For Halloween this year Peter and I decided to dress as ballerinas. We searched for affordable tutus in adult sizes until finally–thanks to some encouragement from my friends at work–I decided to make one. Someone told me, “You just need it to stay together for one night! Go buy some tulle and staple it!” Peter and I are supposed to be crafty so I knew we could do better than staples! Charged with new found encouragement, I headed to the store and bought six yards of tulle. Follow along to make your own no-sew tutu.
Materials:
- One piece of ribbon long enough to tie around the hips of the tutu wearer
- Six yards of tulle (you can use more or less depending on your desired fluffiness of the tutu and the size of the person that it will outfit.)
- A pair of scissors–we used fabric scissors for good measure
1. Set the ribbon aside and cut the fixed width of the fabric in half. If you’d like a longer tutu, then you might want to leave the fixed width as is.
2. Next, cut the tulle into strips. I varied the width of the strips anywhere between two to four inches to make it more visually interesting. This is not an exact science. You don’t even have to cut in straight lines.
3. When you finish cutting your tulle into strips, tie your ribbon between two chairs or doorknobs. This will help keep the ribbon in a stable.
4. Fold each strip in half, creating a loop at the top. Then, connect each strip to the ribbon by bringing the loose ends of the tulle strip through the loop.
5. Continue tying knots in this fashion until the tutu is filled out enough to wrap around your waist.
You can also use an elastic band instead of using the ribbon. My experience was that the ribbon twisted a lot throughout this process. With a ribbon that doesn’t matter, but if I had used an elastic band, then I may have ended up with a twisted mess. See the picture below to get an idea.
Here is how the tutu turned out. I have to say that I sort of wish that I was five years old again so that it would be socially acceptable to wear it EVERYWHERE!!
My whole costume ended up costing a little under six dollars. I already had some spare ribbon, shoes, tights, and a black leotard, so the only expense was the tulle.
Did anyone else make their own costume? I’d love to hear about how it turned out.
I spent a year studying abroad in Argentina. When I arrived, I was itching to know all of the beauty tricks that the girls there loved. I tried a lot of things that they swore by some of them worked, others required me to spend about three times as long on my hair to achieve worse results than my previous routines–but the one thing that I really fell for was a simple exfoliator. My tutor swore by sugar and olive oil. You mix the two in a bowl and use it to exfoliate your skin. The sugar sloughs off dead skin and the olive oil locks in moisture. I’m not sure what it does to the drain but it leaves your skin feeling amazing. Sugar is a little rough so if you’re looking for something to use on your face then I would try this instead.
What beauty concoctions do you swear by?
Finding motivation to work is always difficult on Monday mornings, but today was especially difficult. I had managed to put off all of the really mundane aspects of my job for so long that I had no choice but to complete them today. Faced with all of my boring tasks, I decided that it would be the perfect time to test out the Pomodoro Technique. Let me preface this by saying that I have not read the book on this technique. I somehow ended up on the website and was intrigued.
The technique is a simple way to increase productivity. You make a list of the things that you want to accomplish, pick a single task, and then set the timer for 25 minutes. When your buzzer sounds, then you take a five minute break, check off the task, and move onto something else. I used an online timer that can be found here. In the morning this process was really effective for me because I got into work, didn’t want to get started, and then thought, “Well, 25 minutes is shorter than a half hour. That’s not too bad.” As the day went on I found myself struggling to stick to the schedule. My biggest problem was that I would find myself getting into something (either on my break or with work) and then I was pulled away. I’m going to clear some space on my computer so that I can download the book. I hope that it will offer ways to avoid breaking my working rhythm. The one thing that I can say is that it definitely offered me the motivation to get started. If this sounds interesting to you check out the website. You can even download the book in PDF format for free.
What do you do to motivate yourself?
When Peter was sanding our end tables he made me promise that before we decided to take on another project that required a significant amount of sanding we would buy an electric sander. So a week and a half ago when we found a buffet at the Salvation Army, we headed straight to Lowe’s. We paced around the electric sander aisle for a few minutes before conceding that we knew nothing about them. Did we want a belt sander or a finishing sander? I’m sure this is pretty basic for anyone who has dabbled in home improvement, but we figured that if we didn’t know the answer, then some of our beloved readers may not know it either.
Here’s the breakdown according to the guy from Lowe’s:
If you are going to do any heavy duty sanding than you will need to buy a belt sander. These are a lot more difficult to control, which increases the risk of damaging wood, but they sand things down a lot faster.
A finishing sander is used for pieces that don’t need any major stripping. They allow for greater control, especially in the hands of a novice. We opted for the finishing sander since it has a wide face to cover a lot of surface area and a pointed tip to facilitate sanding in tiny crevices.
Another interesting fact: The grade of the sand paper refers to the coarseness of the particles. A low grade paper contains thicker particles while a higher grade consists of finer particles.
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A simple way to keep your bread from going stale is to seal it in a Ziploc bag with a napkin or paper towel. This is actually a family trick so I don’t know why it works–but it does. It doesn’t matter if you wrap the bread in the paper towel or just toss it in there, somehow your bread stays fresher for longer.
Apparently my lovely fiance ate what was going to be used in my example photo so just use your imagination on this one.
What family tips do you swear by?
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Image credit Momsradar.com
