Weave Your Own Wig

Sometimes store bought wigs can be.... disappointing. The colors are limited, the hair falls out, they can't be styled with heat, and you can usually only part them in one place. There are tutorials online that can help transform a store bought wig, but they can only go so far. However, this tutorial will guide you through making your own completely customizable wig without all of the expensive equipment and materials.

Step 1: What You Need:

-Acrylic Yarn. It's important that the yarn you use is 100% acrylic. Which is good because that's the least expensive kind and it comes in every color. I used a $4 ball of CraftSmart yarn from Michael's.

-Weaving Cap. A fishnet wig cap would work too. Here's the one I used. It's durable and adjustable. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QU9P3I4/ref=p...

-Thread. It's best if it matches your yarn.

-Thin craft wire.

-A brush. Wire pet brushes work best but an ordinary one works.

-Hairspray.

-Scissors.

-Flat Iron.

-Foam head or similar round object to hold your wig.

Step 2: Make Your Wefts.

In order to make wigs, professional wig makers use something called wefts, which are attached sections of synthetic hair that are sewn onto the cap to give the appearance of them growing out of the wearers head.

To make your wefts you first need to cut your yarn into many pieces that are the same length. In order to do this quickly it helps to wrap your yarn around a glass and cut through the bundle.

Then you should tie each piece in the middle around another piece as shown in the photos above. Keep adding pieces of yarn until you have a long enough weft. When you have a few of these, you can start brushing them out by holding one end of the weft and gently brushing the other until the fibers separate. (another great by-product of this project is all the fluff that's left over when you brush out the weft. it makes great stuffing for your projects and is similar to Poly-Fil.)

Step 3: Ironing and Pinning

After you have a sizable pile of fuzzy wefts, you should start to straighten them.

Put your iron on the lowest setting and straighten them the way you would your own hair. If the weft gets tangled you can just give it a quick brush and hit it again with the flat iron.

After straightening the wefts, pin them where you want them on the weaving cap. It's best to place them radiating out from the center, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Once you're happy with what it looks like you can sew them down with any stitch you want to, as long as the needle goes through the knots where you originally tied the yarn.

Step 4: Adding Your Part

The best.... part ;) about this wig is that you can part it in a way that actually looks natural. Since I was making this wig for my Party Poison costume, I used a picture of him as a reference. He has a kind of messy side part so I parted it on the side and filled it in randomly with tiny wefts. If yo want a wig that can be parted in any direction, simply make a few extra wefts to completely fill the top of the wig.

The most important thing to do is make sure that your part wefts are small. That way the gaps between the wefts can be minimized so they aren't seen.

The second picture is what it looks like when you're done. :)

Step 5: Cut and Style Your Wig

Once it's all put together you can cut your wig to make it look how you need it to. This was much easier than I expected it to be because the fine synthetic fibers are very cooperative,and if you mess up too badly you can always just replace the weft with a new one.

Once it's cut, you can use hairspray, curlers, or flat irons to style it. All I did to make mine look more spiky was put some hairspray on my fingers and pinch the ends of a few strands to give them a little definition. I sealed the whole thing with more hairspray and it was ready to go! This is one of my favorite wigs to wear because it's easy to style and really quite comfortable. Since it was made to fit my head I can wear it despite the fact that I have a lot of really long hair tucked into my wig cap.

Enjoy! Please make sure to like this Instructable and leave a comment if you make one!