Hand Made Monster High Wig

My daughter is in love with monster high  right now.  I think it's mostly because the older girls like monster high, but whatever the case may be, she does enjoy playing with these dolls!  So of course when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween this year, her answer was "Frankie!" - a monster high character for those of you who don't already know ;)

 

Now I don't know about you, but I personally do not like those wigs that you can buy at the costume shops.  They are full of static and after you wear them once they are practically destroyed! So I asked a friend of mine who is also very crafty, if she had any ideas! She sent me the following link: http://blog.booturtle.com/2011/11/jasmine-yarn-wig.html - I was amazed at how real this wig looked! So I set out to make one for my daughters costume!

 

She was so happy with how the wig that she requested that I make a bunch of them for her fashion show that she will be having at her birthday party (in April!!!!)

 

I did a little step by step on how I made this wig - but for a full instructional step by step please visit the above link! I found it very helpful!

 

First step was to take a pair of tights and use them for the wig foundation! True you can go and buy a brand new pair of tights from Walmart for about $5-$6 - but since my daughter only wears dresses (yes that is correct, only dresses - it's actually a good thing sometimes.... if she is acting up, I can say things like "Hey if you don't do..... I will take all your dresses away and you will have to wear pants today!!!" The reaction that gets is priceless!!!)

 

So anyways, she has an entire drawer full of old tights, or tights that I feel are too scuzzy to wear to school or in public, so she is only allowed to wear them in the backyard to play! And as it so happens, these tights are perfect for mommy to use in the creation of these monster high wigs!

 

I took the tights and put them on her head first.  Then I tied a knot in the les right at the crown of her head.  Next I sewed the tights just above the knot.  Once that was done, I cut the legs off. (don't throw those away though - they will come in handy in a little bit!!

 

 

Next I tried to figure out how long to make the wig.... once I made a guess as to how long it needed to be, I set out to find something in the house that I could use to wrap the yarn around that was the same length that I was looking for! Ding, ding, ding - the winner was my kids lego table! I started at one side and wrapped the yarn over and under and over and under until I was happy with how much yarn I had.  Now the yarn I was using was actually free from a friend of mine, but for colours for the upcoming wigs (I will post those pictures once I make them) that I did not currently have, I actually went to the Dollar tree and found a number of colours there!

 

Once I was finished rolling everything, I cut along the one end of the table.....

 

 

.......and I was left with a bunch of really long strands.

Take those strands and make a number of piles, each with approximately 10-12 strands of yarn in each pile.

 

Fold them each in half and you are ready to begin sewing them together! Don't forget, for Frankie you also need to cut black yarn for her highlights ;)

 

 

Now it's time to sew! At first I followed the way that I read about from the Jasmine wig and used the sewing machine to sew the strands directly onto the tights.... I found that it was too difficult for me and finished the wig (especially with the alternating colours) by hand.  I took my strands, folded them in half and ran them through the sewing machine.  Then while I was watching tv, I sewed them into place by hand! Tried it on my daughter a few times to get the right fall of the "hair" and it worked out just great for me!

 

 

The bangs: I went back and used the leg portion of her tights for this! Worked great for adding that extra height to the wig too!

 

First, I rolled the tights up.....

 

 

Then I hand stitched the openings together until I had two little "pillows"

 

Sew them onto the wig base (by hand)



 

 Add the yarn and poof!!! You have bangs! I also used a little bit of hot glue to secure the bang strands in place and I found that it was very helpful!

 

ALOT of black and white groupings later, and she has a fantastic wig to go with her Frankie costume! And yes, mommy will of course make more for the birthday party in April ;)

 

Miss Frankie Stein is ready to trick or treat!

 

 

The shoes were a great find from value village and I just used duct tape to make the white stripes! There is another way to make these shoes though if you are not looking to ruin your daughters black heels - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-ESWxLV9Mw - you will also find some great makeup tutorials from this little girl! My daughter loves to watch Emma transform herself into the monsters! 

 

 

Monster High Doll House

 

This year for Christmas my daughter asked for a Monster high doll house..... now she was asking me for the monster high doll houses that you can purchase in the stores like this one

Did you know they want $100 for this little piece of plastic?! It got me to thinking - what other options are out there? A lot of people take Barbie houses and paint them and they look great! I was all set to o that route when I came across this amazing blog page: http://lolasminihomes.blogspot.ca/

This woman makes the most amazing doll houses out of cardboard boxes!!! AND she makes full instructional videos on how she makes  everything! It's a great blog and I highly recommend that you take a look!

 

I have taken a few photo's of my doll house to show the process as well as the final product - but for anyone thinking about taking on this HUGE project please visit the above blog site, it is SO worth it! I was able to get all of my cardboard boxes from a department store - the only things I paid for were the glue, paints and accessories! It didn't cost a lot of money to make - but it was a HUGE undertaking and I literally spent months working on this project!

 

Cardboard is all glued and assembled - next step is paper mache!

 



 

Finally have this monster sized doll house covered and it's ready for the paint!

 

 

All set up for a Monster Make Over!

 

My friend found this bath tub for me at Walmart! Works perfect for the bathroom!

All of the rooms were hand painted and I just added some bling from stickers that I found at the dollar store! The pictures on the walls were little frames I found at Micheal's and I just painted them silver and printed out photos to go inside!

 



 

The beds were really easy to make - sponges from the dollar store, and left over cardboard! All covered in fabric! Jewels from the dollar store (the dollar stores were great for helping me to add embellishments to this creation!)

 

After working on this doll house for so many months, I was tired, and Christmas was fast approaching - something had to give and it was this room :( I made sure to paint it up real nice because I knew there was no way I would have time to make furniture for it! It actually worked out ok though - my daughter got draculaura's car for Christmas and she has taken to parking it in this room!! LOL!! So I guess it is a fancy garage? Hahahahaha!

 

 

The end result? My baby girl loves her new doll house and has lot's of new monster high dolls to put inside! She even got the 13 wishes oasis for Christmas and it fits perfectly on the balcony! Sometimes things just work out I guess!

 

Never again will I take on a huge project like this though - it took so long (especially since I could only work on it when she was in school). I LOVE how it all came together and I am so proud that I made this amazing doll house!