Tutu Ballet Bag Made from a T-shirt

 Ballet lessons are all the rage at our house right now and I couldn't be more thrilled.  Since we live in a small town that has limited extracurricular opportunities-this is a BIG deal for us.  I was sending Small Fry to ballet with her backpack to carry her shoes and drink in but it was unnecessarily big and not cute at all.  I wanted something that was perfectly girly to hold all the ballet accessories and this did the trick.  I was looking on Pinterest and saw reusable shopping bags made from t-shirts and a light bulb went on in my head: I could turn a kids t-shirt into the perfect sized bag for a little girl and I'm going to add a tutu.  This is super easy.  Let me show you how.
Start by finding a kids t-shirt or long sleeved shirt.  This one was a size 7.

 Turn the shirt inside out and cut off the sleeves.  Where you cut depends on how wide you want the handles to be.  My suggestion is not too wide and not too narrow either (because they will stretch out of shape so much faster that way).

 Now decide how large you want the bag.  Again this is your preference.  I made mine small because it is only going to hold ballet shoes.  This one was about 10" down from the front neck line.  Mark with dashes or a line drawn with chalk. Curve upwards at both side seams of the shirt.  Perfection is not required.

 Pin both t-shirt layers together and sew on your line.

 After you have sewn, cut off the remaining t-shirt just below your stitching line.

 Turn it right side out and press (if desired).

 Now to make the tutu.  I used this tulle that comes on a roll.  I found it in the ribbon section at Wal-Mart.  It cost about $3.00 and the roll had plenty to make 2 tutu t-shirt bags.

 Now to measure the tulle.  This was super non-precise (don't gawk at my simplicity).  I wrapped the tulle around the t-shirt bag loosely twice and then doubled that amount.   I sewed a basting stitch down one edge of this long piece and loosely gathered it.  Then I marked on my bag where I wanted the tutu to start (about 2" up from the bottom) and I pinned the tulle in place.  I placed the bag around the long arm of my sewing machine and stitched down the tulle.  Next I did a second layer of tulle the same way.  I guess I could have just done a super gathered extra long piece to start but I for some reason liked the idea of having two layers.

 And that is it.  So easy-I made it in less than an hour.

 And since I have a younger daughter that wants to do most everything like her older sister I made a second one (even though she is not old enough for ballet lessons yet).

 She loves it.  It is a perfectly frilly and cute bag for a little girl.