DIY TUTU DRAPES and TULLE DRAPES

Let me first say that I am sorry that I have not been on for a while. The last part of my pregnancy was interesting to say the least. Well that part is over and I am now a proud parent of a beautiful little girl! With that being said it leads me into my next post about drapes.

When I was re-doing the nursery from the little boys nursery to a little girls nursery the room took on a princess theme. I re-did an old dresser and night stand of mine in pink as well as change out the bedding. However, because I live in military housing I could not paint the walls. Actually, I take that back I can paint the walls but you have to either paint them back to white or pay a fee when you move out and it just something I am really not into so I wanted to make a small statement with the window treatments. In the nursery there are two very different shaped windows that would make it hard for me at least to decide on what style from a store that I would settle on. So I went to the infamous http://pinterest.com/ website and started looking up possible ideas for the window treatments for the nursery when I came across no-sew tulle drapes! There were a couple of pages that led to me to places where I could pay for custom made tulle drapes but not this MOMMY!!! If there is a will there is way!

The next will be the directions on how I made my no-sew tulle window treatments

Supplies You Will Need

 

Tulle (size, color(s), and amount will determine how long and how thick you want the look. I used both bolts (yardage) and spools)

 

Scissors or Pinking Sheers

 

Helping Hand (Optional- I was very pregnant making these so I had my mom help me)

 

 

This is the first window treatment I did. I bought all tulle at www.fabric.com which for me has a great selection of tulle. This tulle would be considered being bought off the bolt. Meaning if you went into a fabric store or fabric section your would see them on bolts with the other fabrics.  As you can see the colors I selected. I do suggest if you are not familiar with fabric.com or other online fabric stores that you actually go to a fabric store to see the tulle in person because buying online the colors may appear different on screen then what you are actually looking for. For this size window each panel is 4 1/2 yards. When I bought the tulle I bought it in 9 yard sections at (.99 cent a yard) so basically my mother an I cut each piece in half. I then took each panel and tied it directly to the drape rod. I experimented with multiple style knots but I settled on a simple slip knot (here is a link if you are not familiar with the knot http://www.ehow.com/video_4971036_tie-slipknot.html) . I will note on each piece one end is smaller than the other I made sure all my shorter pieces were in the back. I personally like the space between them but you can add more tulle or spread them out more it really is up to you. What I really like about these besides being inexpensive is how easy it will be easy to change them out so as her taste change so can the tulle (if that is what she is wanting).

 

The second window treatment I did I found on pinterest.com it was called a tutu valance and as you can see it looks like one big fluffy tutu. For this instead of buying the tulle on the bolts I bought the tulle on spools. You can find them most anywhere but I also bought mine at fabric.com because they had the exact same colors on the bolt as they did on spools so my colors match on both window treatments.I have included a picture of tulle on a spool for those who may not know what I am talking about. I also suggest that you make sure that you buy enough tulle for each project. This one I bought two spools of each color. They cost about $2.98 for each spool for the type I bought at fabric.com. This one consist of 5 colors so this did make this window treatment more expensive then the other but still more affordable than custom made drapes and much cuter than anything I saw in stores. The first two things you will have to decide on is what pattern of colors you would want and how long you would want each piece. Each piece I cut with the pinking sheers were about 4-5 inches. I then you used a simple slip knot (http://www.ehow.com/video_4971036_tie-slipknot.html) and tied each piece to the drape rod. I cannot tell you how pieces I tied to the rod but I can tell you that I used all my tulle and packed it all together for a really full look. Again play with look and see what you come up with! I had a lot of fun making these drapes. I will be still be adding something to these probably a sheer underneath these.


This is tulle on a spool most often you can find it as 6" x 25 yards