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If you want to know How to Make a Tutu for Ballet - you have come to the right place. For a party tutu go to Romantic Tutu. For a Halloween tutu go Frills! In the process of creating one page for fun tutus for parties and Halloween.
Thanks for the many requests! If you need a little help in understanding how to make a tutu ... I will lend my best personal advice!
A tutu should be the physical embodiment of visual splendor for the audience and provide delight and elation for the dancer. A tutu should capture the essence of the ballet and enhance and reflect the beauty of the dancer. Costuming for the ballet is an endeavor which stretches far beyond the creation of a tutu.
The definition of a tutu is broad, though it is generally applied narrowly. The modern concept of a tutu is the Balanchine/Karinska "powder puff" tutu. Balanchine is considered to be the father of American Ballet and as surely as he deserves that title a woman known simply as "Karinska" deserves the title of mother of ballet costuming.
Before the Balanchine/Karinska tutu the most common tutus were those that can be seen in many of the paintings of Degas or for a shorter tutu the pancake tutu was popular, although difficult to partner with its hoop and difficult to control for the dancer.
Boing! It kept reverberating long after the dance was through dancing!
Varia Karinska
Varia Karinska was born in Russia in 1886 in the Ukraine to a successful textile merchant. Russian embroidery was an art form filled with detailed shades and colors of varying texture of stitches -- some tiny and fine and others broad and rough. This was Karinska's artistic medium as a child. She studied law at the University of Kharkof and married the Attorney General and Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Petrograd, (St. Petersburg).
After the Bolsheviks seized power Nicholas Karinsky escaped to New York, leaving his family behind and saving himself. Karinska and her daughter escaped to the Crimea before relocating in Moscow. Ultimately, she made her way to Moscow where, in order to support herself she embroidered pillows, napkins, bags, table cloths, and ran an embroidery school. She used painted fabrics and appliqués of silk chiffon in her work; she achieved some notariety as an artist in this medium. Her business grew to include embroidery lessons an ultimately expanded to include a hat and dress shop with occasional antiques.
The new government suggested that Karinska become the Commissar of Museums. With the government's permission Karinska travelled to Germany -- ostensibly to educate herself for this new post, however, it was not her intent to return to Russia. She took her jewels, her fourteen year old daughter, Irene Francois, and her orphaned nephew, fifteen year old Lawrence Vlady, and left not for Germany but for Brussels where her father lived. Karinska then left for Paris. Here she found work using her skills of sewing and embroidery.
A newly formed ballet company, the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo requested she make ballet costumes for their first ballet, Cotillon. The sets and costumes were by Christian Berard and the choreography was by a fellow Russian, George Balanchine. Berard, who was an artist, set designer and photographer, would provide a general sketch, an idea, but it would be Karinska who expounded upon the concept, modified it, chose the fabric, quality and quantity, and decided how the concept would be implemented. She was their interpreter.
Karinska, Balanchine, and Berard would study the dancer and collaborate on the concept, however, it would be left to Karinska alone to reduce the image, the concept, their agreed vision to reality. Karinska became in Paris, the premiere interpreter of the costume for the ballet. Berard prepared covers for Vogue often.
Karinska in Business
In 1932 Karinska opened her shop in Paris. Karinska costumed Balanchine's six ballets in Paris before he left for New York. In 1936 she left her Paris shop to her daughter Irene while she went to London to costume for the Ballet Russes seasons at Covent Garden. There she opened another dress shop.
In New York Balanchine opened the School of American Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein and began the American Ballet Company, though it soon closed. In 1940 Karinska briefly opened a couturier shop in New York on 56th Street and lived above the shop.
Gypsy Rose Lee believed Kararinska understood the impact of her performance and enhanced her ability to deliver her unique style of burlesque to the audience. She then created the costumes for Rodeo on the cheap using cretonne as an exposed fabric. Something not previously done. She had also been the first to use horsehair as an exposed and finished fabric. The theater community understood that Karinska would charge them inflated prices so she could design for Balanchine on the cheap.
The Birth of the Balachine/Karinska
Powder Puff Tutu
With a large assembly of dancers on stage -- as was often preferred by Balanchine, the pancake tutu with its wired layer, would bob and dip when the dancers' skirts brushed up against one another and this bobbing and dipping would reverberate long after the steps were complete.
Shortening the skirt made the tutu layers self supporting and allowed the dancer's legs to be fully visible. This is why a hoop is not typically needed in the true Powderpuff Tutu.
The Balanchine/Karinska tutu had six or seven layers of gathered net, each layer a half inch longer than the preceding layer. They were short and the alignment was fluid and inexact. The layers were tacked together to allow the fluffy, loose, ephemeral look to float over the dancer's legs and descend from below the dancer's waist. This is the tutu that little girls dream of, that inspires them to dance. This tutu, more than any other, has come to symbolize our notion of ballet. It has become ballet's icon. This is the Balanchine/Karinska Powder Puff Tutu.
It was this union of Balanchine and Karinska that made a standard of ballet, a new look in 1950, a classic now, known as the Balanchine - Karinska - tutu. Because of its similarity to a powder puff it was called the powder puff tutu. The Symphony in C tutu prototype debuted upon the stage worn by forty dancers. Balanchine said, "I attribute to her fifty percent of the success of my ballets to thoses that she has dressed."
The seventy-five Balanchine ballets Karinska dressed have been her most notable accomplishment. She was an established implementer of costumes and designer of costumes before she came to the American Ballet. At the age of sixty-three in 1949 Balanchine asked Karinska to design costumes for Fouree Fantasque. In was in 1956 in Balanchine's Allegro Brillante, that Karinska created another ballet standard that dancers today simply take for granted: the knee length chiffon ballet dress.
Allegro was a ballet of speed and that speed was enhanced by the silk chiffon which molded itself to the dancer and flew behind the dancer -- trailing in soaring diaphanous velocity importing the concept of allegro to the audience not only with the choreography and the dancer but with the reinvented dance costume of chiffon by Karinska.
The pancake tutu with the wire hoop had a life of its own. Balanchine wanted a tutu that followed the dancer's moves and did not detract the eye to the tutu from the dancer and reverberate after the dancer's movements. The construction of the powder puff tutu with its loosely tacked layers which supported one another and was not supported by the wire, eliminated the need for the wire. Karinska demonstrated that she understood she knew how to make a tutu ... and in more than one way!
Powder Puff Tutu before Karinska
Harriet Hoctor was a burlesque and vaudeville dancer of the 1920's and 1930's. She participated in a ballet dance form known as "toe tapping." Toe shoes were fitted with steel toes and shanks. She performed on Broadway, at the Hippodrome in London and in film. She would amaze audiences with a backbend while doing bourees en pointe. She zipped through pique turns at fantastic speed. The first powder puff tutu was actually worn by Hariett Hoctor in the Ziegfield Follies. Harriet had always known how to make a tutu but it was this new, short, puffy, sexy design that was so unique and set her apart.
Since Balanchine choreographed for Harriet Hoctor it can be presumed that he had first seen this type tutu in the 1930's. Though it was the American Ballet and Karinska which made this the standard for all ballerinas and the tutu to which little ballerinas everywhere aspire.
Karinska was known as the premiere costume designer in this country. Her husband abandoned her in Russia where he was a man of great importance during the revolution and turmoil that followed. Eventually, he immigrated to the United States. The young woman who made her way with her only skill, the embroidery of the Russian noble woman, became well known is this country and much revered while her husband ended his days driving a taxi on the streets of New York City. Sadly, however, it is said she was in love with Balanchine who never returned her love with love, only with admiration. It's a story -- I do not know whether it is true. See: New York Ballet Costume Shop website.
I have been contacted regarding Karinska's husband from Russia and his post-revolutionary life in New York. The suggestion has been made that the interpretation given is not a fair one. I have offered an entire webpage for his descendants to post their version of the Karinska life and will get it posted as soon as it is received. I will post their images and their story as they relate it. 3/15/06. I continue to await their forwarding of the information.
Tutu for Your Family's Heirloom
It is the powder puff tutu more than any other symbol of ballet that little girls cherish. Mothers often begin attaching net to elastic for these little ones when they are first beginning to walk. There are children born who simply demand to dance and must have these tutus and as they grow their desire and need for tutus grow.
Making a tutu is not an impossible task and purchasing a tutu can at times be cost prohibitive, particularly for junior high girls who will outgrow them within the year. College students studying dance are often on a limited budget. Anyone can make a tutu. Although they look daunting and mysterious they are really made by the simplest of techniques. There is no question that their beauty is beyond compare and that is the reason they have come to symbolize ballet.
But there is much more to the tutu than meets the eye. The exterior ephemeral, delicate beauty should be supported by an interior that supports the dancer and the exterior while it absorbs the perspiration that is the inevitable result of the strenuous on stage performance. The aesthetic beauty of a tutu must be supported by construction which allows "give" in its application so that the dancer can move. A tutu is an enhancement to a dance and should never be a restriction.
Importance of Detail
When building a tutu it is easy to think the audience will never see the detail, and that is true the detail itself may not been seen but it is the cumulation of exquisite detail that the audience senses. Detail is essential, not just for the audience but for the dancer. Building a tutu is an act mostly of love. No one could afford to pay you for the time required to build an exquisite tutu.
Every dressmaker detail added such as cording studded with tiny seed pearls where the frills first meet the basque add an elegance that perhaps only those on the first few rows may see, but the sense of detail will carry to the last row and equally as important it was carry itself to the dancer. A tutu crafted with love for your favorite dancer is a gift not everyone can give nor everyone receive. It is special and it is an heirloom. If it is well made it should last for a hundred years and continue to be usable and wearable.
CHAPTER TWO
The Overall Construction of a Tutu
This site assumes the goal is to construct a professional tutu. That goal can be achieved on the first attempt. However, some may prefer to use inexpensive fabrics for a trial run if they are unsure of their sewing skills. Others may be making a costume for a child with an eye toward constructing a professional tutu later.
Sewing is like cooking, there are very few mistakes which cannot be undone. However, there are some essentials in sewing. A seamstress’ tools are as important as any craftsman’s tools.
The timeline (see graphic linked below) given is for the construction of a professional tutu. It is important to note, time is the asset of the greatest value in tutu construction. The use of less expensive fabrics will not reduce the time and effort involved in the construction of a tutu.
The embellishment of the finished product is unquantifiable in terms of time and effort. However, the finished embellished tutu is never directly related to the quantity of time input. Some finished tutus can be elegant and simple and some can be overdone and garish. Good taste and appropriateness for the dancer and the ballet govern all embellishment decisions.
Your Tools
Scissors: The first and foremost necessity is at least one pair of proper fabric cutting scissors. A tutu can be made with this single pair of scissors. Never cut paper or thread with these scissors. Use them only on fabric. These are not inexpensive but they are essential.
Fabric Cutting Scissors: A seven inch dressmaker scissor is best for cutting fine fabrics with a slight serration. For regular weight fabrics straight edge scissors of roughly seven inches are best for tutu design.
Embroidery Scissors: These will be very helpful in working to rip out the inevitable mistakes, particularly on delicate fabrics. A three and a half inch curved embroidery scissor with extra narrow blades works best. During the embellishment phase embroidery scissors are essential.
Seam Rippers: Never use a seam ripper on net or fine, thin fabrics such as silk. Seam rippers will tear the net or the silk no matter how careful you are. There is something known as a seam picker. They come in various sizes and can be quite helpful when used in conjunction with the embroidery scissors.
Thread
Different jobs require different threads. For gathering the heaviest duty that your sewing machine will accomodate is essential. Never use polyester thread. Use either silk on silk or cotton.
Ruffles require the use of the strongest thread. Coates and Clark Extra Strong Hand Quilting Thread is easy to find and ready available and works well for this purpose.
Johnson Ruffling Machines will save you a great deal of time and can be purchased in the $300.00 range. Also, the Singer Featherweight has a ruffler attachment! I love mine, love, love, love it!
Silk bodices require the use of silk thread. Cotton thread works fine for seaming and applying elastic.
Never, never, never use polyester, single ply cheap thread. This thread breaks easily, stretches when it should remain stable and can create puckering of your seam. Just don’t use it. Also, if dyeing will be involved polyester thread does not accept the dye.
Boning
Boning is used for the bodice. There are two major categories of boning: flexible polyester boning that can be cased or sewn directly into the bodice or bodice lining is one type; another is metal cased boning. It requires special cutters that cut it in a rounded edge and metal overlays can be purchased that snap on to the metal boning to keep the boning from poking through the fabric. The boning chosen will be a direct result of the experience of the seamstress.
Cased boning is for the more advanced seamstress. Polyester direct sew in boning is best for the novice seamstress. Boning is sold by the yard in the notions section of the fabric store. While boning is not used for the tutu skirt it will be used if a bodice is attached to the tutu.
Tutu Closings
Corsett hooks and eyes are the best inexpensive method for closing the tutu.
Professional basque fasteners can be purchased. These are flexible fastener with a five disc closing system in nickel and typically cost less than five dollars. Hand made spoon basque type fastener that curve cost five times as much. Do not use a zipper. They break easily, there are varying qualities but if it breaks the opportunity for it to break at a critical time (just before going on stage) is much too high. Have you ever sewn a dancer into her tutu? I have but ONLY when a zipper was used.
Miscellaneous Sewing Accessories
Use the longest pins you can find. Pins come in different lengths and widths. The longest thinnes pins are the most versatile. Buy appropriate needles for both your machine and for handwork. Use the finest needles on silks and broader needs to attach the frills. Be certain to change your machine needles if they become dull.
You will find tailor’s chalk and indispensible tool. Use white chalk on black and blue chalk on white and pale colors. A dressmaker’s tape measure is essential.
Two good clean tea towels make a good pressing cloth where one is needed.
Measurements
Before cutting fabric take the dancer’s measurements. Measure the waist, the upper hip, the lower hip, and the stride. When taking measurements remember that the foundation of the tutu, the lycra lining must fit snuggly. The dancer must feel secure in the tutu. The outer fabric can have a bit more give. How a dancer feels in the costume is as important as how the costume looks. The interior of the costume should fit like a second skin and serve as the foundation for the outer costume which will have more ‘give.’
A close fitting ease allowance allows 1 7/8ths inch to the total measurement. A 34 inch upper hip would be 35 7/8ths total width.
A good seam allowance is 5/8ths of an inch. This means add 5/8ths inch added to both sides of each seam. See the measurement guide to the right.
Halloween Costume
If you are interested in a Halloween Costume please see the section on child's easy costume: http://tutuinfo.com/frills It's easy and there is no need to have a stage quality tutu for Halloween!
Time Involved in Tutu Construction
Obviously, the time involved here will vary greatly. (See Time Line below.) The most important point for you to take away from this timeline is the fact that this is a labor intensive process. Rushing it might provide a few additional moments at completion time but may well compromise the quality. There is no great gain in rushing the completion. The best approach is to understand the depth of the time investment you are making.
If you are diligent the time lines are as follow:
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You can press cut the net in an hour and a half.
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You can sew the lengths in 45 minutes.
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You can gather in three hours.
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You can attach the frills in 1.5 to 2 hours.
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You can make the upper basque in 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.
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You can join the upper and lower basque in 30 minutes.
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You can lay the net over the finished tutu and cut your plate in 20 minutes.
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You can fit the plate on the dancer in 15 minutes.
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You can hand join the frills and hand attach the plate in one hour. | 
