and the winner is . . .

EVERYONE!  Eight people posted guesses on the blog or Facebook, and almost all eight guessed a tutu.  Okay, I'll be honest . . . brutally honest . . . I'm disappointed.  I was hoping to stump people, but clearly that was too easy of a guessing game.  The ease at which you guessed the  mystery item only spurs me on to try this guessing game again in the future with something even more challenging.  Someone mentioned that I should give the tutu away to the first person who guessed correctly.  Ha!  My "easy" tutu project actually took quite a while to do, so I'm keeping it all for myself.  (Actually, I'm keeping it for my daughter's birthday.  I'm pretty sure it would only fit over my left thigh - it's not exactly adult appropriate.)  However, maybe next time we play this little game I will think of something to give to the winner . . . perhaps a rotary cutter.  (Smile)  

As I mentioned, this is for my daughter's birthday - not for the twelve crafts till Christmas.  In December I found a super easy and VERY DETAILED tutu tutorial from Bethany at Vermillion Rules.  (Quick . . . say that ten times fast.  Did you do it?  That's a mouth full!)  Bethany is clearly a type A personality after my own heart because she puts soooo much detail in her tutorials.  If you have never made a tutu before and there's a kid in your life who might enjoy one, I totally encourage you to try it at least once.

I tweaked a few things from Bethany's directions because the truth is I don't really like to follow directions.  Whether it's cooking, baking, crafting or sewing, I'm not exaggerating to say that I never do it the way the recipes, directions, instructions or tutorials say.  I've always been that way . . . you can ask my parents . . . much to their dismay.

I'll give you a quick rundown of the tweaks I made just in case you actually care and want to try this little project at home.  

1)  Color order and choice - Bethany is pretty specific about the order of colors that she recommends.  I went with a much more random effect.  To be honest, the tutu is so puffy and wild I'm not sure if it really matters enough to put that much time into ordering and sequencing the colors.

2)  Length and width of individual tulle pieces - I didn't really go for symmetry.  I like the varied pieces that sort of jut out randomly in places.  It's like the tousled-hair-look for a tutu.

3)  Surprise . . . ribbons - I have a shoe box stuffed full of ribbons just waiting to find life in something, so I decided to give them life as they wave about in a dancing tutu.  I replaced one of the layers of tulle with a ribbon about every fourth set of tulle.  That worked out super because I think if I had all those extra pieces of tulle this tutu would have been way too puffy.  The ribbons add an extra pop of bright color, take out some of the tulle volume and add some different texture in the mix.  I like it!  

FYI - I just got introduced to this cool little product called Fray Check.  Hello . . . this is a little magic in a bottle.  I completely recommend putting Fray Check on the ends of the ribbons so that the fraying is in check.  (Sigh - I'm not as clever as I think I am.)       

So . . . thanks to everyone who took the time to humor me and guess the mystery item on FB or in the comments section.  I'm off to work on another crayon roll.

Also, if you have posted a comment/question on a past post, check back to that post for my response.  Thanks! 
Craft on!