Question About Braided Hair

[D'Snowth]

I'm building a proto-type for a new character of mine, who has braided hair (two braid to be exact, one on each side of her head), but I've never done this before, and I was wanting to know which would be a better way to approach this - would it be better for me to make the braids separate from the rest of her hair, or would it work just as well to go ahead and give her a full head of hair and then braid that?

Also, because I have no clue about how girl hair works, would braiding it, in anyway, make the hair appear a little shorter than it really is? It looks to me like it would, but again, I'm not a girl and I don't have long hair, so I would know if I should make the hair a little longer than it should be in account of the braids.

[Gelfling Girl]

Ok, just braided part of my hair, and it seems to be a bit longer than the rest.

[Jinx]

When I need to do braids I usually use yarn for hair. I cut a bunch of strands at least long enough to go from the bottom of one braid, up and over the head and down to the bottom of the opposite braid. I stitch these strands to a strip of fabric that matches the puppet's skin color. This makes it easier to manage, and creates a center "part" in the hair as well.

Once fastened to the puppet's head, I then braid the yarn hair. I never really know for sure how long I want them to be so I make very long hair. Once I've braided anough to get the length I want, I rubber band the end of the braid and then trim off the excess.

This is a quick and easy way to do it.

[D'Snowth]

Lol, I was actually planning on using yarn for hair too.

You know Jinx, that actually does sound like a very effective way to approach this, though one thing that make it difficult for me is that she is also going to have (or I'd like for her to hair) a parting in her hair right down the middle.

One more thing I meant to ask too - she's also going to have relatively curly bangs... would yarn get ruined in one of those steam curlers?

[muppets2]

yea it would probably fall apart

[D'Snowth]

Gee, wonder how I should go about trying to give the bangs some curl to them?

[Gelfling Girl]

Do you think those plastic hair curlers would work?

[D'Snowth]

I'm not sure, but I could give it a try...

But I'll worry about that part later, right now the main issue is the braids, lol.

I swear, I'm simply not as good at building puppets as I am performing them, but my mom's insisting I give it a shot for this character, lol.

[Scooterthegofer]

It's a trade-off... but it's an escapable trade-off.;) Good luck!

[D'Snowth]

Thanks, lol.

The yarn'll be easy to obtain, that's for sure, I'm just worried I won't be able to get my hands on the other necessary materials... I don't know why, but the Jo-Ann's in my town has next to nothing whenever I look for fabric.

[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.:batty:

[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 (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31570185) 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.