Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Wig attempt 2 - WIN!

Ok, so by now you may have seen my first fail attempt at making Alex's wig. If not, it's here.

Now we can get to the good part.

So I abandoned the crappy wig the day after I started it. The more I had thought about it the more I knew it would never work. The materials were just too crappy. A friend reminded me that we have a...hair store (?) literally right around the corner that sells extensions and wigs to humans, so we went there to have a look around. I had a mini-fail there as well lol. I first bought some hair that was (badly) dyed and in a package so it was impossible to tell what I was buying. I opened it in the car and found it to be short (like really short)...so back to the hair store we went. As soon as I freaking walked in the door I found the perfect bright green color in a nice long length and got mildly excited...mildly because they didn't have purple...just blue. Lots of blue. So much blue that I became suspicious and moved one to find purple underneath!! YAY!

So with hair in hand I went home to (re)start the wig.

wig progress 9

You can see where I drew on the cap so I would know where the wefts should go. I also drew on his head by accident...but it was only pencil XD

wig progress 10

 Some similar progress pics. I made sure to sew this one better. It fits him perfectly and is not deformed this time. Because of the way his hair is styled I did have to start curving the hair line in an odd way, and had to use little pieces to fill in the gaps... wig progress 11
So it looks horrible here XD But then I covered it up. wig progress 12

Next time I do something like this (*ded*) I'm using my actual camera, instead of my phone :\

wig progress 13

Ok, here's the part that gave me the most stress...the part. On the first version, I did it wrong...I started with the part part (omg) and worked out...that didn't work. I also did the purple first. Also a bad idea. This was much easier.
 wig progress 14

The part is where I had to use the tutorial on DOA LINK
I still had to amend because it's two colors, parted on the side (ugh) and not handmade wefts, but without this I might have been completely lost.

Seriously, this thing was gorgeous before I cut it...I kept petting it >.< wig progress 15 wig progress 16 wig progress 17

 Purple!!
 wig progress 18 wig progress 19
To get the purple in there, I sew the wefts over the green, that way it looks like the hair is seamless, even though it's kind of a mess.


LOL Alex hiding from the world on my desk in between working on him. The bright light is my computer, not a window, but there was enough natural light that I still covered him up...and thought it was funny enough to take a pic XD
 wig progress 20
 I kinda failed in taking pictures during the purple...I was excited and in a hurry to finish at that point...^^; BUT here it is finished!
 wig progress 21
 The part was a weft folded in half, sewn, the hair separated then because it's heat resistant, I stuck in a curling iron for a few seconds to fold it down into a head shape. I really wish the hair had been a little different...the wefts were made not by folding the hair in half but just the ends over, so little pieces were still there. Plus the purple was thinner than the green. It still worked well (especially for my first wig) but I do wish it was a little more perfect.
 wig progress 23

It was so pretty X3
 wig progress 22
 I put it on Alex III and took a lot of shots of him outside in it before cutting it...that's what I lost. So they're gone forever, as I cut the thing to shreds the next morning.... and it looked like this (on my wig boiling rig - a wine bottle with a wooden ball on a chopstick XD). wig progress 24
NO amount of styling would get it to lay down. He sat for three days with a ribbon on his head until I figured I would have to do something drastic like pull out a lot of the middle wefts...instead I boiled it. I've boiled wigs many times before but I didn't really know how boiling would work on natural fibers, however, that did it!

 This, which you may have seen already, was the first pic after it dried from the boiling.
 MUCH better.
 smALEXIII new wig1

 After a little more cutting and styling
smALEXIIIwig 2
 I would consider it still not 100% finished. I would still like to see if I can get a little wave in it, get some of the shorter longer pieces to curl out some, and probably trim the stuff I missed because I SWEAR no matter how many wigs I've cut, there's always something I missed >.<

I'm also still trying to decide if I want to remove some of the purple under the green on the side....it's more purple than I meant to have. It's not horrible, but I am trying to stick as close to this
smalex HOLIDAY2011

as is possible and the purple is only in the front. BUT it's a doll wig vs actual hair (albeit drawn hair) so I don't expect it to be totally accurate. It would be nice! But realistically...not gonna happen.

Anyway, there it is. My first hand-made fiber wig (probably my last). I am sorry I didn't make it more like a tutorial, but I'm not good at those, and with a lack of decent progress photos...well, it would have sucked anyway XD

Thank you <33

11 comments:

  1. I think the end result is lovely! I really like how you managed to style it! And when I got to the point where it was behaving improperly by being too puffy I kept thinking "boil it! That'll do it!" and then you did. XD (I'm a bit overzealous with the wig boiling lately)

    Perhaps you could use the curling iron again to get the waves and such into it where you want?

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    1. Thank you! <3
      ha ha me too! I had been all about boiling this crappy blond wig I bought off the MP before I started this monstrosity...but the wig was made badly to begin with and those never seem to work out well.

      I'm definitely going to try a curling iron...but I only had a large one left over from the days when I actually bothered to straighten my own hair (now I don't do shit to my own hair XD), and I think I need a much smaller one. Gotta hit the Target this weekend!

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  2. VA13, you NAILED it. This is gorgeous on Alex. I know you want to add a bit of wave, but the way you got it sleeked down in front & fluffed in back is fantastic!

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    1. Thank youuuuu I love it X3 It's so much better than all his other wigs put together! I'm kind of hoping I can sleek it back down if the waving doesn't work...it is mostly human hair and it styles really well...so in theory it should work! In theory....

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  3. You did an awesome job on the wig!

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    1. I love this wig.
      Admittedly when I read you were boiling it I got confused.
      But I have NO experience with wigs beyond Purchase, it fits, YAY!.

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    2. Thank you! Lol boiling wigs is something I started doing early on in an attempt at styling. sometimes it works and sometimes I fail! =D
      I have another blond wig I need to boil...I should do that tonight...

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  4. Wow! This has been extremely helpful! I've been trying to find some decent guides for doll wig making outside of DoA (I don't know anyone on the inside to send me an invite DX) and this was exactly what I needed~

    When you did the part, did you sew the weft to itself along the bottom and then attach it? This was the only bit that was a little unclear to me~ Thanks!

    ~Boussole

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    1. I'm glad it helped! :D

      Yeah, that's what I did to the part...I folded it in half, sewed the bottom and...parted it lol. Then after hitting it with the curling iron (I tried pressing it with books, but that didn't come close to working...had to be heat. I'm not sure how I'd do it with non-heat resistant fiber) and sewed it on like normal in the tiny space I'd left for it.

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    2. Awesome! I'll have to give that a try. Lucky for me, my fibers are heat resistant~ ^___^

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