How to Sew Two-layer Latin Dance Skirt

This is a simple skirt, which can be made with low to intermediate sewing skills. Total costs: about 15 euros.

I apologize in advance for the poor quality of most of my pictures. My camera had a lot of difficulty with photographing black fabric.

Step 1: The Pattern

Of course, first, you need to make your pattern. Thankfully, this is super easy. You can use the figure as a guide. So here’s how to make the pattern.

First, you need the hip measurement of the person you’re making the skirt for. My friend is very small and has a hip measurement of 84 cm. Since the skirt is made of lycra which is very stretchy, the actual skirt needs to be smaller. I estimated that a skirt circumference of 70 cm would be OK. I will call this 70 cm the hip measurement from now on. You also need to decide on a total length. Following the example of the skirt in my photo, I chose a total length of about 40 cm. Note that this pattern does not include seam allowances.

The skirt consists of two parts. Two trapezoids at the top, which I will call the base, and a wide, hanging part, which is made from four circles, which I will call the frill.

The base consists of two trapezoids, where the back part has a bit of extra fabric at the bottom. This is in place to make sure that the bum of the dancer stays hidden while dancing. The top width of the pieces is hip/2 ( =35 cm), and the height is the total length/2 ( =20 cm). The extra length is about 5 cm, depending on the bum of the wearer. The bottom of the trapezoids is a bit (about 3 cm for each panel) wider than the top edge. This will stop the skirt from riding up.

The frill is made out of four circles, with a circle cut out of the center, as shown in the figure. The black circles need to be a bit smaller than the blue ones, but they must have the same inner radius since the inner edge will connect to the base. The inner circumference of each circle (c0) must be 1/2 of the hip measurement. This means that the inner radius (r0) must be r0 = c0/(4π) = c0/12.6. So for me, r0 = 5.6 cm. The radius of the blue fabric needs to be 20 cm longer, so r2 = 25.6 cm. The black fabric must be 3 cm shorter, so r1 = 22.6 cm.

Step 2: The Fabric

It is easiest to draw a rough sketch to get an idea of how much fabric you will need. Key point: do not confuse radii and diameters! If you make a skirt with the same sizes as me, then you should have plenty if you get 60 cm of blue (at 140 cm Wide) and 1 m of black. I got 1 m of both.

I got a light quality lycra. Try to get the blackest black you can, and a color that really pops for the lower layer. Bright green, red, or even a glittering fabric would be really cool. It’s an accent, make it stand out!

There is a lot of lycra available online, but in the end, I got it at my local fabric market. I prefer to see and feel my fabric, so there are no surprises in the thickness, color, and quality.

Step 3: Drawing

You will need a piece of dressmaker’s chalk, a cup of water, and a lot of pins and patience. Lycra is slippery, which makes is tricky to work with. If you dip the edge of the chalk in water before drawing a line, it will release a lot more chalk, making the drawing easier.

My lycra is reasonably thin because I wanted the frill to be light. Due to this, I decided to make my base out of two layers. So draw both pieces of the base twice, or once on folded fabric. If you work on folded fabric, you need to pin the two layers together, as shown in the picture.

You will also need two circles of each color, with the right radio (black smaller than blue). I did this by drawing a dot at the place where I wanted my circle, and moving my tape-measure around that dot to draw a circle, as shown in the figure. Also, draw the inner circle with radius r0.

Cut all the pieces (2x front panel, 2x back panel, 2 black circles, and 2 blue circles). Leave a 1 cm seam allowance around the base. Do not leave seam allowance around the inner edge of the circles, or the circumference will be too small. Instead, leave a small allowance around the outer edge. Lycra will not fray, so you will not need to hem the outer edge frill. Cut a straight line from the outer edge of the circles to the center. The figure shows the pieces you now have.

Step 4: Making the Base and the Frill

Sew the front pieces of the base to the back pieces, good sides together. I used an overlock machine with the most stretchy stitch. If you are using a regular sewing machine, make sure you are using a stretch needle and a stretch stitch. Sew the pieces together.

Now turn one of the two bases right side out, and put it inside the other one, so all the good sides are touching. Sew around the top edge to close it off, and turn the good sides outward. Now only the lowest edge of the base is bare, and the edges of the top and sides are neatly tucked away.

For the frill: Put the good sides of both colors together and sew the cut edge as shown. Lay them on top of each other, with both bad sides facing down (good side to bad side). Pin them securely together.

Step 5: Putting It Together

Now comes a lot of pinning. Fold the two layers of the base inward, and lay the top edge (or inner edge) between them, as shown in the closeup. Do not be stingy with pins, this will help a lot. With rough stitches, hand bastes it all together. Like I said, lycra is slippery, and this is a place where the stability of the basting will be a big help.

Using a regular sewing machine and a stretchy stitch, sew they base and the grill together.

And that’s it! You’re done. You made yourself a beautiful skirt.

Step 6: Look at Her Shine!

I’m happy with the result, and my friend is even happier. She’s a wonderful dancer, and the skirt enhances it. Her dancing partner modeled an accent for his own outfit from the scrap of blue that was left over.

Thanks!

courtesy: Frivolica

 

DIY: Handmade Paper Mache Pencil Holder

Have you got loads of newspaper lying around? Are you feeling crafty? Well, you have come to the right place.

In this tutorial, I will be telling how you can turn your old newspapers into something good-looking and useful. So follow along.

Step 1: Required Material
  1. Loads of newspaper (obviously)
  2. Flour (to make glue)
  3. Water (to make glue and paper mache clay)
  4. A bottle or anything similar (you will see why, later.)
  5. A bowl
  6. PVA Glue
  7. Paints and brushes
  8. Paper shredder (optional)
  9. Hand blender (optional)

And that’s it.

Let’s get making.

Step 2: Shredding Newspaper to Make the Container

Start by shredding the newspaper in 1 inch wide strips. You don’t need a lot, these stripes of newspaper will only be used to make the container of our pencil holder, which will not be very thick.

But you can shred a lot because we will be needing them in later steps anyway.

Step 3: Making Paper Mache Glue

Traditionally the glue used to make paper mache crafts is made by mixing flour and water. and we will be using the same in this project. But you can always use regular glue if you want to.

The glue made out of flour tends to be messy, but it adds to the fun.

To make paper mache glue, take a cup of flour in a mixing bowl and gradually start adding water in it while constantly stirring it. Keep doing it until the mixture turns into a smooth paste. The paste should be neither too runny nor too thick. Click here to watch the video. (Don’t worry, the link will open in new tab.)

TIP 1: Don’t make a lot of paper mache glue at once, because after a day or two, the glue will not be as sticky. So only make as much as you will be able to use in one day.

TIP 2: Use something strong to stir the mixture. I learnt this the hard way, after breaking one spatula.

Step 4: Making the Container

To make the container, dip the strips of newspaper in the paper mache glue, once the whole strip is covered in the glue, remove the excess and start laying it on a bottle or any other such thing as shown in the picture above (numbered as 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Lay the strips perpendicular to one another in order to give the container more strength. (Click here to watch the video.) Keep doing this till your container is two layers thick (see the picture numbered as 6). Then leave it for drying overnight. On the next day, carefully remove your container from the bottle. You may have to use some force, but be gentle, you don’t want to break it. If necessary, use some prying tool to get it out. Don’t panic if it breaks slightly, It will be fixed in a moment, but try not to break it in two or three pieces. At this stage, your container should look somewhat like the one shown in picture above, numbered as 7 and 8.

After removing the container from the bottle, start covering it with newspaper stripes once again. This time, you have to make it thick enough so it is no more fragile.

One important note: let your container dry after every layer, otherwise molds could ruin your pencil holder. I dried mine in the sun, but if the sun is not in your favour, use your oven. Keep it in a warm oven and leave the door slightly open so water vapour could easily escape.

Step 5: Become Paper Shredder Once Again and Make Paper Mache Clay

By now you may be wondering that the container looks so ugly. Yes you are right, it is. But it will no longer be, get prepared to make it look beautiful.

Start shredding more newspapers, but this time shred in smaller pieces. If you have a paper shredder, go ahead and use it, it will make your work a lot easier because you need a lot of shredded newspaper. Keep the shredded paper in a large bowl.

After shredding, add water to fill the bowl and let the paper soak in water for around 12 hours, it will make the process of making paper mache clay much easier.

Now that the paper has become soggy, start destroying it. (Take a look at the picture above or watch the video linked above.). Take your time and turn the paper into smooth pulp. Make sure there are no lumps in the pulp, because they will trouble you afterwards.

When you have turned the whole thing into pulp (like in picture numbered as 6 above), remove the excess water by straining and squeeze the pulp. You just need the pulp to be moist, there should be no water dripping from it.

Once you have got your pulp out of the water, add some paper mache glue to it and mix well. I added the pulp and paper mache glue in about 3:1 ratio. you don’t have to be precise.

If done correctly, you should now have your paper mache clay ready for next step. Your paper mache clay should look somewhat like bread dough.

Step 6: Time to Get Crafty

Now that you have made paper mache clay, use it to sculpt around the container using your imagination. Use plenty of paper mache glue to make your sculpture smooth. I made my pencil holder look like a tree trunk (take a look at the images above), but you can get creative and make something else.

After you have done sculpting, dry it in the sun for at least 7 to 10 days before proceeding further. It has to dry completely not only from outside but also from inside otherwise molds will find their way to your pencil holder, and I don’t think you want that. So make sure it dries completely.

When I was making my pencil holder, the sun was not in my favour, so I had to use my oven to dry it.

You can do it too, Keep your pencil holder in warm oven and leave the door slightly open so the water vapour can escape.

TIP: Make sure there are no cracks tn your sculpture as they will reduce its strength. Fill any cracks with paper mache clay and plenty or paper mache glue.

Step 7: Paint It

Now that you have completed sculpting your pencil holder, let’s paint it to make it look even better.

But before painting it, cover it in a layer of PVA glue. Any PVA glue will work. Mix one part of PVA glue in one part water, and apply it on your pencil holder. It will make your pencil holder stronger.

Once the glue has dried, go ahead and paint your pencil holder according to your imagination using acrylic paint. Acrylic paint, apart from looking good, will seal your pencil holder so no moisture can enter and ruin it.

You can use any other paint if you want to but, you will have to seal your pencil holder with some sort of acrylic sealant to make your sculpture weather sealed.

Now go and make your own, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Best Of Luck.

Most Popular Embroidered Sarees Blouses Trends for Women

Saarees are simply a charm to the eastern couture and wardrobe. Emblem of traditional Indian culture, Sarees are loved by all at all occasions. These sarees are now designed in a variety of new ranges and style. Sarees are designed both for the formal and the casual wear.

So if you are a saree lover, then this article is going to bring you loads of exciting insight and knowledge about five most famous and beautiful styles of embroidered sarees and blouses for brides. If you are a newly married bride, then you can carry each of these for all those special occasions.

1. MIRROR WORK EMBROIDERED SAREES:

2. STONEWORK EMBROIDERED SAREES:

3. ZARDOSI WORK SAREES:

4. KUNDAN EMBROIDERED SAREES:

5. CUTWORK SAREE’S BLOUSES:

Hope you like these Embroidered Sarees Blouses.

We would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below. And be sure to like us Facebook for more ideas!

Thank you for visiting our website. Keep Creating with Art & Craft!

DIY Five Pointed Rainbow Prism Lamp

The Five Pointed Prism lamp is made up of ten geometrical panels, which makes a prism, displaying the same repeated pattern all the way through giving out beautiful rainbow colours around your chosen space

I use only LED lighting in my designs to contribute to keeping the environment friendly.

Step 1: Begin Drawing/Designing Geometric Shapes

I begin by drawing my design on paper with rough sketches. I really enjoy geometrical shapes so I wanted to design one. I have had many failures on this design as I was not getting the mathematical measurements correct but I got there in the end. This is then drawn in illustrator to make this mathematically correct. I then send this file to a local laser cutter company to get these cut out of birch wood.

Step 2: Staining, Attaching Acrylic Film to Templates

When the 10 templates have been cut (5 large and 5 small) to make a prism shape, I then stain the wood in a rich dark chocolate colour and leave to dry.

To get the wonderful colours, I use an acrylic iridescent fil.

Adding the acrylic film:

I then cut out the correct size shapes out of iridescent acrylic film by hand, This acrylic film is super colourful, covering the whole rainbow spectrum, purples, pinks, oranges, greens, blues and from metallic and copper colours, depending where you view the material from as this changes in an instance from one angle to the next

This is then stuck to one side of the wooden templates.

I have to spray the wooden template to set the film as it has an adhesive so this stops any dust attaching while its sticking to the wood.

As seen in the images, you can see the film gives out a real colourful coppers & metallic colours as well as blues/purples, this is the great thing about the material. While this is setting for 24 hours, I get to work with making the wooden base.

Step 3: Base Making

The wood varies from oak, ash, birch, rose, walnut, basically any thing I can get my hands on, from local saw mills, suppliers and wood merchants. Up cycled wood comes into my projects a lot as I like to use wood which people don’t require any more from tables, chairs, doors any thing really. I also find wood in forests.

You have to make sure the wood is air-dried for at least a good 18months other wise the wood splits.

I then cut this to size on my a table saw. I then clamp 5 sides together and leave to set for 24 hours. When set, I then sand this down with 3 different grits to get a clean finish, leaving the wood smooth and soft.

I then stain the wood in the rich dark chocolate colour to match the wooden templates.

Next stage is wiring up the lamps. I use a vintage spiral cord and only use LED bulbs for my lamp.

Step 4: Back to Lampshade Making

Now the acrylic film is set, I use my craft knife to cut out shapes with in the template. This takes time as I have to be vary careful to not cut where is not need as this will show through when light is projecting. Cutting the shapes out lets the natural light beam through.

I then copper foil each template and the solder each template individually around both side with soldering iron. I found this to be the best way in constructing the lamp.

Step 5: Assembling the Lamp

To assemble my lamp:

This part is tricky, as I need two pairs of hands to do this so I ask fellow artists and my family to help me with this part. It’s very fiddly and getting the angles correct is challenging but well worth the finished out come. I do the soldering while I have an extra pair of hands to hold the templates to gather so I can pin them together with the solder. When the structure is complete, I then can go round the whole lamp and tidy up and fill all the gaps in with solder to make it neat and tidy with clean edges

The lamp sits at a height of 37cm and width 23 x 23 cm

I hope you have enjoyed my processes. If you have questions, then do ask.

courtesy: Amberlightsuk

DIY Miniature Fairy Garden Terrarium – Enchanted Mushroom Lights

Hi, in this tutorial I made a fairy garden terrarium with mushroom lights and a fairy mushroom house. I used some extruded polystyrene (xps styrofoam), battery operated led lights, transparent sanitary silicone sealant, tin foil, copper wire, hot glue, a little bit of polymer clay, moss and acrylic paint. I also used a glass cake cover. Step 1: Preparing the Board I first cut the styrofoam board to fit the glass cake cover. I adjusted the corners with a cutter, then I painted it black. Step 2: Adding the Lights

 

I then glued the lights to some pieces of copper wire. I made the wires in different lengths and also left more wire on the upper side (that will be helpful when making the mushroom caps). I glued the copper wires to the foam board with hot glue. I added some volume to the board using tin foil and hot glue.

Step 3: Making the Mushrooms

I mixed some red acrylic paint with silicone and made a paste. I applied the paste on the wires and leveled it using soap and water. For making the mushroom caps I used the silicone paste and wrapping foil. I applied some paste on the plastic foil and covered it. Then I started shaping it into a mushroom cap. For making the round shapes I used the cones inside of an eggs carton. I also covered the tinfoil base using the same silicone paste in black. Using some tin foil I made a cone and covered it with polymer clay. I sculpted a little house, baked it and painted it with acrylic paint.

Step 4: Moss and Details

I placed the moss over the board, carefully mixing the patches and used toothpicks to fix it in place. I also made some cute white dots on the house using white silicone.

I love the result!

How to make a burlap sunflower

Beautiful Sunflower pick for fall wreaths. You can make any color you like. I hope you have fun making this flower. Step 1: Required Material 

15″ of 5 1/2 wide burlap – color of your flower

5″ of 5 1/2 wide burlap – green for your leaves

Scrap piece of brown burlap for the center

Cutting mat

Decoupage

wide sponge brush

1 fine gauge wire

Scissors

Flower template mine came from http://www.freekidscrafts.com

I could not find a leaf template so I have included a picture of what I free hand cut

2 paper plates

one plastic rectangular bowl

Straight pins with the heads on them

Step 2: Decoupage

Pour about a half of a cup of your decoupage into the plastic bowl.

then pour enough water into the decoupage to make it thin. You will know it is thin enough when it drips off your brush.

Use your first paper plate and lay your burlap piece down and start brushing until you have covered the whole piece.

Place the piece on the clean paper plate and repeat. I did take another plate for the 6″ of the green burlap.

I let my dry overnight.

Step 3: Pin and Cut Flowers Out

You will need to cut your flower templates out. I downloaded the flowers and then resized them to 5″, 4″, and 3″.

Take your straight pins, I use the ones with the heads on them, and pin from the top of the peddles to the center.

Now a trick I use is to start with a paddle and cut around the top then do the same thing with each peddle until you have gone all the way around. I then turn over the paddle and cut the opposite side of each paddle. Look at the picture of the front and back of the peddles and you will see this gives you a clean cut.

Now take your pins out and you will be ready to assemble.

Step 4: Putting Your Flower Together

In the first picture you will see I am using my fingers to fold the flower in haft, I will do this on both sides of the flower to find the center.

Now stack each of your flowers and turn over to slide the wire through the center. If you do not want to use the flower for a pick skip this step and glue each one in the center.

Turn over and glue your center circle of brown burlap in the center.

Turn back over and lay your leaves, you can use as many or little as you like, to the back of the flower.

Glue the leaves on.

That is it and now you have your burlap flower as a pick or you can make and use on hats, headband, anything you like.

Hope you enjoyed this.

courtesy: toj66

BEAUTIFUL LEHENGA DESIGNS THAT ARE KILLING IT IN 2017

The Pinks, Reds, Oranges and Peaches used to be the unusual lehenga designs a few years back, but now they are a part of the mainstream colours these days. If you are a bride-to-be, you must be looking for some fresh and unique lehenga colour combinations to spot at your wedding.

You may like this:

Purple with Shades of Blue

White lace

New Trends Designer Lehenga Cholis

Anarkali New Style Frocks Designs 2017 for Young Girls

Mint with silver

Lucite green with silver

Icey grey with olive gold

Turquoise with beige

Hope you like these Lehenga designs.

We would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below. And be sure to like us Facebook for more ideas!

Thank you for visiting our website. Keep Creating with Art & Craft!

KIDS CRAFT: Artistic Ways to Recycle Bottle Caps

Recycle bottles caps is a Green way to make cheap decorations for kids rooms. Plastic bottle caps are a perfect material for decorating backyards with handmade designs in bright colors. Simple, easy for kids crafts make wonderful garden decorations. You can create beautiful flowers and funny characters with bottle caps. Colorful wall murals for kids rooms and unique gifts are great ideas to recycle bottle caps.

Plastic bottle caps are interactive kids toys that inspire and stimulate the imagination. Use a chance to incorporate this artistic way of recycling bottle caps into your home decorating. Colorful designs bring fun and joy into kids life. Recycled crafts and art projects teach children to act eco-friendly, be resourceful and creative.

Hope you like this recycle bottle bottle caps.

We would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below. And be sure to like us Facebook for more ideas!

Thank you for visiting our website. Keep Creating with Art & Craft!

DIY Silicone Transparent Floral Bracelet Tutorial

Here is a nice tutorial to create a silicone transparent floral bracelet that you can brag about. For those of you who love handmade transparent bracelet, we will share a silicon wristbands that you can place decorative figures inside today.

Required Material:

  • Bracelet mold for epoxy resin,
  • Double component epoxy resin,
  • A container to mix resin,
  • Stirring stick,
  • Dry leaves,
  • Toothpick,
  • Scissors

You can use everything you can shape for the mold, adjust the thickness according to your bracket. But then choose something that can be easily broken down because it can be difficult to remove after the silicone frost. Other than these, you can use varnish to give shine, and likewise leaves, plastic flowers ornaments to put in silicon.

We pour the mold transparent silicone that we have set for our knowledge and quickly place the pine leaves in your hand without waiting for the freezing. At this stage, the toothpicks are used to penetrate the silicone. You can use a thin apparatus.

We them wait 2-3 hours in a dry place for a while to allow the silicone to fully freeze and dry.

We carefully remove the drying silicone Wristbands.

With a very thin sandpaper we take the roughness and eliminate the sharp corners.

We then apply the varnishing process and leave it dry.

Our ultra stylish silicone bracelet is ready to use!

More Bracelet stylish:

Hope you like this transparent floral bracelet.

We would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below. And be sure to like us Facebook for more ideas!

Thank you for visiting our website. Keep Creating with Art & Craft!