The Crazy Tutu Party Commences.... part 2!

The crazy tutu party continues, and here's what we did this week!

If you recall, Loki's Romance is currently working on an order for 13 tutus for a jazz dance productions. This performance is a group of young girls ages 11-17, which is a first for Loki's Romance. Luckily, not much is different except the sizing. It's important to keep the younger girls' height into consideration so that the tutus aren't too long.

We have two types of tutus we are working on, our "Steampunk Lolita" tutu for the younger girls and a modified "Siren's Tears Pannier". The first style is actually our most popular item by far, so we are very used to making them. The second is a little more complex in the construction, but is still pretty simple to create.

Earlier this week, Rae and Baskerville came over to help with the first batch of tutus. These are the "Steampunk Lolita" tutus for the younger girls. They cut and tied the strips of fabric using a dress form, while I made the size tags and did the calculations for the patterns and sketches for the next batch of tutus. Rae and Baskerville have become experts on these tutus which is fabulous, because it made me be able to focus on the other ones. These tutus have been modified slightly for dance, so they are on an elastic waistband instead of a ribbon. They are ivory and gold, our most popular colors, but also have red intermingled in them.

This is an "in-progress" photo of one of our tutus. This one has a higher ratio of gold and red because we will be adding the rest of the ivory later, when the next fabric shipment arrives in a few days. The dress form has been padded with red felt to be the appropriate size.

The tulle fabric is cut into strips about 2-3" wide, and huge volumes of tulle are used to create these tutus. Once the tulle's been cut it's hard to know what to do with it! This is 3 of our tutus sitting in a box, actually. They will be trimmed later one once all 5 of this group are finished to maintain consistency.

And now for the other tutus! So Rae and Baskerville pretty much worked on the first batch on their once they got some basic directions, because they're pros at them. (They actually constructed the first two samples we ever made!) I was then able to focus on the next group of tutus for the older girls, which was lucky because they ended up being more tricky than I thought!

This is a general sketch of our tutus we're working on. Even though this is the "Siren's Tears Pannier" that we've made before, this one is being modified slightly. The top part is made out of a 4-way stretch spandex instead of satin to allow for more movement, and an elastic waistband to hold it in place. I also added an extra tier to alternate the colors properly and add a little more interest. I drew a sketch to illustrate to our seamstresses how it should look. These tutus are going to be in 8 different colors mixed with black" Red, brown, orange, purple, light blue, navy blue, pink, and ivory. The first thing I did was spend a lot of time figuring out the measurements and patterns. The girls have different sizes and proportions so I'm making a different pattern for each one, but because the fabric (on top) is a knit, the pattern is pretty simple. The tulle part doesn't need a pattern because the tulle is just cut into rectangles.

                                                

                       Lots of pretty tulle colors! 8 different 40-yard bolts, that's 320 yards of tulle!

                               First I cut the tulle and bundled it to get ready to sew.
                               Then I looked through my thread and matched the colors.
                               When I have large orders like this I usually get everything
                               set-up and prepared first so when the time comes I can
                               just focus on sewing, and also so I know have enough
                               materials and the proper thread colors, etc. This way,
                               if I was short a little fabric or if I had the wrong 
                               thread color I'd have time to get it while I work on
                               the other ones.
                                                             

                                          
                             I started working on the brown one first. Here you can see the tulle rectangles (rolled up for easier maintenance) next to the part of the main skirt I started gathering. For this design I use 4.5 times the width of the tulle I need so that I can gather it- for example I would gather 162 inches of tulle into a 36-inch hip sized tutu. I start by gathering the main skirt, then I made the tiers to sew on.

Here's a close-up of the gathered tulle. The amount of gathering to do on a garment depends on the thickness of the material. Typically you would use 2-3 times the amount of material, but in this case I use 4-5 because tulle is so thin and sheer. I gather the panels, then connect them with French seams, a sewing technique used on sheer materials to make the seams stronger but still be hidden in the fabric.


There's about two more weeks before these tutus are going to be shipped! Thankfully we have lots of help! However, since a lot of time is taken up in planning and sketching and making the first samples, things start to get moving a lot more quickly once the first one is done. We have a great start, there's still lots more to do but we are definitely feeling confident. Luckily, we love what we do so that definitely makes it a lot easier. :) I know I personally look forward to coming home to my workshop everyday so I can create some more beautiful wearable art!