The best part about making a Hawaiian Lei out of feathers is that, unlike a lei made from flowers, the feathers won’t wither up and they will more or less stay the same color. Making these feather leis is a old Hawaiian art form and was done also before the arrival of the first westerners in the 17th century.
Making this feather lei is not difficult, but it does require a good bit of time. You can create your lei using just one color of flowers or you can use different color and add other kinds of feathers to add charm and color to your lei.
What do you need for this project?
1- A strip of material as long as you are going to want to make the lei and four centimeters wide
2- Needle and thread
3- Feathers
First thing you need to make sure of is that you have enough feathers to complete the lei.
Next fold the material I half across the entire length so that now you have a thicker piece of cloth two centimeters wide.
Take two feathers and gently bend them with your fingers so that they are curved a bit.
Now starting at one end of the cloth, about five inches from the end, start to attach the feathers to the material. Using the needle and thread attach one feather on either side with the curve going out. Make sure that the stitching is good and tight. Attach the next two flowers half way down the first two so that half of the feathers are still exposed.
Continue along the length of the material until you get to about four inches from the other end.
That’s it your done enjoy your new creation.
ALOHA!
Read more about this craft and culture at http://www.tetura.com/main.html
