best friends and tutus

i'm not sure i know many 20-something females that can say that a common bond shared between their best friends is a bunch of tulle and whole lot of twirling... yes ladies & gents, i am talking about tutus. after my best friend and i graduated from university, we decided that the best way to embrace an ending of an era would be to get together at her family cottage and make tutus. we went a step farther to photo-journal "all the things you can do while wearing a tutu"

we provided endless entertainment (and perhaps a little embarrassed wondering) to her parents as we pranced around the island and in the boat rides in our tutus.

the best part of this little story is that the fun did not stop on that one awesome weekend at the cottage. we proceeded to create a tutu for our other girlfriend and wore them to the Britney Spears concert in Hamilton, ON Canada (August 2009) to celebrate kat's 23rd birthday...

tutus are a wonderful addition to any girl (or guy's) closet at any age. since our first adventures i also created a spirit tutu to show off my Gryphon pride when i worked at the University of Guelph. i wore this tutu to every conference, RLS training/event and even in the office for fun. it's not every day you walk into work and see someone wearing a tutu - and that's the best part of it! just have fun and embrace your inner child some days, rock the tutu.

so wanna make one of your own? it's easy.

Materials Needed:

* at least 1 metre of each colour of your choice. the more tulle you have to work with the fluffier it will be
* elastic band (found in the sewing section of any store)
* tape measure
* scissors

#step 1: measure around your waist to cut the appropriate amount of elastic band for your waistband. tip: leave an extra inch or two to compensate for tying the knot.

#step 2: cut your tulle into strips. no particular measurement required - it's up to you if you want to have tiny strips or big chunky ones in your tutu.

#step 3: once your strips are all cut, you're going to attach them one-by-one to the elastic band by using a loop knot. not sure what that is? my BFF gave a great analogy for this: it's the same loop knot you would use to tie your bathing suit to the pool fence. where you make a half loop with the material folded in half, go underneath the elastic, and then pass the remainder of the material through the loop.
Here's a helpful YouTube link to show you what i mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AClxhwSGjGQ

#step 4: have some fun mixing up the colours, layering and adding whatever extras you would like (like ribbons, flowers, etc.)

<3 awaLL