Jessie's Red Yarn Wig - DIY

I have to say, this was one of the craziest ideas I've had in a long time.
Sure, I can make a wig. Never mind I've never even worn one before.

So I don't claim that this is the most professional, long lasting, easiest way to do this. But I couldn't find anything else on the web to help me, so maybe this will help you.

Supplies
Large Red Yarn - 3 bundles of it
(sorry I don't know these technical terms, you want it thick, red, and 3 bundles of it at least.)
Red fabric - just a small piece
Crappy Tape
Pins
Sewing machine & red thread
a foam ball, or foam of some kind

Step 1. Measure from your forehead hairline to your back of the neck hair line.
Cut a strip from the red fabric this length and 1.5 inches wide. Round the "front" of it- see pic below.

Step 2. Make some sort of support for your ball to sit on so it is secure enough to work on. You'll see mine a few pics down. Super inventive I know.



Step 3. Pin the fabric onto the ball, and place crappy, not too sticky, masking tape sticky side up over the fabric. On second though, you could just use some fabric tape here and stick it under the fabric and never remove it if you want, just don't put too much tape showing.

Step 4. Begin unraveling the yarn to make the hair. I held the end in one hand, and with the other continually draped the yarn over my arm. The length of the loops were around 3 - 4 feet long. Just do one yarn bundle for now. Don't cut the ends yet.

Steps 3 & 5



Step 5. Gently place the yarn onto the tape, pinning as needed. Don't press it down too hard, it will stick.

Step 6. Sew the yarn in pace by making one seam down the center. This will look like the "part in her hair."

Step 7. Repeat 4-6 with the other two bundles of yarn until the majority of the red fabric is covered and there is no white ball showing through. You don't need to cover all the red fabric, just use your judgement of how much hair you need to hide in this wig. For longer hair, use a shorter amount of the fabric strip. This will leave more loose space to put your hair in. I think my strip was around 9 inches long, and my hair comes slightly past my shoulders.

Step 8. Cut the ends and start braiding! I used an extra piece of yarn to tie the top and bottom.

Step 5 & 8



Step 8. Carefully remove the tape and trim the ends of the braid.

Step 9. Parade around in your new Cow Girl Jessie Yarn Wig!!!

For the actual use I put my hair in a bun and had someone tie a piece of yarn around the wig and bun together to secure the wig. I also used lots of hair pins to hold the backside in place. It worked perfectly and I was able to comfortably wear the wig all night!!

My crowing compliment was at the end of the night when I finally tucked the wig behind my ears, revealing my real brown hair, and heard a small gasp behind me. Later on the Disney bus ride back the Grandma sitting next to me told me her granddaughter knew I wasn't the REAL Jessie because she could see my brown hair.
That made me feel so good. That means she questioned it for a second at least! You can't ask for more than that out of your costume.

I found the hat at the Disney Store in the mall for $12 ish dollars.

Back views



Toy Story Costumes cont: Jessie Chaps & Woody Vest

Supplies:
White Vinyl
Black Felt
Black Piping
Fabric glue - I used Fabri-Tac by Beacon
Sewing stuff.
Jeans you don't want (or that have huge holes in the knees even though they are really nice jeans)

I wanted to use a really heavy fabric for the chaps and vest so they would hang like real leather. luckily the craft store had two large fabric remnants of white vinyl. Nice.

I searched the Internet for Jessie pics and Jessie costumes to find ones that were close to the character. I used this inspiration pic to get a feel for what the chaps should look like>>

Then I just started cutting. I pinned one chap to the pair of pants I was going to donate to this costume, refined the shape a little more, and then cut another one for the other leg.
It is very helpful to have a toddler help you practice being "scary" while you ponder upon the shape of the chaps.
Then using tracing paper, or tissue paper, I cut out some cow print spots that resembled the cow spots on the actual Jessie character's pants.

You can guess the next part. Cut, place, glue.
Finally I sewed the black pipping around the outside edge, and added a few white frills off either chap.

Then, well, this is the part I hadn't thought of till it was upon me. I had to hand sew each chap onto my jeans. I don't know what else I was thinking, but I really thought this step would be easier. It wasn't bad, I'm just not very talented at sewing so it was slow.

Buuut:

wala! Jessie cow chaps!

Honestly the vest is exactly the same process just no black piping.

Using a vest we already had, I just traced the outlines onto the vinyl, cut it out, and sewed the ends together. Poof. Vest!

 Then again with the analyzing Woody's cow print on his vest and making my own similar cow prints.

Lots of glue later...

OH yea. I added a Styrofoam ring and some rope on a safety pin to make pull strings for us both.

Costume Time

We are going to Disney's Not so Scary Halloween Party this year..

My husband suggested we dress up as a family...

Toy Story Style.

So naturally I couldn't just go BUY Toy Story costumes! (Even though I would guess it is cheaper than making your own when you are ridiculously detailed like I am). So the hunt began...

 I spent half of last week hunting for shirts, hats, fabric and glues of all kinds. Then I spent the rest of the week working on various parts of each costume. My Jessie shirt is the only thing complete at the weekend's end. But I think I will have everything done in time.

I started with a Goodwill $4.95 shirt with 3/4 short sleeves.
(this is going to be in Florida! I'm not wearing long sleeves!)

I had to find a yellow Woodie shirt for Brian, then I could match a yellow fabric for my shirt. Using tracing paper, I drew/traced the shape I wanted, cut it out, fixed things, then used Under Wonder to iron the yellow fabric onto the shirt. This was actually the most difficult part of the whole thing. Ironing onto stretchy material is difficult. You have stretch EVERYTHING so it is perfectly flat before ironing.

Next I drew my Jessie swirls on tracing paper, and then hand traced that onto the yellow fabric. I used Tacky glue and glued down the red rope, but I sewed it down later. I figure I'll be holding Bradley, this stuff needs to stay put!

Many pins were used to hold the rope in place while it dried. I am not a talented sewer, and could have NEVER just sewed these swirls on!

Ta da!

We are slowly approaching:

I tackled the sleeve cuffs next.

Mine are going to be at my elbow though. Which I think is a way cute spin on the costume, but you can decide.

I used tracing paper to make an arm band, then cut it out of the yellow fabric. I ironed the yellow fabric to some really thick Pellon stuff. I don't know what it is.

Then I tried various swirl designs. Big ones and little ones.

Ya gotta go with the little ones, even though they are more work. They look so much closer to the original charater. I didn't want to redraw everything, twice, so I traced it on! Brilliant!!

 Again with the pins.

 A little sewing  and some felt pieces and I have my super cute, Jessie arm cuffs!

Now I need red yarn hair!

Don't worry, I'm working on that too...