Learning To Love Pink and a DIY Ballet Skirt

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that Amaani loves pink. You've also probably figured out that I'm not a big fan. The truth is I'm not remotely interested in anything girly, and I'm honestly surprised to find that my daughter is quite the opposite.

My daughter has been asking to go to ballet class for the last few months, but I've been hesitant. Visions of buns and strict dance teachers and drama and pink frills (literally) danced in my head. As a compromise  I finally decided to put both kids 'creative dance.' We got to our first class a bit early, and a I realized the class before ours was beginning ballet. No less than a dozen tiny toddlers in leotards and frilly skirts walked by us as we waited. Amaani looked at me and asked "Mama, where's my skirt?"

A few hours later I got an inquiry about doing a post for Disney's newest Tinker Bell movie-- The Pirate Fairy-  and one of the themes was "nurturing your children's talents." It made me think... I always thought that my little girl would be nerdy and bookish like me, that we'd spend our time building with legos and perfecting our marble runs. She does all that and more... so shouldn't I embrace her pink? After she went to bed, I got to sewing. And when she woke up the next morning, she had a pink tutu waiting for her.

The skirt is a simple circle skirt made from 4 layers instead of one. The best circle skirt tutorial on the web is this one from Dana of Made, so if you run in to trouble, you can check that one out as well.

I used about 2 yards of tulle, and elastic the size of my daughters waist. I created a pattern using Dana's tutorial above, and cut out 4 "donuts" out of the tulle.

 Then I pin basted the 4 layers together and treated them as one piece of fabric.

Then just slap some elastic around the waist and omit the hem. It was finished in less than an hour.

After I showed it to her we did our hair...

and danced...

 and danced...

and danced!

Sometimes the first step in nurturing your child's talents is fully embracing them for who they are... pink and all.

You can learn more about The Pirate Fairy on the Disney Fairies Facebook Page! You can also own it on Blu-ray and DVD on April 1st (order here). Maybe it will inspire you too :