A Jasmine Yarn Wig

Princess Fierce wanted to be Jasmine for Halloween. She made up her mind in September and never wavered. I'm fairly confident the decision was based purely on the fact she wears a two piece outfit. I lucked out and found two complete blue and pink Jasmine costume including gold shoes at a local consignment store for under $30 for everything.

She wore the pink outfit to see Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream with her cousin. An excellent show if you can still catch it in your town. For the show I tried to style her short, thin hair in the best imitation of Jasmine's hair I could manage. She loved the result. But for Halloween I'd made the offhand comment that I thought I could make her a Jasmine yarn wig. After Disney on Ice she told me she hoped I could make one but if I couldn't she'd be happy with her hair this way again. Such a sweet girl.

I searched Pinterest and Google for inspiration but came up with only one other person making a yarn Jasmine wig. And she used a completely different method than I was comfortable with. I cannot crochet yarn into a highlighting cap. Nope. So I went my own way. I started with a pair of black girls tights from the clearance rack at Target. $1.50 for her wig cap. I put the waist around her hairline then tied a tight knot with the legs. 

 
I didn't want the protruding knot on top. I ran the cap through my sewing machine with a zig zag stitch just below the knot.

I trimmed off the knot and was left with a much flatter cap.

It was still a perfect fit on her head.

I used two skeins of this black yarn. One for the body of the wig and about half of a second for the rolls up front.

I wrapped the yarn around the end of my 36" wide dining room table multiple times. I snipped one end but did not cut or tie the other end, now the middle of my yarn. Sorry I don't have pictures. I got wrapped up in the making process. What I was left with was strands of yarn about 72". I made a lot of these! The entire skein of yarn was used and cut into 72" lengths.

Next I would take about 12 strands of yarn at a time and fold them in half. I'd then take the center of the folded yarn and begin stitching it straight down the center of my cap. It was easy to follow the seam in the hose to stay centered when i began. I did not pin. I would just hold them in place and slowly stitch.

As I got close to the end of a group I'd stop and grab more to slide under the presser foot and right up against the others.

All the strands attached with a center part created.

Princess Fierce was getting excited I might pull this off. The wig was very long and heavy at this point. But there was a big problem still. How to do the rolls at her crown? I hadn't quite figured that out until I spotted these...

Luck would have it I had just cleaned out an old drawer in my bathroom and stumbled on these ancient foam rollers. They were headed for the trash but instead. 

I took the foam off and realized it was exactly what I needed.

I needed more bundles of yarn for the crown. I again wrapped the yarn around my table. This time doing six bundles of 12 strands each.

I tied each set of twelve with a small piece of yarn in the center.

A dab of hot glue on the foam.

Attach the center tied portion of yarn flat.

Then roll to the desired thickness.

A line of hot glue when I reached my preferred thickness.

And roll across the glue to secure the roll.

I put the wig on a decorative Halloween skull for the next part. A small ball would work too. I flipped the hair to the other side of the stitched part so I could work up front.

Starting right against the part I stitched three rolls on each side. I used black thread to sew them on in the middle right to the front of the wig cap. Sewing each one one at a time and sewing through the foam.

How it looked when all six were sewn on.

Final details I also couldn't photograph while I was working. I had Princess Fierce put the wig on while I adjusted the yarn for proper fall. I bought blue grosgrain ribbon for the head band. For the jewel I found the perfect oval gems at Hobby Lobby as well as a medallion frame pendant in the Jewelry department. I hot glued the gem into the gold frame then used snippers to cut off the loop where it would've hung on a necklace. I hand stitched the ribbon behind the rolls of yarn hair at each end. And put a dab of hot glue underneath the middle on top to keep the weight of the gem from causing it to slip.

I used a small piece of yarn to tie two tight knots and create the two bulging ponytail sections. Tying more grosgrain over the yarn to hide it. Then trimmed the wig to her waist. She wanted it longer and there was plenty of yarn but it was far too heavy if I'd kept it past her bum.

Do I even have to say she loved it?

She loved it almost as much as being allowed to wear eye shadow.

Our crew heading out for a night of trick or treating. The wig stayed on the entire night. And now it's a happy addition to our burgeoning dress up collection.