Part 1 of Lalaloopsy costume - DIY Lalaloopsy Wig

I feel so organized that I actually started working on my girls Halloween costumes before the weekend before like usual. We are moving on October 27th so I knew I had to start earlier and have them done before I need to pack my sewing gear up.

My youngest Isla (4) said that she wanted to be a Lalaloopsy doll for Halloween. Well actually she changed her mind every other day so I pick Lalaloopsy doll as I thought it would be fun to make. We decided that Jewel Sparkles would be a the perfect Lalaloopsy doll to be since she is a princess (or at least wears a tiara). Oh, and for those of you who don’t know Lalaloopsy’s are dolls that are plastic but made to look like they are hand sewn from yarn and fabric. They have large dolls with weird heavy heads and they have little mini dolls that are only 3″ and are pretty cute. They also have cute names like; Cinder Slippers, Prince Handsome, Paint Splatters, Pillow Featherbed, Misty Mysterious and of course Jewel Sparkles (plus many more). Isla got a bunch of the minis for Christmas last year and her birthday and she loves to play make belief with them. Here’s the Jewel Sparkles doll.

I made the wig for her costume the other day. I haven’t finished the rest of her costume yet but since I loved how the wig turned out so much I wanted to share right away. I will share the dress when it’s done. Here’s how I made the wig, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be.

I started first with making a toque (hat) out of knit fabric. I used another hat of Isla’s to get the right size. You could also just use an existing hat too in a similar colour, just make sure it fits tight since it will stretch out some after glueing all the tubes of hair on.

To make the hair tubes I cut out 3 1/2″ strips of polar fleece, folded them in half and sewed together. Then flip inside out and measured the length I wanted. I stuffed the tubes with polyester batting and used the end of a paintbrush to to push a little bit at a time into the middle of the tube - stuff from both end of the tube meeting at the middle. For the longer pieces I sewed in the middle to give it a part and for the shorter pieces I closed one end with a thin bit of hot glue and pinched together. Then added glue to the ends to attach to the hat (and yes, I burnt my fingers a lot so be careful).

Since I don’t have a head form I made one out of a old large pickle jar that I wrapped with some fabric and put a different hat on to keep it’s shape. Then I placed the hat I was using for the wig on top. I started by making the bangs out of 2 layers of fleece. The bottom layer is solid with slits cut at the bottom and then strips are glued on top and both layers are glued to the hat. Next I hot glued the long piece by the bangs with the part sewn in. Then I just layered more tubes underneath and on top to fill out the wig. For the back I folded a long piece in half and glued it together and glued to the centre back of the hat. Then just fill in with more tubes to get the look I wanted. Lastly I trimmed the tubes to the length I wanted - cutting through the batting inside.

To finish the end of the hair tubes I cut circles out of knit fabric and glue gunned them on the end of the tubes.

The tiara is made from a piece of cardboard (old cereal box) that I covered with glue and then glitter on both sides. After it was dry I sprayed it with some hair spray to fix the glitter so it doesn’t fall off everywhere.

After I tried the wig on Isla I noticed the wig was really loose and fit more like a helmet, so on the inside I pinched in some of the hat and sewed it smaller. I also added a piece of elastic that I just attached on one side around to the other. The elastic is a bit smaller then the hat so it makes the wig stays on securely. The wig is a bit heavy but after the adjustments it fits nice.

It’s it cute? Isla is now excited to be a Lalaloopsy Doll and asking where the dress is (which I need to now work on and start Lilo’s costume).

So what are your kids going as for Halloween?