Question About Braided Hair

[SesameKermie]

For curling the bangs, I recommend winding the yarn around a pencil or curler and then stiffening them with laundry starch, or even cornstarch and water.

 

[D'Snowth]

For curling the bangs, I recommend winding the yarn around a pencil or curler and then stiffening them with laundry starch, or even cornstarch and water.

That is a FANTASTIC idea, I'll have to give that a try!

 

[Jinx]

If you look at my earlier suggestion, sewing the yarn to the center fabric strip creates a center part in the hair. The stitch actually is the part.

The starch idea is a good one. Another idea is to buy some VERY THIN bare copper wire, and weave some into the bangs. The wire holds the style, and is fairly easily restyled.

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[D'Snowth]

If you look at my earlier suggestion, sewing the yarn to the center fabric strip creates a center part in the hair. The stitch actually is the part.

I do believe that'll be the direction I'll have to take, lol.

The copper wire trick might work as well, though I don't BUY copper wire, I SELL it, lol.

 

[staceyrebecca]

For the bangs, could you use 100% wool yarn & then steam them & possibly needle-felt the bangs into place? Wool does felt rather nicely & holds shape pretty well, although I'm not sure how it would work in yarn-form without it being first wet-felted. (I'm thinking of needle-felted bowls & hats that conform to a shape when drying to gain their stiffness--see these awesome monster purses as an example.)

When I make puppets with pigtails or braids (which is the preferred method of doing both my own hair & my puppets' hair), I measure the full length of the hair that I'd like, I add a few inches for good measure, then double it. that's the length of each strand of hair. I shove it together & run the center of it through my sewing machine, binding it all together, flattening the clump as I go. It turns it into a quasi wig of sorts. I sew down the hair on the center of the head & viola--hair parted down the center.

Anytime you braid your hair, your hair should become shorter than it is without braids...Unless, I suppose, you have very curly or wavy hair & the braiding straightens it out some. I braid my hair at least twice a week. I have a lot of braiding experience. You could say I'm an expert, except that you'd be very wrong.

 

[D'Snowth]

That certainly sounds like an interesting method of tackling the hair.

I'm slightly apprehensive of stitching, as I've had bad experiences with stitching in that Steve almost completely lost an arm on live TV once, and he's got popped seams all over the place... at the same time, hot gluing is my alternative, but I know sometimes the glue doesn't dry well, and you're left with large clumps here and there that look odd.

I might try stitching this time so the hair doesn't look bad, and just hope that she doesn't suddenly go completely bald, lol.

 

[staceyrebecca]

after I sew the yarn together--which takes about 35 seconds on a sewing machine (I don't think that it would work to hand stitch it), then sometimes I glue the hair down & sometimes I stitch it down. (just at the top so i can still braid it) It depends on the amount of time I have to get the project done. Stitching always works better for me as far as visually (I tend to clump glue). As far as durability, it depends what's being stitched (arms vs. hair), what type of stitching you're using, and what type of thread you're using, too. Waxing your thread can also strengthen it a bit.

If you hand sew the wig to the head after you make it on the sewing machine, then you should be fine. If you're worried about the thread breaking when hand-stitching, try use a strong quilting or upholstery thread. If you use a back stitch, that could help too.