Ok guys here it is, my next tutorial! Its a glow in the dark tutu! Again I'm new to the tutorials so if anything is confusing please let me know I will do my best to clarify! Let's start with supplies!
If you love this idea but don't want to make one of your own you can
buy them in my Etsy shop!
-Spools of tulle (I chose 4 different fluorescent colors, but you can use whatever you like! For an adult size you will need at least 2 spools, I made 2 and ran out at the very last pattern so I had to buy more)
-Glow in the dark puff paint (make sure its fabric paint)
-Elastic
-Glow in the dark spray paint
-Glow in the dark foam stickers
Not pictured:
-Scissors
-Ruler
-Cardboard
-Marker, pen, pencil, just something to write with
First you'll need to cut the tulle. Measure out a piece of cardboard to what you want the tutu length to be. The tulle will end up being double that length when all is said and done. With a marker, draw an arrow pointing to one of the short ends of the cardboard. The take the start of the tulle and line it up with the end that the arrow is pointing to and start wrapping it around the cardboard.
Once you have reached the end of the tulle cut off any remaining (if you have a few extra inches or even half of a wrap left over that's ok you can just cut it off, it only works if you have one full wrap). On the end that has the arrow (which also should be where you started and ended the tulle) cut through all the tulle. You now have all your tutu strips! Repeat this same step for all your spools. (When I first started making tutus I would go to the fabric store and buy yardages of tulle and had to cut strips by hand the long way, it probably would've taken me an hour for these 4 colors for how much I cut. With the spools and cardboard it took maybe 10 minutes at the longest!)
Next you need to cut and sew the elastic. When you tie on the tulle the elastic will stretch out a little so when measuring the elastic you'll want to stretch it a bit around the waist so when the tutu is done it wont be too large for the person wearing it. Cut the elastic and sew the ends together
Now the fun part (it's also the longest, so put on your favorite TV show marathon or movie and sit back)! Line up the strips in whatever color order you want to help you keep them organized (unless you are using one color haha). I used 5 strips of each color to create a large color block. You tie them on with a lark's head knot.
You fold your tulle in half and put underneath the elastic with the folded end towards you.
You then put the open ends over the elastic and through the folded end.
Finally you pull the tulle tight and align it next to the other strips (or if its your first one, you place it wherever you want to start). And now you have attached your tulle with a Lark's Head Knot.
Once all the tulle is attached your tutu will look like this:
Now to make it glow in the dark! You'll want to find a box or pegs or something that you can put the tutu around so you can take it outside and spray it with the glow in the dark spray paint and not have to worry about holding the tutu or getting paint all over you. I had a jimmy johns catering box lying around my house and it was the perfect size so I used that! I also found that using an extra piece of cardboard to poke in and around the tulle was great to be sure to get an even coating of the paint.
If it is a windy day (like it was when I was spraying) just rotate the box with wind so that the paint is always flying towards the tutu. Even though that seems like common sense, I really felt like a genius when I thought of it. Depending on the look you are going for you might go back and spray a few more coats after you see how it glows.
After the spray paint dries you can bring it in and decorate it with the glow in the dark foam stickers and puff paint. Sadly I was in a rush to finish the tutu's (my sister and her friend were running in a glow in the dark 5K later that evening) so I didn't get any pictures of those steps. With the puff paint I decorated the knots (which also serves as added security of the hold so they don't come loose). I placed the foam stickers at the end of the strands for a little extra pizazz.
My camera really hates the no flash setting so I had to turn the light on behind me to actually get it to take a picture. The spray paint picks up the color of the tulle and really highlights it and makes it glow, sadly the black didn't really show up on the picture but it was really cool in person (this was after 4 coats of spray paint).
Here is what my sister and her friend looked like for the run. You can kind of see the stickers and puff paint around the waist band! They had a ton of fun and won the costume contest!
Until next time, happy crafting!!!
