One of the things we’ve learned with Elena is that swimming lessons = ear infections, even after getting grommets. I’ve no real idea why, because she doesn’t get them when we swim at the beach, but this term we switched out swimming lessons for a movement and music class with a friend. She loves it. The teacher is great and Elena spends the rest of her week showing me her moves.

The class has been learning a little dance all term and today we had their end of term ‘performance’ – if you can call it that. All the kids were encouraged to dress up and bring parents along to watch the class.

Our first mandatory dress up costume experience. Yikes. I’ve been meaning to make the tutu from Little Things to Sew for ages, so we just did that and added fairy wings from the local discount store.

And so I present you a confection of tulle. Pink tulle. You can imagine how pleased I am!

You see, fairies must be pink, and they must have wands. Or so we were informed last night over dinner, with the level of certainty and force that only an almost-three year old can muster.

So there went my plans for a purple and blue tutu. Alex suddenly had a brief to make a wand…and help me cut and pin unreasonable amounts of tulle. Just what he was planning for his Friday night, I’m sure…

The pattern for the tutu was great. I’ve looked at it a few times over the last year or so but never really understood the construction. Once I started, however, it all came together pretty well (if you don’t look too closely). The short of it is that you cut lots of tulle, sew the lengths together, gather them, and then sew it all onto a waistband.

I cut our lengths 24″ wide as Elena’s a littlie and she was going to dance in it. The last thing we need around here is another trip hazard! When she’s a little older I’ll make her another longer one.

A warning though, tulle is a real challenge to handle well – I found it pretty difficult to keep things neat and to cut the tulle precisely. Only one of my gathering threads would pull through (meaning the gathers were all over the place when it came time to sew) and I had trouble getting a neat finish on the waistband.

Alex made the wand out of corflute painted silver and skewers which we covered in washi tape. I was going to add some ribbon, but Elena pointed out that that would be a poor decision. My Lord.

Elena is stoked.

The things we do, huh?