Easy DIY Tulle Skirt with an Elastic Waistband for Kids

An easy DIY tulle skirt with an elastic waistband, sewn for my daughter's skeleton bride Halloween costume. Two layers of tulle, a wide elastic band and a zigzag stitch: one of the easiest things I've ever sewn.

Why make a tulle skirt yourself

A tulle skirt for a child is quick to sew, and it needs nothing more than a sewing machine with a zigzag stitch. Mine turned a painted skeleton top and leggings into a skeleton bride. You don't even need tulle by the metre: I reused the fabric of a ready-made skirt, because I couldn't find anything like it in my local fabric store.

How I made the tulle skirt

• Tulle: I unpicked a big ready-made skirt and reused its panels, 2 of 135 × 30 cm for the top layer and 4 of 110 × 33 cm for the lower layer, for a child 134 cm tall.
• Side seams: French seams, so the see-through tulle shows no raw edges.
• Gathers: two rows of long stitches (5 mm stitch length), pulled up to the hip measurement so the skirt slides on (76 cm → 38 cm per half, plus 1–2 cm).
• Elastic waistband: 3 cm elastic, cut to the waist measurement minus about 3 cm and sewn on with a zigzag stitch, stretching it to the width of the tulle as you go. I left about 1 cm of elastic showing above the tulle.
• Colour: I sprayed the black elastic silver to match the skeleton. The smell is strong, so do it somewhere well ventilated. After ventilating, the smell goes away.

What you need for a tulle skirt

• Tulle or a ready-made tulle skirt to take apart
• Elastic band 3 cm wide (2.5 or 3.8 cm work too) Find it ↗
• Silver spray paint for the elastic. Mine is Phimax, from a Chinese shop; the link is a similar silver spray Find it ↗
• Sewing clips instead of pins, which are easy to lose in the ruffles. Also handy for leather and other materials that pins leave holes in Find it ↗
• Janome 2030 DC sewing machine any sewing machine with a zigzag stitch works Find it ↗
• Singer Heavy Duty 4432 sewing machine Find it ↗