Cake Stand Tutu

I saw my dream ballerina cake on Pinterest. I knew I couldn't do all of the beautiful fondant work, but I figured that I could pull off a fairly respectable Cake Stand Tutu.  But, how?

Isn't this just pink perfection?

I searched for tutorials on DIY cake stand tutus. Hmm... lots of people seemed to like them, but no one was sharing how to make them.

So, I made it up myself. Here's what I did.

First I knew I didn't want a large Styrofoam wreath as the basis for my tutu so I had to think of some other way to make a tutu.  Love & Sugar Kisses blog had a  great post on how to make a long, flowing cake stand tutu that I considered following.

I didn't use her instructions mainly because I don't own a hot glue gun - and her warning about burning your fingers made me a tad nervous. Besides, I wanted a puffy tutu like the one in the picture.

I bought a  10 " embroidery hoop for $3. I bought a 25 yard  roll of 6 inch tulle on sale for $2.50 and began to experiment. At first I thought I could get away with just stuffing tulle between the two piece of the hoop.

 

It didn't quite look right, but it was easy.

 

I separated the two pieces of the hoop. I happened to use the outside piece with the clamp because my daughter was playing with the inner loop. (I think the inner loop might have looked better because its a little smaller.)

 

I cut lots and lots of 9" strips of the tulle ribbon. Thanks to Treasures for Tots blog for the quick tip for cutting lots of strips of tulle!

 

 

Next I began tying the strips around the embroidery hoop.

I folded a strip in half and laid it over the hoop

 

Then I pulled the ends through the loop I had made.

 

 

Then pulled the ends tight to create a knot.

 

Then I repeated it over and over again until

 

it looked like this.

 

I cut a bunch of 4 inch lengths and tied them together with a ribbon to cover the screw.

 (You wouldn't need to do this if you use the inner hoop.)

 

I love the way it came out. I can't wait to see a cake on it!

 

I used about half of the spool of tulle and one of the rings of the embroidery hoop. The materials cost $5.50. It took about 30-45 minutes to tie all of the knots. Who knows? I might make another one night while watching a half hour show. It wasn't hard at all.