Summer, winter, autumn or spring, get into the Hawaiian spirit by strapping on an easy homemade hula skirts. Play dress-ups with your kids and indulge in a luau or kids’ Hawaiian beach party today with these sweet Hawaiian costumes.

What you need:

• 2 x large paper shopping bag or wrapping paper
• Tape, glue and/or a stapler
• Ruler
• Raffia or ribbon

Activity:

Take the paper shopping bags and cut along one vertical corner fold from top to bottom.

Cut out the bottom of the bags by cutting around the bottom edges.

Fold out the paper bags so they lie flat end to end in a landscape orientation. Tape the ends together to create a long strip of paper. Adjust the length of the paper to match the waist measurement of the wearer.

To make the waistband:

Using your ruler, measure approximately 10cm down from the top of the bags. Mark this measurement. Then measure another 10cm below this mark and mark that line.

Draw a line along the length of both 10cm measurement lines along the length of the paper.

Stick tape down over the space between the two measured lines to reinforce the paper.

To make the skirt:

Measure about 5cm from the edge of the paper bag and mark the measurement with a line from top to bottom. Repeat across the entire lenght of bags.

Cut along all vertical lines.

Measure the desired waist length ad cut three times the length from the raffia. Plait the raffia into a long cord and set aside.

Measure another length of raffia to fit the waist allowing enough extra to tie into a bow.

Place this raffia in the centre of the taped section along the top of the hula skirt and fold the top section over to encase it.

Centre the raffia to ensure there is enough extra at either end to tie.

Staple or glue the fold down to secure it.

Place the decorative raffia plait along the front waistline of the skirtt to finish it off and secure with glue or staples.

Put the skirt around the hula dancer and tie raffia string into a bow.

You are now ready for a luau and a fun time doing the hula hula dance!