the secret to an adorable, as opposed to an ugly, tulle skirt

Buy one already made!

hahaha

I crack myself up :-)

~

In all seriousness

 I went through four

 -you read that right, four! -

attempts,

before I got a tulle skirt I was happy with.

I know, I said I was finished after my second attempt,

but I lied.

In an effort to save you four tries,

and lots of tears,

tortured texts to your sewing buddy and your husband,

and maybe even some sobbing

(Not that I'd ever sob and slobber over something so trivial as a *%$@#& tulle skirt...)

I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

Okay, two secrets.

Well.

Maybe three four.

First, it's going to take more tulle than you think,

and even for little girls, with little bellies,

72 inches around is not enough.

Nope, you need 108.

I used every bit of 9 yards  (of 54 inch tulle) for Lily's skirt,

and all but about 300 sq inches  of 9 yards (which, if you care, is 17,496 sq inches) for Lexi's.

Secondly,

borrow your friend's huge cutting mat if at all possible;

the fewer times you have to fold that *&%^$@ slippery invisible fabric, the better.

The third,

and perhaps most important secret trick is this:

you can not

- I repeat

not -

gather all of your layers together.

In order for the skirt to fluff properly,

you must have multiple layers - gathered, and sewn on -  separately.

I found 3 layers 

of 3 layers of tulle worked perfectly.

Claire - I am so soo sorry! Darn wind!  I will replace this picture as soon as I have one to replace it with, K? XO

There you have it!

All the best-kept trade secrets.

I mean,

I assume they are the best kept trade secrets,

because I sure didn't find that info in any of my searches....

Oh, wait - there's another one:

mark 'quarter points' on the tulle before you begin gathering it,

so that your (3 stinkin' yard long) piece of tulle will be somewhat evenly distributed throughout the width of your skirt. 

(I used safety pins to do this, as I figured it was the most visible, least permanent option)

Now, 

you have all of the best kept secrets.

You'll thank me.
Your sewing buddy will thank me,
your husband will thank me.....