DIY Angel Skirt

  We go to Fall Festival at our church every year, instead of Trick or Treating all evening.  Most of the time we try to dress up in a “theme” as a family, but budget wise, I am not willing to go and buy things for this to happen.

It either works, or it doesn’t.

  2 years ago we did a 50’s Family theme, it was so simple because I already had a skirt from college, Destiny’s 50’s outfit fit Avery, and the boys had the right clothes in their closets already!

The year after that we did Cowboys, Indians and a Horse, of course.

   I LOVE it when a plan comes together!!!!  You can see all the pictures here.

  This year, I have thought and thought and thought some more, but the theme thing is just not happening.   

   Avery was given a beautiful Egyptian costume that she will wear, Destiny wanted to be an angel last year already, after she spotted my photo props.  I strongly encouraged her to be an Indian instead, promising next time, she could be an angel.  I am keeping my promise! 🙂

Pax modeled these angel wings and halo for me when he was a baby.  How was this less than 2 years ago?

I had forgotten how BLUE his eyes were!

More angel pics here.

  Anyhow, I am not going to tell you what the boys are, because I am super excited about it!  Let’s just say inspiration hit me while looking in their closets. I will just have to wait and show you pictures afterwards!  At least the boys will match “themes” and so will Dale and I. Call me childish, but I just love dressing up for our church carnival!!  

  For Destiny’s Angel outfit to be complete, she needed some kind of dress or skirt to go with the wings and halo. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have anything white lying around for this time of year.  So, I decided to make something. I had my heart SET on a feathered skirt from waist to floor, dragging along as she walked. It was going to be BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  But alas, it was not to be so. {sigh} So, I did a tulle and sparkly tulle version instead.   

Here is what you will need for an angel skirt:

7 yards of tulle, cut into strips  {$7}

2 roll of glitter tulle (24 yards)  {$12}

8-20 feather or marabou boas (optional)  {Very expensive!}

Elastic headband or wide piece of elastic, sewn per waist size  {99 cents}

  Here is how I did it:

  I was making this for my 9 year old, so depending on your child’s height, these measurements will be different for you.  I just held a piece of tulle up to her waist, making sure it just hit the floor, then double that length.

  For Destiny, I cut tulle into strips 6 inches wide x 4 1/2 ft long. 

  I just folded my tulle bolt, and cut it first in 4 1/2 foot sections, then folded that in half the long way, cut in half again, folded in half the long way, cut in half…..and on and on until I had made strips out of the whole thing.

I ended up with 32 strips about 6 inches wide.

 Next, find the center of the long tulle strip.

Push it down through the bottom row headband hole, or if you are doing elastic, just wrap around the elastic band, leaving the tulle doubled. 

This creates a loop.

Now you are going to feed the rest of the tulle clear through that loop and tug tightly.

In the end it makes a tidy little knot, and you haven’t had to touch it with a sewing machine. Hallelujah!

 

Repeat this along the entire bottom row of the headband, or clear around your elastic waist band, until all the tulle is used.  I had almost enough tulle for one per hole.

  Next, I cut my glitter tulle roll into the same 4 1/2 feet lengths and fed them through in the exact same manner.  This time though, I added them to the next row up on the headband and spaced them evenly.

  I wish you could see all the sparkles! Just use your imagination…..    🙂

  Like I mentioned earlier, if I could’ve found affordable feather boas, my original plan was to make the ENTIRE skirt out of feathers in the same manner as I described, looping through the headband holes.   Unfortunately for me, most of the boas I found were $7.00 a piece and I would’ve had to buy 10+. YIKES!  I found the marabou version online for a $1.25 each, but with a ridiculous $15.48 for shipping, it was still more than I wanted to spend.

  I think even a few strips of feathers throughout the skirt would’ve been pretty. I am bummed that NO ONE has feathers by the roll, but still happy with how this tulle version turned out for my little angel.

  More pics to come after Fall Fest is over.

~T