Fun Hula Skirt

 

Being Hawaiian, I have no choice but to have a First Birthday Luau for my baby Girl. Her Birthday is a month away so planning and preping is in full swing. This simple Hula Skirt can be a hit at any girl's luau or hula themed birthday party at any age..... 

You will need:
* 1 Elastic Band (Found these in the hair section of Wal-Mart).
* Good pair of scissors (I used just a fabric scissors that I had in my sewing stuff).
* Rolls of Satin Ribbon. I used 2 different colors & 3 rolls of each color (6 total for my 1 year old) Older children you will need more rolls of ribbon.
* Lighter (not pictured)
* any candle you may have around the house. (not pictured)
* sharpie marker or any pen that will mark the elastic band. 9not pictured).

**** If you are making the Hula Skirt for an older child, you may not want to use the elastic headbands, you may want to use ribbon from a roll. I would have your child stand in front of you and then take the ribbon and wrap it around them. Make sure where the ribbon meets that you have an inch hanging extra on each side to tie the skirt around them. Like a bow on the back of a dress. I would tie knots where the ribbon meets, that will help to keep the satin ribbon from sliding around and give you a guide as to how much ribbon you need to wrap around the main ribbon. (also be sure to burn the edges of the main ribbon so that it does not frail during assembling of the skirt.

While my baby was standing up, I took one of my rolls of ribbon and measured from her hip to her ankle & doubled the length. Then cut the ribbon the doubled length. You can however measure with a tape measure if you rather do that way just remember to double the length. I made my daughter's skirt go to her ankles, but you can actually make it at any length that you prefer.

Using the piece of ribbon that I cut as a guide I cut the remaining ribbon ALL six rolls of ribbon.

All of my ribbon is cut into double the length of my babies hip to her ankle. You can choose now to burn the ends of the ribbon now or work on your hula skirt. I would recommend burning the ends now to prevent it from frailing out while you assemble the actual skirt. I just used a candle I had around the house. Just carefully put the end of each strip up to the flame, you don't even have to touch the flame you will see it melt and seal the cut edges. Now it is time to assemble.

Take one of the elastic bands and one strip of the ribbon. Using your fingers like picture fold your ribbon over.

Take the loop end of the ribbon and place it under the elastic band. Do not let go of your loop just yet,

Using two hands feed the hanging ribbon through your loop making sure the elastic band is being secured between the loop and the hanging ribbon.

Straighten your ribbon so the satin side is up.

And then tigthen your loop. Now repeat until you either have to run to the store to get more ribbon or you have it all the way around the elastic band. As you can see from my next picture I did two tones one next to the other, but feel free to get creative with it and change it up. You can even add some tule to give it a tutu feel if you wanted to.

My one year old was actually smaller than the elastic band size so I put it around her while she was standing and marked it with a sharpie & tied a knot at the sharpie marks, cut the excessive & burned the edges of the elastic band.

Here she is modeling off her new hula skirt.


This skirt can be used for a Halloween Costume as well.....