Adult Tu-tu

I actually made this in November, but I couldn't reveal it until now because it was a Christmas gift for my sister, SisX. Our family did a home-made Christmas this year, where all gifts exchanged were hand made by the gifter.

I really should have taken pictures as I went, but honestly... I was scared and didn't know if it was going to work! I am a very amateur sewer and hadn't made anything in a very long time. What made things worse, is that I was trying to combine two different patterns.

Here is the inspiration for the adult tu-tu. But the DIY for that skirt had a zipper. Dunn-dunn-dun! (Cue scary music.) While I probably could have muddled through it, the biggest problem was that I didn't know my sister's exact measurements. All I knew is that she is a bit taller and a bit thinner than me. (Life's really not fair... I've gotten over it.)

 

So, I wanted to use the elastic waist pattern I found here. Please note that it says "20 minute skirt," but because I am picky, OCD, scared, a newbie... chose tricky fabric (slippery satin and poofy tulle,) it took me 4 or 5 days to complete.

I used the 20-mintue-skirt pattern for the satin lining. Yes, working with satin, especially for a newbie, is very tricky but it was just the lining so it didn't have to be perfect. I still had to go over the seam 3 times before I was sure it would hold.

Then I used the circle-skirt pattern from the "inspiration tu-tu" for the outside floofy-ness.
I put the lining inside the tu-tu, and sewed them together along the top with very long stitches. This enabled me to gather (scrunch together) the fabric.

Then I pinned it evenly around to the elastic waistband, which was made roughly to the right size. I sewed them together with zig-zag stitches so that it could still stretch. If you used straight stitches, the thread wouldn't let it expand. 

Oh, then after I finished I found this... which is almost exactly the same thing I did, oy!

At least it turned out pretty good, and it actually fit SisX! Yay elastic!

Such a great model!