Sparkly, twirly, precious fun! A tutu workshop is a valuable addition to your library’s program calendar. Not only is it easy to teach, but the attendees leave with a legitimately beautiful product (that would have cost $30 – $50 to buy from the store)! I always try to be intentional about planning programs where the take away item is a quality piece that isn’t going to end up in the garbage after one week. Good for the families, good for the environment, great for the library!

I opened this workshop up to a wide range of ages: 2 – 13. Children under 6 had to have a parent with them. In the end, the program was full of parents and their 3 – 5 year old kids. With the left over tulle, we did an informal tutu making activity with our afterschool crowd, mainly grade 4 – 6 girls. This program would also work well as a tween program or an adult program (where parents can chat while making tutus for their toddlers).

Materials

• Ribbons
• 6″ wide tulle spools pre-cut into ~70cm pieces

That’s it!

Tips

• Pre-cut at least 50 pieces for each attendee. Depending on the size of the child, they could need 30 – 100 pieces for one tutu.
• Have lots of colours! The more choice, the better! This craft is extremely easy and a bit tedious. Adding in a lot of colour options helps keep things interesting.
• Encourage participants to think about the order of the colours – do they want to do a pattern? Do they want to try a random dispersing of colours? Just a splash of purple?
• You can add a little extra pizzazz to a tutu by tying on ribbons.
• Play music! A cute little Disney Favourites soundtrack is a good choice.
• When children 5 and under were there with parents, I encouraged the parents to do the majority of the tying, and have the kids pick out the colours and lay them out in a pattern.

How to Make the Tutu

• Let everyone choose a colour of ribbon.
• Measure and cut the ribbon to be twice as long as needed to go around the child’s waist.
• Tape each end of the ribbon down to the table.
• Show everyone how to attach one piece of tulle to the ribbon:
  • Fold the tulle strip in half.
  • Slide the top loop part of the tulle underneath the ribbon.
  • Pull the two end pieces of the tulle over top of the ribbon, and through the top loop.
  • Pull tight to secure.
  • Repeat until the skirt is fluffy and full!
• Tutu will be attached by tying a bow.

See this post from DIY Network for a photo guide to attaching the tulle.

This program was SUCH a hit. All of the girls were so excited to try on their new tutus, and they all instantly started spinning around and giggling. It’s a feel good program to the max.

What craft workshops do you lead for kids where everyone leaves with a good quality, valuable product?