A first birthday party is one of the most memorable birthday parties and what mom doesn’t want to make that first birthday party memorable? One of my absolute favorite first birthday party ideas is a highchair tutu. It is the perfect way to make those first birthday party pictures pop. With simple instructions and no sewing required, you don’t want to miss this tutorial!
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First Birthday Party Highchair Tutu supplies needed:
1. Elastic band 1/2″ to 1″ thick and you’ll need it long enough to fit around the highchair
2. Two Rolls of Tulle, which were about 4-6″ wide
3. Sticky Velcro Squares to stick the highchair on the outside of the tray.
4. Decorative Ribbon is optional for the outside of the tutu.
First Birthday Party Highchair Tutu Steps:
- Take a piece of tulle and fold it in half so you’ll need to make sure that the tulle is the length that you want when it is folded.
- Hold the fold of the tulle above the elastic with the elastic over the tulle.
- Loop the longer piece of tulle over the elastic and through the fold of the tulle.
- Pull the longer piece tight through the loop.
- The loop should be pulled tight to the elastic and what is seen around the outside of the highchair tray once it is attached.
- Place the sticky velcro squares around the outside of the highchair and match them up with the inside of the tutu so that it will fit flush against the highchair.
- The tutu will need to be tied in the back once the birthday girl or boy is placed in the seat so that first birthday party pictures can be taken.
Seriously that’s it! I created the tutu by using the same steps as my Infant Tutu. I routinely use the tutu tutorial to create tutus for Halloween costumes or just as tutus for dance. I think tutus are just part of the territory when having a daughter.
The biggest difference with the highchair tutu and the skirt tutu are that you need to keep the elastic long enough to wrap around the high chair. I was able to simply tie it behind the chair that the highchair sits on. Depending upon your highchair, you might need to cut your elastic longer and unless you can get your daughter into the highchair without removing the tray, you won’t be able to tie it until she is in the highchair. The tutu took me about an hour and a half to make and the pictures were well worth the effort.
I made my first highchair tutu for Riley’s Second Birthday because for her first birthday party, I forgot the highchair all together. We have pictures of her eating cake out of my hand. It was a first time mom mistake for sure. For her second birthday party I made up for it though. I placed ribbon around the outside of the tutu and it ended up dipping around the outside of the tray. I could have tried to hot glue the ribbon to the outside of the tutu, but I wanted Riley to be able to wear it as a tutu afterwards. She totally does too! Most people assume that the tutu will get covered in cake, but neither one of ours did. Most of the time she wears it over her jeans! Love that girl!First Birthday Party Tips for Success
- The first birthday party is more about amusing the other kids that are attending than about amusing your one year old.
- When creating the menu keep your adults in mind and just make a large dish of a kid friendly food like mac n cheese or chicken fingers.
- Collages with twelve pictures with each picture representing a month of your child’s life with milestones like first tooth, first time crawling, standing or eating solid foods are great milestones to track.
- Get the guests involved by having them write a note to the first birthday girl or boy to open on their eighteenth birthday. This is especially important for grandparents and great-grandparents that may not be there for her eighteenth birthday.
- Think about creating a smash cake for your first birthday boy or girl. It will make the other children attending less crazy about getting their slice of cake and much easier for first birthday party pictures.
- Have your highchair tutu attached to the outside of the tray so that all you need to do is pop the tray onto the highchair.
- Place the highchair in a spot with a visually pleasing or blank background so that the focus during the first birthday party pictures is on the birthday girl or boy and not on the background.
For Avery’s Fairy First Birthday party I decided not to go with a ribbon around the outside. Since the decor consisted of Tulle Pom Poms it only seemed natural to leave the tulle exposed. I loved how well it matched the Fairy Magic Wands. 
