Heart princess costume

Sorry, I just realized that I completely forgot to add the websites with the no-sew tutu tutorials ... so I just added them now.

This is a post I actually already started writing in February. (There are actually a couple posts still waiting to get finished.) So here it goes ...

In kindergarten they celebrate carnival each year in February. So, just like last year I asked my daughter what kind of costume she would like. Yes, I am not getting any smarter ... never ASK your kids what they want. SUGGEST something or you'll be sorry later. Well, she said that she wanted to be a HEART PRINCESS! Okay, but what IS a heart princess? She could not or did not want to explain that to me ... she just wanted to BE one! Alright ...
So here is what I came up with:


The costume consists of several bits which can be worn individually ... I figured that way I did not spend all that time "just" for a costume that is only worn once.

The main part was a tutu. Eversince I saw those no-sew tutus on the web I wanted to make one so this was the perfect excuse! :-)
So I got alot of tulle ...


When the package arrived I was a bit worried that the colors would not compliment each other. But in the end I LOVED the colors!!!

There are many many tutorials for making a no-sew tutu on the internet. Here are just a few

Cut out and keep
How to make a tutu
Grosgrain
Treasures for tots


What I learned from making it ... It is rather quick. However, you should use a good elastic! I used some low-price one and it ended up being almost completely stretched out just from tying the knots with the tulle. I think if I ever do this again I would probably try using a ribbon instead of elastic. That way you can tie it on kinda like an apron which would also make it really easy to make it larger when the child grows. I am not sure whether it would stay on like supposed to ... but I guess I would give it a try.

Of course once I had the tutu done I had to make a shirt that would go with it. I simply used a pink shirt that my daughter already owned. (I would have liked to use a dark red or white one but was not able to buy one in the short time I had left to get the whole thing done.) I simply used two strips of tulle to sew a ruffled heart on the shirt.


I love how the shirt turned out. I also took photos along the way ... so if anyone needs a tutorial I could make one. However, I think it is probably pretty easy.

Of course a princess also need accessories. I actually wanted to make a crown for my daughter. I saw those cute felt crowns ... but my daughter didn't want a crown. So ... well ... She also did not want to wear the tiara I offered. (I knew even if she would have agreed to wear it she probably would have put it away after a couple minutes anyway.) I asked whether a headband would be fine. Yes. I figured since she wears headbands sometimes at home that should work and would not make her feel uncomfortable. I used these headbands as an inspiration and came up with my own version:

Here is the headband modeled by "Lars, the bear". ;-)

I will not write a tutorial for this since I figure noone except for me will be as crazy to actually cover an old headband with red ribbon if you could buy a red one for very little money ... Seems like I have WAY to much time?! Unfortunately it only seems that way ...

I figured a princess should also have a veil. At least back when I was a child a veil was all a princess really needed! (Do things like that change?) My daughter was not too enthusiastic about the veil idea. So when I offered to either make a really long one, a shorter one, or a tiny short one .... she chose that tiny one. You can probably not even call it a veil ... the tulle pretty much just covers the hair comb ... but I think it does look cute! And one bonus - it definitely does not get in the way when playing!