Easy princess dress with tulle
Last year for Halloween I had no idea what I should dress my daughter and it was the first Halloween on top of that.
I kept seeing those adorable dresses made out of tulle but they were kind of expensive for a one time thing when you want to purchase them online.
So me and a group of other moms – all of us with a little daughter – decided to make a dress making party.
We gathered all the supplies needed and started making the dresses while our kids were playing together.
That way the girls got to have a play date and we could make their costumes.
These adorable tulle dresses can be used for halloween, carnival or just to play dress up with friends.
It’s actually not that hard and you can add as many layers as you want.
So you can either make it just one layer or super fluffy with multiple ones.
You can find all the supplies needed on Amazon and you don’t even need fabric or sewing skills.
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What you need
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Roll of Tulle in the color of your choice (or multiple colors)
- Crochet top in the color of your choice
- Some cardboard or other hard material
- Satin ribbon if you want to add straps on the shoulders or bows
- If you don’t like to make your own bows you can buy already made bows
I bought one full roll of tulle in each color and have a lot of material left over.
Since this dress was made for a small toddler you will also have enough material on a roll to make a dress for a taller child or even a short tutu for yourself.
Or you could just make two dresses for your little princess.
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How to make it
First you need to measure how long the dress is going to be.
To find out how long the tulle needs to be measure your kid from the hip down to the feet or knee depending if you want to make it a short or long dress.
Then cut a piece of cardboard in the length you just measured.
For my daughter, it ended up being about 12 inches and I used an old piece of the blind but all those leftover amazon boxes are the perfect material for that too.
Take your roll of tulle and start wrapping it around the cardboard with the beginning on one end of the cardboard otherwise you’re gonna have some extra wasted material.
It’s gonna end up looking something like this:
Wrap it around a few times – you will need a lot of tulle material.
I used two colors for my kids dress so you will have to do this multiple times with both colors.
Then cut on ONE end only.
Preferably the end where you started so you don’t waste any material.
You should end up with a bunch of pieces twice the length you measured.
Now it’s time to attach them to the crochet top.
Leave the pieces folded in half and start with the first row on your crochet top.
Push it trough one of the holes and open up the folded end so you can push the rest of the tulle trough to make a knot.
Repeat the process on the first row of your crochet top in EVERY OTHER hole.
Once you’re done with the first row and you are satisfied you can leave it like that or work your way up to the second row where you start in each hole you left out in the first row below.
Adding more rows adds more layers and will make the dress really nice and big.
Once your done with your layers you can add decoration to the dress.
For my daughters original dress I added satin ribbon in the front and as straps on her shoulders.
We tried going for a rapunzel (tangled) kind of style.
Of course you don’t have to add any decoration – just the plain dress itself looks beautiful as is.
Or you can go for a short dress in the front and make it long in the back.
The possibilities are endless.
Extra tips:
- Other decorations that can be used on the dress could be fake flowers, gems, more tulle, felt, buttons and pretty much anything else you can find in your crafting supplies.
- If you use a crochet hairband instead of a crochet top you can easily just make a tutu without the top part. (Everything else in the tutorial is done the same way) Those hairbands are about half the length of the crochet tops.
- The Crochet tops are see-through so you should either add a layer of fabric (if you can sew) or wear it with a onesie or shirt.
Did you ever make a dress like this?
I would love to see your photos! (You can send them via email)
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