Pretty ballerina

Autumn means that S has started her dance lessons once again. The old dance outfit from H&M was starting to look a bit frumpy so I bought a new leotard for S. However, there weren’t any white tutus in S’s size, so I decided to sew one. I have never made one before and didn’t have a pattern. I had, however, some left-over tulle so I took a risk. It was ridiculously easy! I just cut about 48 times 3 m rectangle (actually 2 times 1,5 m), folded it in half lengthwise, made a casing for an elastic waistband and threaded the elastic in. Finally, I added two bows made of satin ribbon.

After making the first tutu I was confident that I could sew a leotard, too. Since the dance studio gets cold during the winter, I thought it was useful to have a leotard with long sleeves. I was bored with pastel pinks and blues, so I went to a completely opposite direction and bought black lycra jersey.

I used a long-sleeved Ballet Basics 2 leotard pattern by Mountain Ash Designs.

Black leotard of course needed a black tutu. Inspired by some Black Swan costumes in Swan Lake YouTube videos, I bought both basic black tulle and a bit softer black tulle with glittery dots. Making the tutu was a bit more challenging this time, since I used three layers of tulle and made a separate waistband from the black left-over jersey. I always hate sewing gathered tulle, but luckily managed to sew the waistband on without needing to do any seam ripping. I threaded 2 cm wide elastic in and the tutu was ready for testing. (I may have to fasten the elastic better by fastening it to the waistband if the waistband starts twisting. )