For Trying Outloud: Table Tutu Times Two

When my friend's mother contacting me about the princess themed baby shower, she sent over a few pictures from pinterest.

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Before this picture, I had never seen a table tutu and I was in awe. I was in love and I couldn't wait to research and figure out how to make this. I had made tutus in the past for my daughter for homecoming and for me and my 3 day Susan G. Komen walk. But I have never attempted one on this scale and I have to admit...I was scared. I had promised my friend's mother that I could do this and I didn't know if I could. So I searched the internet to for more pictures and made note of what I liked and what I didn't like about other tutus.

Things that caught my eye:

1) multiple shades seem to add depth

2) more than one layer or slip knots placed tightly on ribbon seem to give more volume

3) tulle cascading to the ground

Knowing these things made it a bit easier for me. I knew I would need more than one color of tulle. I actually used three. I used taffy pink, pink and cream with glitter. I interchanged the pink and taffy pink but I only used about 10 strands of the cream and they were evenly spread out along the tutu. They just added a little sparkle.

I knew I needed to cut the strands of tulle twice the length of the height and then add about 6-8 inches so that it could billow on the floor. Because I didn't know the shape, height or size of the table, I used my round dining room table that seats 8 as my model. I figured my worse case scenario would be that it was too big...and that is better than too small.

This task was not for the faint at heart. It took many many yards of fabric and many many hours. But I loved every minute of it. Each strand was 3 yards long and 6 inches wide. I used 30 strands per foot of table....you do the math and figure out how much tulle I used. I don't even want to know. I just know I kept going back to Hobby Lobby and buying more and more tulle...by the basket full. Thank goodness it was on sale for 1/2 off. Now you don't need that many yard but I wanted to make sure it was really full and that I had enough strands that if the table was longer than my table at home, that I could spread out the knots and still have a full tutu. You see, I didn't cut the length of the ribbon that was the base of the tutu. One end was still on the spool and ready to be covered with tulle, if need be. Thankfully I didn't have to do that.

Was it over the top? you betcha! But isn't that what you think of when you think of a princess or royalty....something excessive? I think I hit the mark on that one. When people came in the door, they were in awe of the tutu and that is the response I was looking for. The room was big and I wanted to make sure that the decor did not get lost in the room but became the focal point. But once the party was over, I didn't want the tutu just end up in the trash. So we decided to go green with our pink tutu.

We made a side table for the baby's room. Now I have never made a table so this was a first for me. I thought back to all those HGTV design shows and how simple they made it look. So I tried their methods. I knew the first thing I had to do was determine how much of the original tutu I would need to wrap around the table. I used black office clips to clip the tut to the table. One end already had enought ribbon to use as a tie. I just had to make sure that I left enough ribbon on the other end to make the other side of the tie. This meant sacrificing some of the tulle on the tutu since it woul have to be removed to make the ribbon accessible. (sorry no picture)

Next I wrapped the top of the table in a satin material and I used a rubber band to hold it in the middle while I stapled around the sides. I have no idea why I was so afraid to do my first staple but I held my breath and yelled, "YOLO!" as the first staple pierced through the material and into the table. Once we stapled around the table, I then found the three screw holes for the legs and cut a slit in the material for them. (sorry no picture of that)

Then I started to staple the skirt to the table from underneath. I did a staple about every 3 to 4 inches until I had made it around the table. After I finished stapling, I attached the three legs, turned the table over and tied a bow at the back of the table.

Now do you see why I said some tulle had to be sacrificed? I had to be able to use the ribbon to tie the bow so I had to pull off some of the tulle that was tied around the ribbon.

As you can see, it really needed a hair cut so I went to trimming. Again, I wanted that full excessive look so I took off alot but not too much. ....I gave it a trim.

Now with the table done, we had one more project...the tutu for the announcements. Once again, I was left with a delimma of size. You see, the baby is still in mommy's tummy so I couldn't use her as a model. So we grabbed the next best thing....a teddy bear.

Isn't it adorable? I used the same principles I used on the table. Measure, sacrifice tulle, trim and tie a bow. I have a feeling it may need some tweaking but the basic tutu is done for the princess. My friend was worred about it not being full but I assured her that the shorter it gets, the more it will stick out. And then I crossed my fingers and hoped that is what happened. and yes it is.

Here it is on it's own.