Photography DIY – Tulle Skirts

Not every woman owns a beautiful flowing gown but from a very young age most of us have loved dressing up to look like a princess or our favorite character from a storybook or movie. Whether you’re looking to create a special skirt for an event or a costume, tulle is the in demand fabric and looks great. I use tulle skirts for photo shoots and paired with the right top, they make my clients look and feel like a princess.

After doing a number of these, I decided it was time to share this how-to so you can make your own long or short tulle skirt for yourself or for your daughter to wear.

Here is a list of supplies you will need:
Tulle
Ribbon
Scissors
*I use my dress form or studio mannequin to work from but you can use a chair back or other appropriately sized item when adding the tulle to the ribbon.

Measurements will vary depending on the type of tulle and width of the fabric. When creating a princess skirt for a little girl, many people will use the craft tulle that comes in rolls 6 inches wide as it is easier to work with. The size and length of your skirt will determine how much tulle you need to buy. You need to begin by measuring from the waistline down to the length you want the bottom of the skirt to be. A short skirt will take much less material but the process of creating the skirt is the same.

For example, I wanted to make this something a woman up to 5’9” could wear and have it reach all the way to the floor. For a shorter woman, there would be extra length, but in a photo-shoot that is fine. With that in mind, I set my measurement from where her waistline was to the floor and got approximately 45 inches. I doubled that number, as I will be folding the piece of tulle in half, and used 90 inches as my measurement for each strip of tulle.
I found knowing exactly how many yards of tulle to purchase the hardest thing to determine and I did have to get more tulle after my first attempt as the skirt wasn’t as full as I wanted. How big the waist is of the person wearing it is also going to come into play. I found that for the full length skirts, figuring a 28 to 30 inch waist, I used approximately 45 yards of tulle.

The next step was determining the waist size. I wanted to make this so it was adjustable and could be worn smaller or larger than the 28 waist measurement so I used ribbon. By cutting the ribbon twice the length of the waist measurement, I can adjust the fit easily by adding or removing tulle and for smaller waists I just have a longer bow in the back that can be hidden inside the fabric.

I tied the ribbon around my mannequin leaving it loose enough to tie the tulle over it as I added material for the skirt. I chose to tie the tulle onto the ribbon by simply folding it in half lengthwise and looping the ends through the loop it forms.

After you have all your tulle tied on the ribbon, it’s a little bulky at the waist line but depending on the type of top you use you can tuck inside the skirt or use a waist cincher to smooth the waist line.

I was able to make two skirts in one day with a total material cost of less than $50 per skirt. The skirts have been very popular with clients looking to do something a bit different in their sessions and I’m planning on making more for some upcoming projects.

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