DIY Wonder Woman Costume – Make a Tutu

Every year I wonder if this is going to be the year my boys and their cousin decide not to coordinate their costumes, but this year wasn’t it. Curlycue was pretty clear that she wanted a tutu, but otherwise happy to be a superhero with her cousins, especially if it meant she got to have a cape. So we showed her several superheros to choose from, and this girl decided she wanted a Wonder Woman costume. Alrighty then!

The costume breakdown:

• Cape, same as this cape I made, but in red
• Top – Blank Tank pattern, sized down 2 sizes in width but not length.
• Applique on T-shirt made from the image on this page
• Tutu – see below
• Belt – a gold ribbon
• Boot covers – the easiest ever. Cover rain boots in plastic wrap, then cover in duck tape. After Halloween the covers are easy to cut off the boots and the boots can still be worn on rainy days with no sticky tape residue.
• Lasso – a length of gold cording purchased in the trim section at the fabric store
• Tiara and cuffs – glitter foam. The tiara has elastic on the back, sewn on like in this post. The cuffs have Velcro on them. The stars on both were more duck tape
• Stars on tutu – peel and stick glitter foam

 

To make a tutu – cut a whole lot of strips of tulle. We bought 3 yards of it and cut into 15″ long strips for 3 year old Curlycue.

Cut a strip of elastic 1″ less in length than the child’s waist measurement. Zig-zag or glue ends together. I used 1″ elastic because that’s what I had on hand, but 5/8″ wide would probably work better.

Fold tulle strips in half, holding near the fold to form a loop. Then place the “loop” behind the elastic. Feed and pull the ends of the tulle through, forming a knot around the elastic.

I’m demonstrating with one strip of tulle here, but to make the tutu you’ll actually want to layer 4-5 strips and knot them all together. Continue knotting tulle around the elastic and pushing the knots close to each other on the elastic until you have a nice fluffy tutu.

Now we’ve got a trio of superheros ready to save the world!