The Belle of the ball!

At last I can show you the Beauty and the Beast inspired ears! (Now the birthday girl has seen them)

They’re made in gold sparkle fabric with a gold sparkle hair bow and a small added detail of a red rose. Simple and elegant!

I also made a pretty Beauty and the Beast movie quote frame to go with it.

  

I’ve got a custom order of some Tinkerbell inspired Minnie ears to do and hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze a few other characters in and add them to the blog soon!

custom orders are more than welcome - just send me or Laura an email at thetutufactory@hotmail.co.uk 

Behind the magic!

Everyone wants to be a princess!

So this weekend was THE weekend I got to dress up as Rapunzel again! My awesome friend had a Disney themed 30th birthday party so we all made a big effort with our outfits! I’ve been Rapunzel before but I wanted to do the flower plait hair this time. Everyone loved it and it was actually quite easy to do. If you fancy having a go yourself – read on!

What do you need?

• I used two and a half sets of clip in extensions but the half was for the plait detail so two is enough if that’s easier/cheaper!
• extra clips to go on the top clip in section, just so there’s more to hold on to your hair. I didn’t feel the usual 4-5 was enough.
• Bobbles and grips! Lots of grips! I used one normal bobble to secure the second set of clip ins to the top. Some clear thin bobbles to tie the small plaits at the end
• Artificial flowers/Paper flowers. I do have lots hanging around in my studio so I didn’t need to buy any in. You can get cheap daisies from eBay and the rest of the flowers were from cheap corner shops.
• I also used some fabric glue and florist wire to add the smaller flowers and wrap around the hair to secure or add on to a grip.

I have a box full of different blonde clip in extensions so I had a few to work with. I washed them up as these were older ones. I usually use a fabric conditioner to wash them as they aren’t human hair (also makes them smell amazing!)

I wasn’t sure how many I was going to use. I only ended up using two, it was already getting pretty heavy at that point anyway!

For the plaits I cut off a strip of hair with the clip on and plaited it. It was then clipped and sewn onto the top of the hair extensions. Only two were needed as I only used to sets of extensions.

Now it’s time to do the big plait!

I clipped the second set of extensions around the bottom and also secured it with a bobble. A daisy will conveniently be placed over the join so I didn’t need to worry about making it look nice and neat. I realised this after several attempts!

Originally, I was going to have it all plaited. But it got quite thin at the bottom and I looked at adding another set of extensions but it really added to the wait and I hadn’t even added the flowers yet! So I did choose comfort instead of costume correct-ness :(

 Oh, and I also added LIGHTS! They were small micro LED lights with a small battery pack that only has two watch batteries inside. I made a little pouch under the hair to hold to battery pack and also so I could turn it on and off.

Next it was just time to add the flowers!

                          

Feel free to get in touch with any questions or ideas!

May 2015 Fan of the Month - will you be next?

I have had this lady on my ‘Fan of the Month’ list for ages and I thought it was about time she was up!

Sian had an awesome fun and colourful wedding (as you can see from this beautiful picture of her amazing day) and she wanted some petticoats to go underneath her bridesmaid dresses to match their shoes and flowers to add that extra bit of colour! One of the girls was actually pregnant at the time as well but had no problem wearing the skirt thankfully with our elasticated waists. We made sure that one had a lot of give so she could feel comfortable and enjoy the day.

She had the Bride to Be tutus in neon pink, neon yellow and neon blue. All the Sparkle Toppings and frilled hem were the same colour to match. You can view this tutu here in the Bridal tutus section.

Will you be our next Fan of the Month?

You do?

All you need to do in send in any pic(s) of you, your friends or family etc. wearing any Tutu Factory product to WIN 50% off one item on your next order.

Don’t want another tutu? Well, you can always look like the best bridesmaid ever by buying the bride to be a little gift of a veil on her hen night. Or you could always get your little niece a tutu to start off her collection!

The 50% off one item can be used at any time, it doesn’t run out! Just send us an email when you’re ready to order, remind us of your winning month and we’ll send over an invoice for you.

How do I enter?

You can send in your photos in any way that you like. Add a post to our Facebook wall or a PM.

Email us at thetutufactory@hotmail.co.uk

Tweet us

tag us on Instagram @tutufactoryuk
Winners are announced on our Facebook page at the beginning of the next month so it’s best to be a fan of the page so you can see if you win!

Monster Roar

Adult Katy Perry Roar Set

We have a saying at the Tutu Factory when I (the designer) creates something that everybody wants and we're working silly hours to get the 100s of orders out. "We've created a monster." And with the Roar costume we certainly have! If you've seen any of my other blogs you'll see I love Katy Perry but I didn't set out to make her Roar set. A customer made a custom order to create the roar tutu skirt and I later decided to make one with the flowers and then see if we could make a top to go with it. I placed it on ETSY to see how it would do and here we are. Several hundred sets later and still going...

11-12 Year Katy Perry Roar Costume

3-4 Years Katy Perry Roar Costume

So we thought we'd let everyone see what work goes into making our Katy Perry sets. We don't have a team of people cutting, another sewing, adding detail etc. It's all done by hand, by 1 of 2 people. So yes, it won't be out within 24 hours but it's hand made especially for you so we like to think it's worth the wait.

Making the Tutu

We have 3 different greens to create Katy's jungle leaf tutu look. Each layer has 3 panels and we also have 2 layers of flashes in there too that have to be individually cut out at various lengths depending on the length chosen by the customer.

After cutting the individual layers each layer then has to be 'feathered' into the spikey leaf look!

Now the tutu is cut and ready to be sewn

And into the waiting queue they go! Each tutu has a label with the customer's name, waistband colour choice and sizes

Working out way through the jungle of tutus waiting!

Now it's just time to start adding the flowers and leaves onto the waist

Each flower and leaf is individually hand sewn on

And that's the tutu done! Now for the top...

Making the Top (Long Children's version)

We have made our own pattern for the top. This fabric is £25 a metre so it bumps the price up but it is the best stretchy leopard we've found (and we tried a lot!) So it's worth it!

Drawing around the pattern ready to cut out

The top is cut out by hand with scissors. No fancy shmansy machines for us :(

As most of the edges are left unsewn we have to make sure that the lines are super straight so they give a great finish! It's slow going but we'd rather they look as nice as possible. Then they just need to be sewn together and that's that one done! Just that one...

Now for the next one, and the next... oh, and the next one too.

 Hopefully, you've had an interesting sight into the behind the scenes of the Tutu Factory and how much effort really goes into one of our tutu sets!

New Beginnings

Well, I have decided that I shall be doing a weekly blog on what we're up to, new tutus, how our week has been etc. A bit of a tutu diary you could say! We're still in the early stages of our business so hopefully we can look back at some blog posts in a few years and remember the good old days!

We actually have staff now! Can you believe it? Our admin assistant started last week doing emails and phone calls, etc and we have a new machinist starting tomorrow. This should hopefully start freeing me up to add new products to the website, keep it maintained, work on new samples and more! Seems like we're getting busier and busier every week and as mental as it is right now and as exhausted as we are from working from 6am until 10pm at night I hope it continues. And now we have staff perhaps we might get a real lunch break here and there!

So... have a peek at some new tutus we've created over the past few weeks. These aren't on the website yet. Some may be added in the future while others may not. If you've found this blog by accident and want one of the tutus below just send us a message here 

This is our Daisy Days tutu set. Funky sunshine yellow cascade tutu with daisy detail on the front, matching plunge bra with matching daisy and festival daisy headband. Great for festivals, EDC and EDM outfits! Such a summery outfit!

Sunshine Tutu Set Daisy Costume

This is our cascade tutu with 6 foam roses on the front. Great for an 'outside the box' Alice in wonderland costume!

rose tutu alice in wonderland costume

We made a children's Alice in Wonderland tutu for a special party. Was in a rara style tutu with black ribbon trim edges, matching black bow and white net apron on the front with casino suit sequin detail

Alice in Wonderland Tutu Skirt

A different take on a Minnie Mouse tutu. Made in red sparkle net with black sparkle bow and frill trim. Polka dots are made of our white 'Angel' glitter fabric. So sparkly in real life!

Minnie Mouse Tutu Retro Style

We're currently having a play with some new Minnie ears ideas. These are some Sailor Minnie ears for any nautical nights out. Cute little anchor details in royal blue glitter fabric and a cute red vintage look hair bow. We're also doing some in stripes for a sailor theme as well as some leopard minnie ears. Photos will be up soon as the leopard ones look awesome!

Sailor Minnie Mouse Ears

Nautical Minnie Mouse Ears



Below are our Minnie ears in the 'Angel' glitter fabric with a white sparkle hair bow and a straight veil. Some people are preferring this straight veil to our cascade veil. Perfect for a girl who loves Disney but doesn't want anything too fussy!

Bridal Minnie Mouse Ears 

Minnie Mouse Veil

We were asked to make a custom bridal set with light up veil but it was also her 30th birthday. We love making custom tutus and tutu sets so we accepted the challenge! All the tiaras with ages on were quite expensive so I decided we could add the 30 ourselves with our glitter fabric like the Minnie Ears above and it worked out even better than we expected! The glitter fabric is so sparkly in real and photos don't really show how pretty it is. The tiara was also super glittery and with the white sparkle net mixed with neon pink net and LED lights it looked gorgeous! 

Hen Night Veil 30 Birthday Veil

Light Up Hen Night Veil