I’ve already given away this lovely one-shoulder dress, which I made using the vintage Simplicity 4510 pattern, view three. And the tulle “tutu-style” overskirt is not a part of the actual dress, as you can see in the image above.

Instead, the tutu (made of tulle with a bias-tape-like waistband that ties in the back) is a separate item of clothing, from the one-shoulder pencil-skirt dress. So today I’m going to show you how easy it is to make a little tulle skirt like this, which you can use as a doll’s tutu or a petticoat under other, full-skirt or circle skirt dresses.

*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.

In the top image above, you can see that I didn’t quite have enough of my Christmas-tree red cotton fabric, so I cut two strips of the red cotton which were 1 inch wide by about 7 and 1/4 inches long. Then (shown in the image below), I sewed these together at the midpoint of the waist tie, using a 1/4 inch wide seam allowance.

So in the bottom section, my strip of fabric now matches the dimensions of the original Simplicity 4510 pattern for the waist tie: 14 inches long by one inch wide.

For your information, the tulle is about 5 inches wide and 14 inches long. If you’re sewing for a bigger doll, you’d want to use my re-sizing formula to increase the size of these garment pieces to fit your big doll. The same can be done for a smaller doll. (You can learn about my re-sizing formula in my classes; look in the area at the bottom of today’s blog post for more information on those classes.)

As you can see in figure 1 above, I gathered the tulle and then attached it to the top of the strip of cotton fabric, on the right side of fabric. In figure 2, I’m turning the strip of cotton up, so I can later enclose the raw edges of the tulle inside the waistband that I’m making with the strip of fabric at figure 4.

In figure 3, you can see that I’ve folded the ends of the waist tie in, before I whipstitch to close the raw edges of the waist tie inside itself. And then in figure 4, I’ve added straight pins, to help me hold the edges of the waist tie as I whipstitch to close off the folded fabric of the waist tie.

What you end up with is this.

It looks a lot like an apron, but instead of having cotton fabric as the “skirting” of the apron, you’ve got tulle.

And as I suggested in the opening of today’s blog post, you can use this tulle as a skirt overlay, like we see in the artist’s rendition, on the cover of the Simplicity 4510 doll clothes sewing pattern (view 3), or…

You could, if you have a good imagination, use the tulle as a petticoat under a dress with a skirt that has flare, like the lovely wedding dress shown in View 1 of the Simiplicity 4510 doll clothes pattern.

I mean, yes, it ties in back, which is kind of bulky, but I’m almost certain that the dress’s designer intended for the tulle overlay to double as a petticoat for the wedding dress.

And, of course, one doesn’t have to stretch the imagination too far, to also see it as a possible tutu, worn over the top of a bodysuit, like the ones in McCall’s Crafts 2686 doll clothes patterns for fashion dolls and the Butterick 6664 doll clothes for the Marie Osmond dolls.

Most of the commercial patterns I display and talk about here on ChellyWood.com are also available for sale on eBay. However, if you’ve never purchased a pattern on eBay before, it’s a good idea to read the article I wrote called, “Tips for Buying Used Doll Clothes Patterns on eBay.” It will save you time, money, and will likely prevent buyer’s remorse.

And by the way, if you use the links I’ve provided to make your eBay purchase, this website will receive a small commission, which helps fund the ChellyWood.com website, so I can continue to provide you with all the free patterns and tutorial videos offered here.

For more of my free tutorials, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel, ChellyWood1.

If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.

For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.

For any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

As always, feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s 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.