DIY Lace Ballet Flats

Another one of my beautiful friends will also be saying her I dos this year. She is a very creative and talented and like me, likes to look at something and see what its potential could be. Why settle for what you can find in a store when you can buy something and make it even better?

When she told me the other day she customized her wedding shoes and offered to let me share it here, I of course jumped at the chance and said HECK YEAH!

So without further ado, here is Rin's very own DIY lace ballet flats...

Ok, so these were pretty easy.  

I wanted my wedding shoes to be blue ballet flats, but I also wanted some lace incorporated to match the dress.  I couldn't find what I wanted in stores, so...I made my own!

Supplies:  Shoes (I used a blue faux suede ballet flat), Scissors, lace fabric, hot glue.

First get a general idea of how much of the lace you will use on one shoe and cut a rough amount. To be safe I suggest getting slightly more then you think you will need.

Then wrap the lace around the shoe and determine how you want it to lay on the shoe.

once you have your basic idea in your head, cut out the lace around the flower patterns so that the edges are the edges of the flowers.

 Time for hot glue!  On one shoe, I started with the top of the lace and worked around the shoe and did the bottom edge of the shoe last. On the other other shoe I started at the bottom and found that either way works.  

Once glued, trim the lace around the sole of the shoe and just like that you are done!

Easy easy!  And so pretty. :)

Her shoes turned out lovely! Thanks again to Rin for sharing some of her craftiness in my tiny corner of blog land!

March has definitely been a crafty month for me. In march alone I made a Doctor Who Tardis Top Hat from scratch, Tutu dresses which can be seen Here, an anniversary/birthday gift for the best boyfriend in the world, and a very special bridal shower gift for Rin and her future Mr. 

Now obviously the two gifts are very hush hush now since both Rin and said boyfriend are supportive and actually read what I post. I will be sharing with everyone else though as soon as the gifts are given. I'm beyond excited since I sincerely feel like these are my best works yet. 

Oh and I had every intention of posting about my beer bottles however the projects mentioned above were a lot more time sensitive and had to be completed first.

Until next time...

Candis 

No Sew Flower Girl Tutu Dress

I finally had the opportunity to document some beautiful craftiness! Yesterday my best friend Shenae and I spent the day buying tulle, cutting the tulle down into sections and putting together 2 of her 5 flower girl dresses. She is getting married this October and I feel so very special to be apart of her special day and getting to make these dresses with her.

Materials Need:
Tulle-I explain below how to figure out the amount needed.
1" no roll elastic band
Scissor- Do not try to use dull scissors! We learned this the hard way!
Fabric Measuring Tape
Ribbon of Choice
Any Accessories like flowers, bling, petals, ect.
And a crafty best friend to offer a helping hand! This is optional but made it more fun.


The first step is find out the measurements for the child who will be wearing the dress. Measure around the chest going under the armpits and measure from pits to where you want the dress to fall.  We decided to make two, the largest and smallest, to have a good idea of cost per dress. For the largest dress, we needed 27 inch chest and 34 inches long. The smallest dress would be 22 inches around the chest and 25 inches long.  Since you do double up the tulle, you will want to double the length of the tulle later.

Now this was my first time buying tulle in  a 54" inch by a yard for this project. We knew how much tulle was needed for the right length but not sure how much tulle we would need to go around. I originally thought maybe 2 knotted strips per inch so 27x2=54 strips. Now it is important to note that if your child will be wearing this dress very soon, to take away 2 inches from the chest measurements. This will make the elastic you are using fit snug. Since these dresses are for October, we wanted plenty of growing room and left the chests at 27 inches and 22 inches and also added quite a few inches to the length since we will be cutting off the excess about 1 or 2 months before the wedding. How much a child may grow between now and October is a huge mystery to me so Shenae and I wanted to be extra cautious. During our first visit we figured if 54 strips were needed for the larger dress and we get 9 6" strips out of our 54" bolt, 54/9=6. We would need then 6 lengths cut at 76.5" sections to make 54 strips at 6"x76.5". Now our length of 76.5 was including the growing room in length and in hind sight, we made this dress probably way too long but that is okay. If making this dress to be worn right away I would do  6 sections at 68" each since the length measure today was 34" from armpit to ankle.

Are your eyes glazing over yet? Bear with me because this is important experience gained when it comes to just how much tulle is needed. I could have just bought the 6" rolls but those are $5.99 a piece and whole lot more expensive in the long run.

After buying that much tulle and going home and making the dress, we did figure out we did not buy enough tulle. After another trip to Hobby Lobby,  I believe instead of 2 knots per inch, a better estimate is 3 to 4 knots per inch depending on how full you want the dress. Here is how the tulle should have been measure and cut the first time.

3.75 knots per 1" so 3.75x27=101 knots. Since you get 9 sections to knot out of 1 54" section of tulle 101/9= about 11 sections needed at 76.5 inch a piece. Now to break this down into yard. 11x76.5=841.5 inches needed over all. 841.5/36 inches=23.5 yards needed overall.

Shenae wanted to have ivory dresses with sections of gold so we decided to get a 1/3 of the needed tulle in gold so 23.5/3= 8 yards in gold and then 16 yards in ivory.

The 2nd dress I thought was 25" in the chest vs the 22" it really was so we bought more tulle then needed so I'll share the same calculations for a 25 inch bust dress with 60 inch length when doubled.

25"x3.75 knots=94 knots needed per inch. 94/9=10.5 sections 60" inch each. 10.5x60=630 inches in total. 630"/36"=17.5 yards.  We did a 3rd again of gold 6 yards of gold and 11.75 of ivory.

The math can be scary and some of you might opt to just buy the 6" tulle rolls but here is why you should not. The bigger dress at $1.29 for Ivory and $1.69 for gold cost just $35 and the smaller dress was $25. To get the same amount of tulle at 6"x 25 yards, you would need 8 rolls, 1 rolls is $5.99 making the total $54 when I paid $35 doing it with the bolt.

The most time consuming part was cutting all the tulle down. I suggest taping down your tape measure to a large table to help.

The tulle comes already folded in half, keep is folded in half and then fold it in half again the same direction to make it easier to cut. I had two bunches of tulle of each color for each dress and made sure that the piles were labeled at Hobby Lobby which went for which dress. Cut down the tulle bolt into the length you need for each dress. We did one at 76.5" and another 60".

You will now how large sections of your length x 54". Now this next part could be very difficult but I found a easy way to cut a large of tulle into 6" sections quickly. Unfold the tulle  so that is just folded in half once, the same way it came off the bolt. Then fold your tulle in half the the opposite way that it is folded on the bolt. Keep folding it this way being sure your side with the nice crease in it is matched up as closely as possible. Then measure it up against your table starting at the unfinished seam side and cut into 6" sections. the last section will be just 3 inch long but since this is the one with a folded seam, it will unfold to the right size. Repeat this process until all your tulle is cut into 6" strips.

Our first tulle roll. The first time we just rolled the whole darn section which is harder to keep in line. I got smarter by just making folded sections instead of rolling.

Shenae cutting the tulle into 6" strips while I took photos!

Here is the easier way we figured out later of folding vs rolling the entire section. 

Next is the easy part. Take 1" no roll elastic and measure out your sections and add 2 inches for gluing room. I did 29" which when glued left 27" and then 27" to make 25" chest band. And yes since this is no sew I did use hot glue to connect the elastic into a circle. Shenae was doubtful this would hold but if you pinch the glue sections together bending them slowly as is dries, it will leave the glued part flexible instead of hard. I also has Shenae yank on one end with me to test is the durability and it held wonderfully.

Take a chair back or something circular or even your leg to wrap the band around, pop in a movie and begin putting your tulle on the elastic.

We decided to do 3 white sections, 1 gold sections, 3 white sections, 2 gold sections and repeat this pattern to get the desired effect. Here is how to put the tulle on the elastic.

Take your strip and fold in half and find the very middle of the fabric where your loop is.

Pass the lopped section behind the elastic going downward.

Pull the tulle through your loop....

 ...making a slip knot....

.....and tighten.

It is important to make sure the knot rests on the bottom of the elastic and is tight but the elastic is not bunching. Continue adding tulle in whatever pattern you want until you run out of elastic.
You should have a ridiculously poofy tulle tutu at this point and it is going to look a little crazy but I promise this is okay.

As you can see this the poofy crazy mess. This is my bed  just FULL of tulle!

In a empty spray bottle mix up a bit of lotion of your choice and warm water and hang your dress somewhere you can maneuver. Start with your dress inside out first and begin spraying the dress and running your hands through it pulling down. Keep doing this all the way around until the top layer is all neater, flip the dress right side out and repeat. This will help with the static and tame the crazy layers going everywhere.  To make the dress easier to hang, you might want to tie some tulle strips for temporary straps around the band.

Take the ribbon of your choice and cut some to you preferred length with room to tie. Tie off the the waist section and straighten the bust area by pulling the tulle smooth under the ribbon. Add any flowers or bling to your hearts content and you are almost done!

I haven't done the permanent straps yet since I need to get the girls in the dress first but if you are adding straps now there are few options. You use tulle by making slip knots where you want the straps to start in front and then trying off around the elastic in the back or you can glue ribbon to the inside of the elastic or you can braid tulle and do the same thing.

This is a very lengthy post and if you made it all the way to the end, thank you! It sounds complicated but my bestie Shenae was even amazed at how easy this was once we got going and is very pleased with the results.

Please link back to me if you are going to share any of my photos or make your own and post about it or if you pin on Pinterest.

If you think this is awesome, wait until you see what I can do with beer bottles next week! ; )

Linking up to Homes A to Z Link Party.
Thanks!

Candis