Wig Washing (mini tutorial)

So there is a character in Star Command named Red Mary. She is a pirate with red hair. As the costume designer (and now actress for Red Mary) I need to give her red hair. The nice part of this situation is that I already own a red wig. The downside is that the condition it was in was not one you want to see in HD video.

The wig pre washing. You can't really see all the tangles in the picture.

Thankfully all that was needed to restore this lovely wig is a bit of wig shampoo, de-tangler and a comb.

Supplies and wig

The night before I hit up Sally's for some wig shampoo, which would be the Revlon bottle in the above picture. Since this is my first time washing a wig with shampoo I read and reread the directions on teh bottle about 12 times.

Step one is to fill a basin (aka pot) with cool water and add a small amount of shampoo to the water. 

Step two is to submerge the wig into the water. This was kind of weirdly nerve wrecking as I would hate to accidently ruin such a nice wig. My nerves were misplaced and I knew it.

Step three is to leave the wig to soak for a few minutes and agitate gently. Considering it's winter and the water is cold, my hand was not impressed with this step.

Step four was to rinse the wig in cool water.

It looked like a drowned rat when I hung it up to dry.

Step five is to hang the wig up to dry. You don't want to put it on a wig head to dry as that will keep the base/scalp/net of the wig from drying fully or quickly. Also, I don't own a wig head. :P

While it was still very wet I did a small bit of combing just to get the big chunks separated so they could dry easier. As it dried I continued to come back and comb parts out. As well as to spray the de-tangler onto the wig.

Step six is to comb it out with the de-tangler when dry. As mentioned above I spread this step out. The bottom where the worst of the tangling ended up drying very quickly so i tackled that part first and then left the rest to dry before combing it out.

Finished product clean and combed and ready for wearing.

Front of wig on once it's dry and combed.

The back all combed out.

I have to say I am very pleased with the finished result and can't wait to get more use out of such a nice wig. And after all that not so hard but tome consuming work, I had to put it on and take some fun/funny photos.

Who's pulling on my hair?

Mermaid hair pose. This is how I always imagine mermaid hair when they're out of the water.

Hair mustache!

In non wig related news, I am kicking butt on getting my Christmas presents done and packaged. I have a stack on my ironing board ready to go to the post office. I also got some supplies I ordered for some bags. I'm hoping they turn out not to be a pain in the ass to make. I'll keep you all posted.

After this weekend I will have some more on set costume pictures for you all.

Tutorial: Needle Book

So my sewing box is full of things that I have to have with me but are in packages that are hard to store or take up much more space then it needs to. So I am on a constant mission to keep my sewing box clean, neat and organized.

One item that I have a few of and knew I could condense down was hand needles. I have 3 or 4 packages of them in my sewing box which is kind of ridiculous. So I decided to fix this problem by creating a Needle Book and figured I would bring you along for the ride. So let's hop to!

Needle Book Tutorial

Materials:

- scrap of fabric

- felt

-scissors

-pins

-ruler & marking tool

-button

-Needle and thread or sewing machine

-iron

1. Cut a rectangle from the fabric and felt 6.5" x 5". I like to create patterns so I created the rectangle out of dot fabric before cutting the rectangle from the fabric. You can skip that step and just use the ruler and marking tool (such a chalk) to mark out the rectangle.

2. Cut a 3.5" x 3" rectangle out of the fabric on the fold.

3. Pin the fabric and felt right sides together.

4. Sew the felt and fabric together leaving a gap a little bigger then 3.5" for turning and attaching the flap. Clip corners before turning.

5. After you flip it right side out, poke corners out and iron it flat.

6. Do the same steps for the flap then slip it into the part you left open in the body of the book. Pin the flap down and then top stitch all the way around the body.

(My camera battery died at this point so sorry for the jump in pics and new wood background.)

7. Create a button hole in the flap and sew the button on the opposite part of the rectangle where the button hole lands.

8. Close up the needle book and iron it down so that it stays folded nicely. Don't iron on the button though.

9. Slip all your needles into the needle book. 

You're done!

Now you have all your needles in one place that's very small, light and compact. Plus it adds a bit of style to your sewing box or is a lovely gift for the sewer in your life.

Enjoy!