be a bit longer so I measured and cut 20 inch strips of tulle. I cut ribbon that was long enough to go around the entire high chair tray.

Next, I folded the ribbon in half to find the midpoint. I tied my first piece of tulle using the same method of folding it in half and threading it through the loop. I alternated colors and tied two to the left, two to the right, two to the left, and so on. I did it this way because I only wanted the tulle on the front of the tray and needed to keep it centered. Since I knew I would be pushing the three high chairs together, I didn't think it needed all that extra fluff of a full high chair skirt.

Once I had enough tulle to cover the front of the high chair, I was ready to adhere the ribbon to the high chair tray. I applied velcro dots to the clean tray, then to the back of the ribbon. It stays firmly in place but is also easy to detach.

Here are the finished high chair skirts, along with a simple pennant banner I made for James' chair.

For a mere $10 I was able to make three tutus, two bows, and two high chair skirts. (Technically, the velcro dots would have added a few more dollars had I not already had them packed away in my classroom boxes.) A little bit of tulle goes a long way!