I'll start with a little about myself and my family. I am a stay at home mother of five children, 4 boys and 1 girl. We are a very creative family. From figuring out new dishes to make in the kitchen, to drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, we always seem to be working on something.
My main creative outlet is crochet. I love it! I make simple hats on up to large afghans and everything in between. But what I really enjoy, making fun and funky hats and yarn wigs or crochet costume pieces for my kids and their friends to use.
My introduction to making these wigs and hats was my daughter. One year she wanted to be Rapunzel for Halloween. But once I saw the price of the fake Rapunzel wig, I knew I could make something even better and more durable and for a whole lot less. So I thought for a little while and I pulled out some granny squares I had been assembling... that's when it hit me. A yarn wig! Perfect!
Almost immediately I was in the car and headed for the yarn store where I bought 2 large skeins of yellow yarn. I crocheted a simple hat to fit my daughter. Then the trial and error began... I measured from the top of her head to her knees to see how long to cut her "hair." Using chairs, I began unspooling the first skein of yarn to the length needed. Rapunzel hair is really long! I then started looping the hair onto the hat I had made (I would tie it later to make it secure).
Uh oh. Something I had neglected to consider... yarn can be very heavy. I had only covered about 1/3 of the hat and it was already too heavy, no way my little 5 year old could walk around, trick or treating, with so much poundage of yarn on her head. Back to the drawing board I went.
It took a little playing around but I was finally able to figure out the perfect yarn to child head ratio (not an easy feat when we are talking about a 5 year old and more hair than I have ever even thought about). It wasn't perfect but it would suit the needs of a child who just wanted to dress up like Rapunzel.
After Rapunzel's wig I didn't think about it again... for a year. Then my daughter decided she wanted to be Merida from the Disney movie "Brave." Off to the yarn store again, this time for red yarn instead of yellow. I then spent a little over an hour trying to remember how I had made the Rapunzel wig (made shorter by the sudden appearance of the Rapunzel wig from my daughter's closet). A few adjustments and my daughter was a beautiful Princess Merida for Halloween.
After the Merida wig, I was hooked. I had so many ideas running through my head about different styles and colors and cuts and curls. I began making different styles and playing around with the base hat pattern. My kids enjoyed the sudden influx of dress up wigs. They had as much fun playing with them as I was having making them.
After a few of their friends saw the wigs I was hit with requests. "Can you make..." I worked my fingers like never before but in the end WackyWigz was born.
I started with just a few styles and colors but have expanded to more than just fun wigs, now I also make fun hats and baby items as well.
That is the story of how I got started with my crazy wigs and hats. Quick bow to a really great friend who helped me come up with a name (and helped me get started on Etsy to sell these crazy creations).
Now I am expanding out even more to a blog of my adventures in WackyWigz.
Ta ta for now!
~Barbie~
No comments:
Post a Comment