Pippi Longstocking Braids

a.k.a. April Fool’s Hair

Actually, I did this a few weeks ago. It was Wacky Hair Day at my daughter’s school. I got her hair done up in a bunch of ponytails all over her head, and then – since I was going in that day to volunteer and still had a bit of time before we had to leave – I figured I’d coiffe myself too.

Note: only reason this worked so quickly is that I had a coat hanger already straightened out, leftover from Halloween tails and towers, tucked away in the crawl space near my craft corner.

Result? The kids loved it! And lots of teachers asked how I did it.

Here’s how. You need:

longish hair two hairbands wire coat hanger pliers/wire cutters

Step 1) Get all the kinks out of the wire. It’s hard to get the sections that were twisted together to be truly straight. Maybe you want to just snip them off, if your hanger will still be long enough.

Step 2) Bend the wire to fit snugly over the top of the head. Like a headband with really really long sides. Then remove it for step 3.

Step 3) Plait two loose braids; make ‘em too tight and it’ll be a lot harder to guide the wire through later. Same goes for the bands. Keep ‘em loose for now, just enough to hold the braids in place.

Also, note: the braids should start near the ears, so they’re in line with the wire “headband” that you’ll be adding back in a minute.

 

Step 4) For this step, it helps to have a third hand. : ) Guide the wire ends down through the braids. Once the wire is shoved past the hairbands too, you could tighten them if needed.

 

Step 5) Bend the wires into whatever shape you’d like.

 

Step 6) Make sure you won’t poke somebody’s eye out! Curl the ends of the wire around or snip them off close to the (tightened) hairbands.

 

No more steps) Just be careful walking around. I kept forgetting I had protrusions on either side of my head. I bonked at least one of my children at least once that morning!

Final note: my hanger happened to match my hair color quite well. If that’s not the case for you, you could try putting the wire on the head before making the braids, combing some hair over it, and then braiding around the wire. That was a lot harder for me, but maybe if I had been doing it on someone else, it would have worked better.

Rapunzel’s Dress

How perfect is this:

I’m sitting around, wondering what I’m going to make a Rapunzel dress out of, not wanting to buy anything (because I’m cheap and I hate errands) but not having anything suitable in my stash.

My friend stops by, says “I need to get more suitable curtains for the sliding door in our kitchen; do you want my old ones?” and then pulls out yards and yards of a creamy, floaty, shimmery fabric. Yes!

So here is Rapunzel in her not-covered-by-a-tower dress. Or, because I wasn’t about to mess around making a bodice, in her already-had-it-in-the-closet shirt with a little puff sleeve added on, and a big puffy skirt made of my friend’s old curtains plus odds and ends.

The skirt – a full circle skirt – was very twirly. And very swishy too, thanks to the big puffy crinoline I cut off of the lining of my oldest’s flower girl dress to reuse here.

But the skirt was also very plain. Sophie wanted “that stuff that hangs down over the skirt” (explained while making large hand motions from her waist downward and outward). Lucky for her, I had a rectangle of pink sparkly fabric. And lucky for me, who has NO idea how to make a proper overskirt, my basting, gathering, sewing, and safety-pinning in place (see diagram below) worked well enough.

(The dashed lines are basting/sewing lines. The dimensions are only
included so you can get an idea of how large the rectangle was
compared to the skirt, in case you want to try this for yourself.)

Overskirt accomplished.

The rosette at the waist was made from the leftover circle cut out of the middle of the skirt piece. I guess I was in a drawing mood today:

Then some ribbon at the waist (to cover bottom part of the rosette), some more at the end of the braid, and a bit more as a choker, and Rapunzel was ready (shown here during her Kindergarten Costume Parade, winding through every classroom of her school so the “big kids” could see all the costumes).

* * *

P.S. Here’s the whole crew on trick-or-treating night.

A little too late, I thought how cute it would’ve been to make some coordinating candy collectors, like what Pottery Barn often does. Rapunzel could have had a bucket decorated to look like a tower. The  Witch/Evil Hag Who Locked Rapunzel Up In The Tower could have had something resembling a head of lettuce (which is what Rapunzel’s dad stole from the Hag, resulting in Rapunzel’s incarceration). And the Mermaid – a fish perhaps? Or open clamshell?

Maybe next year… if the costumes are done earlier than two minutes before walking out to trick-or-treat.

Rapunzel’s Tower

So two weeks ago, after the hair was done, I did start in on the tower.

OK, so that’s what it looked like after I photoshopped Paint-Shop-Proed on some brick lines and leaves. I’d planned to have Sophie help me draw them on for real. Unfortunately, it never got past this…

…because Sophie had a change of heart. After trying it on and seeming excited about it and picking out grey ribbon for the “suspenders” instead of the random burgundy I’d selected and then going to bed while I continued to work on it, she informed me the next morning that she didn’t want a tower after all.

Really? {JD, that’s for you! Ha ha!}

Apparently, my comment before we even started making the tower had finally sunk in: “Well, if you wear a tower, you won’t really need a whole dress – nobody will see the skirt part. But we’ll make your top look real fancy!”

To a 35-year-old, a tower is essential to a cool Rapunzel costume. But lose three decades? Then it’s all about the dress! What was I thinking?!?

Perhaps I’ll be Rapunzel next year – the tower folds up flat for storage.

Just might be a wee bit too short for me…

Rapunzel’s Hair

First part of Sophie’s costume is done. And it’s not even Halloween Day yet! Wait, not totally done – I still have to trim the bangs/pony/fringe and tack the braid in place. And decide if we’re cutting off the stuff that drags on the ground… or pinning it up?

Materials used:

• 7 oz Red Heart Super Saver yarn, color: Cornmeal
• old adult T-shirt

A few photos and quick comments of what I did…

Cut one sleeve off T-shirt. Running stitch, pulled tight and knotted, gathers the sleeve opening to make a crude cap.

For the bangs/fringe: Wrapped the hair, put tape on one edge, cut the other.

Sewed along center of tape.

Pulled off the tape and sewed the center of the bangs (where I just sewed) to the edge of the cap. Swept all the strands forward (so half of them are folded over the stitched seam).

For the long hair: Same as for the bangs, except a lot longer. I made the cardboard jagged at one end so there would be “layers” in the finished hair. Thought that would make a tapering braid, if I braided the whole thing. If I were to do it over, I would have probably made it all one length…

Scrunched the yarn at one edge together until it was about the width of the wig base from front to crown. Put packing tape on this edge.

Sewed down the middle again.

Sewed yarn to wig base. I’m wishing I had put the “part” off-center instead of smack down the middle. But then again, another year we can just add some tie dye and bell bottoms and have a flower child wig. : )

Poll was taken regarding “curly” or straight bangs. Straight won out, so under the iron it went.

Since the hair was only attached at the center top “part”, if it swung forward or back, the white cap was visible. If I’d wanted to spend more time and yarn on this (which I didn’t), I would have make some more hair to add under the hair already on here. Two or three rows, probably. But instead, to keep the hair where it belongs, I smoothed the hair down, put more tape (from one ear, around the back, to the other ear), pinned the taped hair to the cap (all while Sophie was wearing the wig), and then sewed over the tape and hair.

So the braid is not just for decoration; it also covers that second line of stitching.

Next on the list: the tower…

Instant 80s Hair

…Hmm, I’m not sure how to write this. Any way I put it, at some point I’ll have to admit that I had some extra hair of mine just laying around (in a nice neat braid) in my closet. A hair-donation attempt that didn’t work out… Will they think think that’s weird? Or creepy? Or “no wonder she has a messy house – she’s can’t even throw away her old hair…”?

Well, that extra hair it sure came in handy for a party last weekend. Some dear friends of ours host an annual Christmas celebration. This year, they decided to add an 80s theme and encouraged people to dress accordingly. Here’s my man and me… and my hair…

If you’re still reading (and are intrigued rather than repulsed), here’s a fun photo. Can’t say I’ve ever sewn this “material” before…

In the end, the sewing was unnecessary. Some glue and a comb (and some cardstock) was all I needed. Well, and a curling iron of course. And lots and lots of hairspray…

Result: Well, I don’t think I would’ve won “Best Dresses Female” without the hair. (There were some great outfits there!!! Hilarious what we wore back then!)

And the bangs (or “fringe” for you non-American English speakers) have been making the rounds in the house, instantly transporting people back 20 years… even if they weren’t alive two decades ago.

Like my 4-year-old daughter and my 19-year-old cousin…

Oh, and my man won “Best Dress Male.” My hair might have helped out there too. There was just a small bit of ponytail leftover after my project; he saw it while getting ready and remembered back to the days of the rattail. Little bit of tape and he was set. Ugh! (Or rather “Gag me with a spoon!”)

Short Post-Halloween Recap

So here are my little Catwoman and Cheetah. Picked this photo since it shows not only the costumes but also the current level of health in our house. (My littlest, Purple Cat, didn’t even make it outside…)

At one point last week, I wondered if it was even worth it to finish the costumes since I didn’t think they’d actually get used; the girls had been lethargic all day Thursday and Friday. Happily, by Saturday, they seemed to be on the mend, so we forged ahead and got things done.

But Monday, the Ick started up all over again. And this time, it included me too. So that’s the end of this recap.

Non-droopy Tail for Animal Costume How-To

There seems to be a cat theme in our house for Halloween this year. So that means lots of tails. Lucky for me, there’s only one new one to make this year – the rest are being dug out of the costume box. Like Purple Cat’s tail from last year.

If you want to make your own non-droopy animal tail, here’s how:

You need a wire coat hanger, some stuffing, some fabric and other stuff like needle and thread, pliers, etc. A ribbon* and safety pin will come in handy for turning the tail right-side-out. (*Actually, I used bias tape ’cause that’s what was laying around. Anything long and stringy would do…)

Straighten out the coat hanger, then form it into a loop that fits around the wearer’s waist. Bend a little hook into one end of the loop and a sharp corner at the other so the hook has something to… um, hook on to. (Where's a thesaurus when I need one?) In the photo, the tail portion is also bent into a nice tail shape; don’t do that yet; keep it nice and straight for now. Also, in the photo, the loop is a nice circle. In order to actually be worn comfortably by a human, it should be an oval. But you'd figure that out yourself as soon as your then-3-year-old says "Mommy, too tight!"

(For an adult’s tail, you’ll probably have to first twist two coat hangers together; most of one hanger will be used up for the loop…)

Pin the ribbon onto the right side of some fabric, near the edge. Make sure it’s longer than the tail. (You'll cut the fabric after it's sewn.)

Sometimes, I take all these pictures and then later, am not sure why. Does anyone really need to see what a safety-pinned ribbon end looks like?... Ooh, maybe I wanted to document that you need to keep a little space beyond the pin so you can sew around it?

Next, fold the fabric up over the ribbon, right sides of the fabric together. Pin if you want. The ribbon should lay right along the fold.

Sew a tail-shaped seam, making sure not to catch the ribbon in the seam.

Again with the close-up…. And in the moments between inserting all the pictures then adding all the text so far and now, I forget why I thought this photo would be at all helpful...

Next, cut around the seam. Remember that ribbon on the inside… (I didn’t want to cut mine.)

Turn the tail right side out. The wrinkles in the photo are in the wrong spot – I found it easier to start near the tip of the tail, pulling on the ribbon while I coaxed the fabric to turn in on itself…

Unpin the ribbon, then start stuffing the tail. And finish off by maneuvering the wire through the stuffing. See, that’s why I recommended it stay straight.

I didn’t do anything at the base of the tail to keep it attached near the loop, though some quick basting stitches to pull it tight (or even some well-placed tape) would’ve kept it from raveling unraveling** and wanting to ride up the tail a little or lose a bit of its stuffing. Actually, I just hooked the hook around it; that held it nice enough.

(**Wait, I think “ravel” and “unravel” are synonyms! That’s crazy! )

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: This tail, while so cute and fun, is also very boingy and—depending on how you shape it—right at eye-level of any peers of the person wearing it. So if said person whips around quickly, they might take out an eye of said peers. That would make for one sad cat.

So, use at your own risk. Especially on costumes for preschoolers. Or boys.