I have seen numerous tutorials out there showing how to make a tutu for a little girl, but have never seen any instructions for making them for American Girl dolls. The Little One decided she needed an American Girl tutu. So of course, mommy was happy to get out her craft supplies and try to make one for her doll. With the 4th of July rapidly approaching, I decided to make it in red, white, and blue.
Turns out it’s pretty easy to make a doll tutu, everything is just smaller. I was able to finish it up in an hour and that was with distractions. The most tedious part is cutting the strips, but that is made easier with a rotary cutter. This is a great project for your daughter to make. An adult should handle the rotary cutter and glue gun, but everything else should be easy for a little girl to do.
Make a Tutu for an 18 inch Doll Tutorial
Materials
- 1/2 yard each of blue, red, and white tulle (or the colors of your choice)
- Eight – 1/2 inch Silver star buttons (the kind with the loop on the back)
- 2-3 yards 1/4 inch Gold Ribbon
- 1/2 yard 1/8 inch elastic
- needle and thread
- plastic canvas needle
- glue gun or tacky glue
- Fabric scissors or a rotary cutter
Total cost – around $3 (actually less since I had quite a bit of tulle and ribbon left over)
Instructions
Start by fitting the elastic to the doll’s waist, pulling snug and overlapping a couple of inches. You want to make sure it will stay up but you don’t want it so tight that your little girl won’t be able to take it off. For my daughter’s doll, I used 12 inches of elastic.
Overlap the elastic by an 2 inches and sew to hold in place. Try on the doll to make sure it will come off easily.
Next cut your strips of tulle. Each strip needs to be approx. 2 inches by 14 inches. No need for perfection though. I cut the whole piece into strips and had a lot left over. I ended up using 35 strips of each color.
Next stack 1 strip of each color and fold in half. Put the loop behind the elastic and bring the ends up over the elastic and through the loop, pulling to make a loose knot. Don’t make too tight of a knot or it stretches the elastic. Repeat around the circle. I ended up with 35 knots but you may have a different amount. That’s ok 
Now you want to cut 8- 12 inch lengths of gold ribbon. You are going to tie them onto the elastic in the same way you did the tulle. Fold the ribbon in half and put the loop behind the elastic. Bring the ribbon ends over the elastic and through the loop, pulling loosely to form a knot. I put a ribbon every 5 tulle knots, but feel free to add more if you like a little more bling!
Now you want to add the stars t0 the ribbons. I used a glue gun to hold them in place to make things easy. However, you could use tacky glue or knot them in place as well.
Thread both ends of the ribbon onto a plastic canvas needle and use the needle to get both ribbon ends in the loop of the star buttons. Use a small dab of hot glue near the ribbon knot and slide the button up the ribbon into the glue. Allow to cool. This will hold the stars in place. Repeat for all the gold ribbons around.
Cut the ribbon ends to the desired length and knot each end to deter fraying.
You’re all done! A quick and easy doll tutu to make with your little girl. Have fun!
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Southwestern Ohio Mom Blogger, Child of God, Wife to my High School Sweetheart, Mom of 4, Frugal Shopper, Registered Dietitian, Crafter, Letterboxer, Organic Gardener, Avid Cook and Baker... yep that about sums it up!
Just lovely, and so many possibilities for every season!
I would love to have you share this at our kids & family themed link party :: PLAYDATE…. http://beneaththerowantree.blogspot.com/2011/06/playdate-link-party-in-summer-13.html
Cheers,
Lori
http://www.beneaththerowantree.com
I am just reminding everyone about tonights link party that runs Friday evening through Mondays!
I also have an ongoing give away link party now too.
Hope to see you soon.
http://bacontimewiththehungryhypo.blogspot.com/
come strut your stuff
Aww, I can’t wait until I start making clothes for American Dolls…right now we’re in the Barbie stage
Andrea
http://www.addicted2tutes.blogspot.com
I love this tutu! Very cute and great tutorial!
Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
Hope you have a great week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/
Great idea! I have just made my first ever tutu for my littlest girl this weekend, I never thought about her doll, she loves dressing her doll up, so I might try this!
New google follower via Skip to my lou link party, please pop by, karima x
http://www.karimascrafts.com
This is just darling! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for such a great tutorial! This would be a fun activity for my girls and her cousins to do one afternoon!!
This is too cute! My daughter has an american girl doll. SHe would love it! Thanks for the great idea! I am your newest follower. I would love it if you stopped by and became mine!
Cute blog!
Great idea I can’t wait to try and I think I will make a matching one for my daughter while I’m at it. I love the gold touches you put on the tutu!
My girl is not quite old enough to play with these dolls yet. But it is only a matter of time! I will have to remember this one!
I am following your blog now and would love for you to follow me also if you have time. http://www.cookieandclaire.blogspto.com
Have a great day!
Cute! Great job.
Following from Not Just a Housewife. Would love to have you link this up to my {wow me} wednesday link party going on right now over on my blog. The most viewed link will receive a set of fancy rectangle chalkboard labels from my etsy shop. Hope to see you there.
Ginger
gingersnapcrafts.blogspot.com
The tutu is so cute! What a great way to get children interested in crafts and/sewing!
Love the tutu looks like this will be a project when I visit my granddaughter. Thanks
That is very cute! Perfect for the 4th and there are so many color options you can do. Thanks for linking up to this week’s Catch a Glimpse party!
How adorable!!
I would love it if you would come link up to my party. http://catonalimb.blogspot.com/2011/06/out-on-limb-no-7.html
I love this idea! Thanks for sharing!!
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Thanks for linking to WorkShop Wednesday! Hope to see you this week!
I love it! What a great gift for a kid. I featured you today on my kids gift roundup as part of my Christmas In July series
http://sunshineandchaucer.blogspot.com/2011/07/christmas-in-july-kids-gifts.html
Hi, friend! I’m admiring all your creative posts here. Can you please share them at the Creative Bloggers’ Party & Hop? Hope to see you there at the party
This is soo adorable. I can’t wait to make one with my daughter.
jenn
http://www.miss-maggiesplace.com
What a great idea! I love making things for my daughter’s American Girl Doll. Can’t wait to see what else you create!
Thanks for the tutorial. I’m making one for my daughter’s McKenna and one for my niece’s AGD. They are excited. I could not locate the silver buttons in our local JoAnn’s. I may forgo or get really creative:)
LOVE this tutorial! Thank you! I’m trying to get back into sewing and this totally inspired me !:)
Thanks! You will have to let me know how it turns out if you make one.
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this is adorable!!!
Alicia Keen recently posted..Winchester Strolling Bridal Show 2012
How cute! My niece is totallly into tutus and would love one for her doll. Thanks for the idea.
Jan Messali recently posted..Giveaways ending soon
I just wanted you to know that someone is using the above picture wuth the little girl on their facebook to try to sell these tutu’s. She has pics stolen from various boutiques all in one album claiming she can recreate the item pictured. Since a child is in the pic I wanted to make sure you were aware. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.521289224548808.128212.502046519806412&type=3
Thanks for letting me know. It seems she was using other bloggers’ photos without permission too. Hopefully she has learned her lesson.
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We are planning an AG tea as a Relay for Life fundraiser and when I came across the flip flops, I thought they were cute and easy. The tutu will be a great addition to the knitted body suit I am making as a raffle item. I am thinking if the organizers/helpers can make enough pair of flip flops they will be a cute gift bag item for each little girl.
Sounds like a lot of fun! Let me know if you have any questions about the patterns.