Halloween Costumes – Pumpkin Tutu is Too Too Cute

I busted out laughing when I saw this tutu in a local dance store because I knew right then and there, it was my destiny to make one for the Princess Cupcake’s annual visit to the pumpkin patch. If you haven’t ever made a tutu, they’re amazingly easy and a project you can complete in an evening. Good thing because I threw this one together the night before we went pumpkining.

I’ve made a ton of tutu’s (they’re a little addicting), so I do a little of this by eye, but the basics appear below:

You’ll need:

• Between 7 and 9 yards of tulle, depending on how full you like your tutus. Many websites will say 4 or 5 yards, but I think that makes a pretty skimpy tutu.
• Scissors, and a rotary cutter is really helpful, not necessary though.
• Elastic – at least ½ inch wide
• Black felt
• Hot glue
• Paper towel roll – preferably on it’s stand, but not necessary.
• Needle and thread (any color) – or sewing machine.

What you do:

Take your elastic and put it around the waist of your pumpkin like you’re measuring a waistline. Keep it snug, even tug it a little bit. You don’t want it to be loose because it will fall off, but you’ll also be adding tulle into it so that will tighten it up a little. Overlap the edges by an inch, but note the overlap. Trim the elastic to the right size.

Sew the overlap together so you have the waistline of your tutu.

Put the elastic around the roll of paper towels. It’s much easier to put this together if you have it standing up in front of you.

Take your tulle and cut it into approximately 2 inch wide strips. By no means does this have to be perfect.

Depending on the height of your pumpkin, you could cut the strips in half lengthwise. Keep in mind though, you’re actually folding over the strip when you put it on the tutu so it will be half the length that you’re looking at now. For this tutu, I knew I wanted it to be a little bit longer so I could get the pumpkin face on it, so I left the skirt long and gave it a haircut after I had it on the Princess Cupcake. In retrospect, this is probably not the best method, I spent a long time chasing her with scissors to catch all the scraggily pieces that I missed.

Take your strip and fold it in half. Push the folded part between the elastic and the paper towel holder from the bottom so the fold is now on top of the elastic.

Loop through the bottom tails and pull until tight. Don’t pull so much that the elastic buckles over, just make it snug. It won’t come loose.

Do this a gazillion times until you’ve covered all the elastic.

Cut your felt into pumpkin eyes and pumpkin mouth and hot glue to tutu. I put them on the front and back so you could see them coming..

…and going. (Which was really the funniest…)

Now you’re ready to go pumpkin hunting… skeery.