Wigs and Unicorns

Most of the things I put here are replicas of costumes worn in movies/shows/comics/whatever. So this costume is a huge deviation from my usual. I don't even have an original concept sketch to show off. I sort of just made it up as I went along. Which, ironically, went very well for me.

I work at the Colorado Rennaissance Faire. Last year I was this:

And if I have ANY say in it this year I will never, ever, touch that costume again. I did not make any part of it and it was freaking horrible to wear. About 110*F on any given day, made my neck ache to the point where I could barely move my head, almost no visibility...the list of complaints goes on.

Anyhow.

This year I decided I'd really like to present something that would allow me to actually interact with people. Speak to them, make facial expressions, have fingers. So, I came up with the notion of a human version of a unicorn. A cursed unicorn who's been thrown into the human world, unable to figure out exactly how all the rules work. I'm sort of psyched to try it out.

So, at the Scarborough Rennaissance Faire in Waxahachie, Texas -- in between four tornadoes -- I debuted a costume of my own design.

It consists of two underskirts that have elastic tops, and the full overdress that laces up the back and has some decorative lacing down the sides. The sleeves are rather like Yuna's sleeves in that they hold on to my upper arms and lace closed. They also drape wonderfully. The corset I started making; my friend Kitty (who is a freakin' badass costumer, I'm sure I'll have some photos up here of her eventually) is much better than I and she helped me start it - I helped cut it, sewed the first stitches and did pressing, and then had to leave for the night to make it to work. I wound up running out of time so she was kind enough to finish it for me and it's WONDERFUL.

So, the Unicorn Ariella:

You may notice there's a wig:


Which is really the focus of this entry. (Other than LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!!!).

The photo above is the wig just after I purchased and styled it. Speaking of; the wig came in top notch condition. Smooth as silk, beautiful, exactly as advertised, a week before I expected it. So, lhjun2010 on ebay, here's some advertising for you.

Now here's the problem with wigs: when you wear them loose, and they're long (this wig falls to about my hips) ... they tend to tangle like freaking hell. It's ridiculous. It sort of makes me blindingly angry.

After two days in the sun and running about in Waxahachie, the wig looked more like this:

I don't know if you've ever tried to brush a snarl out of a wig (I don't own a wig brush, by the way, I use a plain wide-toothed comb) but it's friggin impossible. I made a tangle into a snarl into a rats nest into a hot mess. All of that fuzziness in the middle of the wig is fist sized tangles.

I tried to quickly run a brush through before day two of faire and it was like shooting marshmellows at a boulder. So I gave up, wore it for day two, and felt disgusting since my wig was so awful.

I did, however, manage to fix it.

I went to Walmart after reading Internet recommendations and checked the Ethnic hair care section. I was thrilled to find the exact thing people have suggested: Motions Oil Sheen & Conditioning Spray.

This stuff is amazing. It's slick, but it doesn't leave a horrible oily residue (I haven't washed my hands since using it and I'm not feeling sticky or greasy). It smells like strawberries, sort of a sugary scent, very unexpectedly pleasant.

For reference:

The problem?

This stuff does not work on the matted mess that my wig was. It was absolutely useless on the bad tangles, actually.

So my solution?

Bathtub!

I used most of a travel bottle of conditioner on the wig, filled the tub with warm water (not hot, not cold. Hot would change the shape of the wig, cold would just suck), and put the wig in. I laid it in the water flat and then tugged it around a bit to get what hair would naturally go straight to do it. Then I let it rest for ten minutes.

After ten minutes I started gently combing, starting at the bottom and working up 1/2"-1" at a time. When I started to get frustrated with the tangles I just walked away for 5min and then came back and tried again. It took about 30-45min before I was satisfied that I'd done what I could. So I pulled the wig up and rinsed it with the shower head on cold to get all of the conditioner out.

Then I took it back to my room and towel dried it a bit (squeezing using a towel, no rubbing), and put it back on the wig head.

After letting it rest for an hour I began gently combing it out. Once I had done a first pass (mostly on the bottom) I started spraying the Sheen and working tiny bits of fiber at a time to slowly (VERY SLOWLY OH MY GOD SLOWLY) work it out.

For the next 3-4hrs I was literally just combing, combing, combing. Around the time I wanted to throw the wig out it started to give. I could see the snarls going out. It was a relief.

So, almost five hours of hair pulling (har har) later: the final result is above. It's a relief. It looks strange because it's still wet and I just sprayed it down.

Speaking of, here's how the sheen rests on the fibers:


So, there's how to unmat a wig after a weekend at a renaissance faire.

-M

How to Make a Hoopskirt for Under $40

So I'm only so dedicated to historical accuracy. Over $100 for an undergarment that no one will see? I think not, ladies and gentlemen.

If you want to see a great tutorial, try here - the Dreamstress has a great method.

So here's how I did it.

Materials

• 100ft of Polytubing (which is this stuff, although I didn't get mine here: http://www.berryhilldrip.com/PolyPg.htm) - I chose 3/4", which was 0.23 a foot so $23
• 2-1/2" wide ribbon (I bought a 25 yard spool of it at Walmart and used about half. If you're taller than me you'll need more) $5
• Scissors (...I...own them so free?)
• Sewing Machine (this is a serious pain in the butt without it)
• Duct tape $3ish a roll
• About 1yd of cheap fabric to make a waistband $2
• 1pkg of something to use as a tie (I got about 2-1/2yds of bias piping stuff. I bet shoelaces would work too) $3
• Final Price - Roughly $36

The Waistband
I chose to do this first just because. If you don't want to, then don't. Won't be an issue.

My waist is about 22" and I wanted a slight scrunch so I cut my fabric about 30" long, and maybe...3-4" wide.

I folded it in half, and sewed about half an inch down from the fold to create a little tunnel for the tie to go through. Then I finagled the tie through the tunnel with a wire hanger. After swearing about that for about half an hour...I had it ready to go. The idea was to sew the skirt strips into the area into between the folds for extra awesome.

(note from the future: It totally works)















The Strips
See those white strips hanging down from the waistband? Expect those to take roughly four hours of hair-yanking to accomplish. They take FOREVERholycrap. They work really well, and turn out very strong, but I still wanted to kick myself.

Step One: Figure out how tall you are, and then adjust. I made my strips 37" long. I'm 5'0" tall. I'm pretty pleased with how close the hoops are to the floor so I'd add/subtract the inches depending on how tall you are compared to me.

Step Two: Cut lots of strips. I cut twenty, and only used sixteen. If you plan to have a lot of hoops/really heavy gown I'd cut more like forty strips and use all of them for extra stiffness. I like a little sway and don't plan to have an extremely heavy gown.

Step Three: Start sewing. Gently fold in each edge and sew down the length to keep the edges in. This strengthens the ribbon and keeps it from fraying on you.

Once you've done this on EVERY SINGLE ONE (yes, really, it takes forever) then you get to sew AGAIN. This time, it's more complicated.









Step Four: Put the two wrong-side together. Then you get to start sewing. First, 1" from whichever side you choose. This is the bottom. Then, 2" up from that is the next one. Then 4" up from that, 2" up from that. The 4" is the distance between each hoop, the 2" is the slot the hoops go through (if you choose a smaller hoop size than I did you will want to adjust the size of the slot). Do this until you have as many 2" slots as you intend to have hoops. I chose five hoops, so I have five 2" slots. Then I had a fair amount of "extra" up top. This is good.

Step Five: The extra is used for sewing into your waistband. I put mine in about 4" apart. Check each to be sure you have the hoop slots at the same height all the way around - don't want to screw up here. I used a tight zig-zag stitch to secure them in.










aaaaand done.





The Hoops
This was, for me, the absolute easiest part. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you go over 140" at the biggest hoop, you will need to have much longer strips. Even if you're 5' I would suggest 42" strips. The bigger the hoop the more space they have! I wound up with a British Farthingale from the pre-Restoration at first - total Tabletop!

I chose to make five hoops. The fun here is that you can do WHATEVER you want! I chose to do these measurements, and I chose to do five. If you want to do more, go ahead. If you want to do less, cool. If you want to use my measurements, right on. If you want a tiny hoop (like...the kind that can fit through a door) cool! If you want something ridiculously huge, go for it. Just try to keep your proportions. I went for 13" difference between each hoop.

Top Level 88"
Second Level 101"
Third Level 114"
Fourth Level 127"
Fifth Level 140"

Also, I cut about 1" larger than each of these measurements, and then I slit 1" down on one end of each and squeezed to shove that end into the other. This makes it sturdier when you duct tape. And if your hoops are large enough to not fit well through things, you WANT sturdy. Because these suckers actually have a little BEND to them.

Also, there's my puppy. Heehee.



The Grand Finale
You have finally completed the pieces! You have a full waistband, and you have your hoops. You're ready to thread them through! This, you can figure out on your own really. If you made the ribbons right, it's okay to be a little rough with them. If you have a dress form, YAY. I used mine and it made it really easy. If you don't, it's not impossible just takes a bit of maneuvering. Once you've pushed each hoop through the ribbons, push the slit end into the other end and then wrap with duct tape (or Gorilla Tape, which I'm particularly fond of).

Once all of the hoops are in, carefully adjust your ribbons to make them straight. This will force the shape of the skirt to be circular and even.

And just like that, you have a hoop.












Don't forget your petticoats! I tossed some fabric around mine to get a look at how it works, and I can see the hoops right through it. So what you want is two or so petticoats to keep things smooth and pretty. These big hoops require a bit of coverage to hide!




















So there you have it. I got the original idea for this from my Theatre teacher many years ago. However, I got the more specific ideas (like the genius ribbons) from The Dreamstress.

And thus, Masqued has created a hoopskirt for under $40 in under five hours. Step one, complete.