Tutu Extravaganza

I think that every little girl is told that she is a princess from the time she is born. And of course, they believe it. Actually some never outgrow that belief.

What little girl has not ventured into Mommy's closet and found such treasures as high heels, colorful scarves and jewelry. As little girls, we are pampered, we play dress up and learn how to pose and preen in front of mirrors. That sweet princess ideal is continued by ballet lessons and tap or cheer classes. When you ask a little girl what she wants to be when she grows up, ballerina is always pretty close to the top of the list. That would be a job where you could play dress-up all the time. Who wouldn't love that job?

On one of the blogs that I visit regularly, Jackie's Quilting, I saw a photo of a little girl in coveralls - she was wearing a tutu. It was adorable. On Jackie's blog was a link to a web-site on How-To for tutus. It is a You Tube video showing the easy steps to make a tutu. My grand-daughter, Madison, is not quite two years old and is all girl. I decided that I just had to try making a tutu for her. The How-To explained it all, 4 yrds of tulle, 3.5 yds of ribbon and scissors. I could just imagine Maddy wearing that tutu on Christmas morning. Then I thought of her cousins, 4 year old Lily and 5 year old Alana and knew that they would love a tutu also. It was so easy, it took me less than an hour to make the first one in 2 shades of pink. The second one was for Alan, the 5 year old cousin, and I bought 2 shades of blue for her tutu. Petite Lily's tutu has all four colors in it. I think that they will love them. Thank you Jackie for the idea and Carrie Grace for the video.

I made my first tutu during a night-time Sit-n-Sew session at the local quilt shop, The Crazy 9 Patch. All the quilters in the class oooh'd and ahhhh'd over the tutus. I went home that night and made the other two tutu's.

I took all three of the tutu's into the quilt shop the next day and we had a little fashion show. OK, now you remember that I said that all girls grow up thinking that they are princesses. And some of them never outgrow that belief.

You give a grown woman a tutu with a satin ribbon and stand back and watch the fun. Most of them automatically went into ballerina pose. It's part of our gender make-up. Plus, all girls love to laugh. The owner, Martha, and worker-bee, Kimmie, along with some of the CraZy 9 Patch staff who came by all got a chance to wear a tutu. Kimmie even had her daughter Katy, home from college, wear a tutu. Jody, Danielle, Dawnell, Debbie, Marilynn and of course, me, all donned tutus and struck ballerina poses for our photos. I laughed until I cried. It was so much fun.