How to Make a Hula Skirt · Craftwhack

By Liss @ Budget 101, "How to Brand a DIY Grass Hula Skirt" (https://www.budget101.com/crafts-scrapbooking/3816-how-to-make-a-diy-grass-hula-skirt/)

Hula, Hawaiian or grass skirt– no matter what you lot call information technology, y'all know it's a must-have for a luau-themed party! Kids and adults will enjoy this interactive party favor that can double every bit fun décor.

The only problem is that luau political party decorations aren't readily available except during summer. Even then, if y'all don't catch them at the beginning of summer, y'all might not be able to discover enough to satisfy your party needs.

Ordering hula skirts and other luau party décor online is ane solution, but you never really know what you're getting if you don't run across it beginning. Client reviews and production descriptions can simply tell you lot so much. Therefore, knowing how to brand a hula skirt can exist a time- and coin-saving talent!

Why Make Your Ain?

Knowing you can purchase hula skirts inexpensively, information technology begs the question: Why make your ain?

• Some people merely enjoy DIY projects and feel similar a little homemade touch adds warmth and elegance to the event. Hand-made items that guests will run into upward close, and spend coin on items that won't be forepart and center. Rather than making every decoration from scratch, you can choose ane or 2 pieces to add your personal signature.

• Another motivation for making hula skirts rather than purchasing them is that you'll terminate up with a improve quality item. Many store-bought hula skirts are plastic, and the ones that look more authentic are sold individually and will be a lot more expensive than the materials you'll need to make them yourself.

If yous programme on giving the skirts as takeaways or want a more than authentic look, making them is the way to get. Because they will exist well made, you lot can re-use your skirts or even sell them when you're finished with them.

• Finally, past making hula skirts, you lot'll exist able to fully customize them. It may show impossible to find the length, color, and corporeality of skirts you want online or in-store. Past making them, you lot'll be able to blueprint the perfect number of skirts in any way you like, but you lot won't be stuck with a bunch of unused, unwanted items.

Materials

You can make a gorgeous hula skirt with 2 basic supplies!

Raffia

Raffia is made from the leaves of a tree constitute abundantly in Africa and Madagascar. It is harvested and stale for countless crafts, but, more importantly, raffia is the basis for many useful household items like rugs and baskets. Using raffia ribbon for the brim will make the finished product nigh resemble an accurate Hawaiian brim.

Y'all can buy raffia online or at any craft store in small packages or in spools of 100 yards, which may seem like a lot, just you lot'll need a lot more than than you think if y'all want your skirt to be total (so yous tin can't see straight through it). If you're but making one skirt, an average 8-ounce bundle should be enough.

Raffia is an oatmeal color in its natural state, but it is dyed a broad range of colors, so you'll have the added benefit of customizing your hula skirts to match the colour scheme of the event.

Jute

Jute is shiny and soft when harvested, which is hard to believe for many people because when it is spun, information technology becomes much coarser.  Jute is stronger than cotton fiber, amend at property knots and it does not blot water similar cotton fiber, making it a meliorate material overall for arts and crafts projects. Its natural colour and texture are well-suited for a Hawaiian skirt replica.

Jute rope and twine will both piece of work well. It really just depends on how thick yous desire your hula skirts' waistbands to be. Jute is inexpensive, so don't brand the mistake of buying hemp rope, a similar product, at twice the price (or even more than!).

Jute will likewise exist packaged on a spool and sold by the chiliad. Hardware and home improvement stores often carry jute, or y'all tin find it online.

For this project, yous'll need pair of scissors, and y'all may also need some cold water for straightening the brim if you choose to practise then. (More almost this in the final step!) You can besides add the embellishments of your selection!

Directions

1. Measure all materials.

The beginning thing to measure is the waist circumference of the people who are wearing the skirts. If you lot are making skirts for adults and children, you'll need to make two different sizes. Y'all could use a measuring record, but information technology's just as easy to wrap the jute around yourself or someone else and cut information technology to length.

Cut this kickoff waistband and apply it as a guide for the rest of the skirts you lot intend to make. Call back to add a few inches of actress length on both ends to tie a bow, not a knot, so information technology's piece of cake to get off. 4 inches on either side should be enough to tie a secure bow, merely you can leave every bit much extra length as you lot desire.

If you're making something other than a skirt, measure out the length of that area and decide how you'll spike it into place. How you lot'll attach it determines how much extra length you'll need for these projects. In a moment, we'll go over some examples of other items that can be made using this aforementioned technique!

You lot'll also demand to measure your strips of raffia ribbon. Determine how long yous want the skirt – either knee-length or total-length. So you'll cut the strips double that length.

Again, if y'all're making both children'due south and adult's skirts, you will need ii unlike lengths, unless y'all intend for the developed's hula skirts to exist human knee-length and the children's to exist full length. This will relieve you a trivial fourth dimension and problem.

2. Cut raffia strips.

The raffia strips need to be twice as long as you desire the actual brim to be since yous'll be folding them in half. Each strip, therefore, will become 2 strands of your skirt.

The measurements don't take to be verbal. An uneven bottom hem volition look natural if y'all decide to go out information technology as is. You can trim whatever excessively long pieces when the skirt is finished.

Cut a lot of strips, so once y'all outset trying them on, the procedure will become faster. If y'all take helpers, one person can be the designated cutter while others work on multiple skirts.

Pile unlike colors of raffia together (if y'all are making a multi-colored brim). That way, each brim maker can keep upward with their pattern as they go, rather than having a set corporeality of each color to outset with.

3. Tie the strips on the jute waistband.

If yous want, spike each end of the waistband to something sturdy (so that the brim is suspended on each side). This volition make it easier to see your pattern and progress, just it's not necessary.

To begin the "grass" office of your hula skirt, fold a piece of raffia in one-half. Slide the loop y'all but fabricated nether the jute waistband. And so feed the loose ends through the loop from the front, creating a Lark's caput knot, a common Macramé technique. And then tighten the knot, just leave enough slack in the knot so that information technology can be moved.

This is the only blazon of knot you'll have to tie!

Repeat this process over and over, periodically sliding the knots closer together, depending on how total yous want the skirt to be. Once you achieve the desired fullness, you lot tin can gently tug the ends to tighten the knots.

You can even tie two strands of raffia at once, starting time your knot with two pieces, then folding then you lot take two loops, and finally feeding all four loose ends through the ii loops. This technique will use twice as much raffia, only it will upshot in an actress-full skirt.

If you are using multiple colors of raffia, remember to alternating color strands as you work. You tin can likewise design a skirt of blocked colors, creating a striped event.

You lot should be able to complete 1 skirt in xxx-45 minutes. The first 1 may take longer equally you sort out your preferred methods, only you'll become faster as you go into a rhythm.

4. Straighten the skirt. (Optional)

Raffia is often crinkled, curled, or bent when packaged. If yous similar a full, messy skirt, y'all can go out information technology like it is.

If you desire the skirt to lie flatter, moisture the raffia portion of the skirt and blot to remove excess h2o. Then straighten the strips with your hands. You lot can hang the skirt or lay it apartment to dry. Your skirt should exist completely dry within a few hours. Placing it outdoors or in a well-ventilated area can drastically reduce drying time.

You tin can straighten the private pieces earlier attaching the raffia to the jute, simply doing it after the skirt is complete ways you won't take to work with wet raffia or wait for it to fully dry out earlier you begin.

5. Embellish. (Optional)

At this point, your brim is ready to wear (once information technology'due south dry out, of course). Just if yous choose to add together flowers around the waistband, it adds a little something extra, especially if you will be using leis and flower bracelets at the issue.

Y'all can disassemble the leis and use those flower petals for the waistband so they volition match, or you can buy packages of loose petals for this purpose. The petals tin can exist strung onto dental floss or sparse jute that is woven effectually the waistband, or you can hot glue them into place.

Analogous Items

At present that you know how to make realistic Hawaiian skirts, you can put this skill to use making a wide range of other party decorations! These decorations will raise the overall theme of your event without breaking the bank.

• Tabular array skirt – You lot can customize the length and height of your table brim so you lot won't have to hibernate a gap at the dorsum of the table. This will look more put together than a pre-purchased one. Lining your table with a hula-inspired skirt is likewise a great style to disguise what'southward underneath.

• Doorway curtain – Gear up the stage for a nifty party and create a little suspense equally guests walk in. Hang these curtains over doors and windows to creating an enclosed infinite that'due south totally immersive! Even outdoors, a raffia curtain blowing in the breeze will give your political party automated beach vibes!

• Wall décor or moving picture backdrop – Considering this project is and then inexpensive, a niggling can get a long way! Cover a large area with an extra-big hula skirt. It tin too serve as a photo op when paired with a few fun picture props.

The all-time part is that you tin use any of these items again! When you're finished with your skirts and party decorations roll the jute base around and around until you have a tight spiral. Next, starting at the bottom where the loose ends are, roll the raffia up toward the jute. Identify this ball into a plastic handbag for later use!

Money-saving Alternatives

For a kid's birthday, church building action, or any other fourth dimension yous want a fun, like shooting fish in a barrel, and inexpensive craft idea, any of the following items tin can exist used to make inexpensive, single-apply hula skirts. You lot can pre-prepare as much or as little of the craft as you desire.

• Plastic bag

Fold the bag into several layers, making sure that there are no wrinkles. Cut off the handles, which should exist at 1 terminate, then cut the entire bag into long strips.

Tie as many strips every bit necessary for the waistband. Using Lark's head knot described in a higher place, brainstorm tying your brim strips around the waistband. Use unlike shopping bags for a multi-colored skirt!

One plastic shopping bag should produce enough strips for 1 small-scale child's hula skirt.

• Paper bag

This pick is even easier! Simply cut down one of the long seams of the purse, and then cut effectually the lesser seams to remove the entire bottom of the bag.

At this stage, the rest of the pocketbook should open up upward to lay flat. Along i edge, draw a line almost ane-2 inches from the border with a ruler or other direct border. The area betwixt the edge and the line you draw will be the waistband of the skirt.

Cut strips perpendicular to the line yous drew, starting at the opposite end. This is the "grass" of your hula skirt.

Yous can tape or staple multiple numberless together to go around adults or to create volume. Make sure to turn whatsoever logos on the exterior of the bag inward so they don't show on the outside of your skirt.

• Plastic tablecloth

A brightly colored or multicolored tablecloth volition work great in a pinch for adults. Use the same method as the paper handbag, cutting strips equally thin or as wide as you desire.

Any backlog length can exist trimmed away earlier you begin. And if the tablecloth is wider than you need for a waistband, either cut information technology to make multiple skirts or double it over to decrease transparency.

A tablecloth cut using this method tin too be used for décor.

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