Today I want to explain the many uses of tulle in my blog post, but before I begin, I need to make my disclaimer statement. First, as an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Second, I belong to other affiliate marketing programs as well. Please read more about how affiliate marketing works on my Privacy Policy page.

Quite some time ago, I used my McCall’s fashion doll clothes pattern 4400 (shown above) to make the pretty purple seashell dress you see on my vintage 1977 Superstar Barbie below.

Do you see that cloudy white stuff at the bottom of her skirt? That’s called tulle. In Idaho, where I live, we say the word “tulle” the same way we say “tool” (as in, a hammer, a saw, and other tools).

It’s a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-sew material that offers the impression of lace without the detailed tatting-look that lace usually has associated with it (although it should be noted that modern lace isn’t usually tatted by hand, like it was in the old days; rather, a machine usually makes lace fabrics and trims these days).

I’ve used tulle for lots of different projects on ChellyWood.com over the years. It can be used as a petticoat layer under a skirt, to add fullness to the skirt’s fabric, for one thing. That’s what I did with this wedding dress project:

But it’s especially useful when you are making a ballerina tutu or an ice skater’s leotard, like you see here:

Just wrap it around a hair elastic (a rubber band), tie the tulle in a knot, and voila! You have a tutu:

Little girls love it on the outside of a dress, though, like you see in this bridesmaid’s dress:

See how it makes the outside of a dress look sort of filmy?

You don’t have to hem tulle, but when you do, it can make the edge of the tulle stand out. That’s what I did with this New Year’s celebration skirt, which fits Lammily dolls:

That skirt’s tulle is also glittery, which makes it even more festive, and children love doll clothes with a little sparkle!

I bought that red tulle with the sparkles already embedded in it; that’s not something I added myself.

But with the dress you see below, I gathered the tulle and added my own beads to create an unusual texture and lift to the skirt:

So as you can see, tulle has many uses in the world of doll clothing. It’s not just for tutus.

I’ve even used it in hat making:

Here’s an example of a wedding dress, from McCall’s fashion doll clothes patterns 4400, which uses tulle for the wedding gown’s veil:

Truthfully, you could use the tulle for the sleeves as well, but Barbie’s hands are made of hard plastic, which can rip the tulle at the sleeves if young children are dressing a doll. So keep that in mind.

But from that same McCall’s 4400 pattern, I was inspired to make this dress:

And although it looks as if they used lace for the ruffle at the bottom on the pattern’s cover art, I really like how mine turned out with the white tulle beneath the pretty purple seashell fabric:

Which brings me back to the beginning… Tulle is just fun to sew with!

I actually made a tutorial all about tulle, but that was quite a long time ago. Sorry it doesn’t have voiceover, but back in those days, I didn’t have video editing software…

Anyway, here’s that, if you’d like to learn more about tulle:

 

 

You may have noticed that I’m currently working on a very large project, to re-master those older tutorials so they will have voiceover. Technology has improved so much, over the years, that by providing a voiceover, it will allow people to employ translation tools, so people from all over the world can learn how to sew doll clothes by watching my videos. So eventually, I will add voiceover to the tulle video too.

That’s really all I have to say about tulle, but please leave a comment. Are there other ways to use tulle that I forgot to mention? Have you had some successes and /or failures with tulle? Do you have any advice for people who are just learning to sew–advice that will help them work more efficiently with tulle?

In case you haven’t heard, my Creative Spark class, “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” is available on the Creative Spark platform. You can sign up any time you want!

And don’t panic if it seems like too much to take on right now — sometimes our lives get really busy. I get that. But for any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to sign up any time soon. Just sign up when you’re ready.

If you’re interested in taking my paid course, you will pay a one-time fee, and there’s no specific time limit to access your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you.

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*ChellyWood.com earns money by linking to JoAnn Fabrics, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other online affiliate programs. Links provided above may be affiliate links. For a full list of my affiliate programs, and to understand how cookies are used to help this website earn money, please see my “Privacy Policy” page.

Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with the pattern company or companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly finds inspiration in the doll clothes designed by these pattern companies. To purchase patterns from Simplicity, McCall’s, Butterick, Vogue, or other pattern companies shown and discussed in this blog post, please click on the links provided here. These links below the “Disclaimer” section do not help raise money for this free pattern website; they are only offered to give credit to the company that made these patterns.