Rooted hair/drilled wig caps

FromPokfil again:

I've decided to have a go at hair rooting a skull cap. I want to try it with my yarn, but it may be a future option to use saran and other hair weft plugs also and create some fun styles

So - started off marking the cap with pencil dots



I then used my beadsmith metal punch which works perfectly on the nylon and punched as many holes as I could. It doesn't have a long neck stretch so I will have to drill the remainder.
I also found that towards the back of the skull was harder to punch so they will need drilling too.



As you can see I can't reach all of the holes but I got a lot done!



Out comes the heavy artillery for the drilling- I used the biggest tiny bit I had which is a 1.5mm. I accidently broke it before I completely finished it so I have decided to order 2mm ones which is close to the beadsmith punch. The nylon is VERY easy to drill. I had no issues at all



This is it for now, the skull came went back on fine, just have to wait for my new bits to arrive and I'll be able to carry on. I did think about sticking some pins in to create a pinhead from Hellraiser effect but the holes are too big for dress pins, so that would need to be another project another day LOL



To be continued…

Ok it's been a while- lack of spare time, drill bits and of course then holidays got in the way but I have finally finished my first drilling project.

So without further adieu I shall continue on.

I decided with the yarn I plan on using that I needed a bigger hole than what I originally started with. I also found that by using a 2mm drill bit, it was a bit more sturdy and I didn't break any bits!. So as an amendment I would recommend trying as much as possible to use the hole punch to start the holes and then use the drill to re-drill them to make it bigger. Being a curved surface it is much better to have prestarted hole to drill the bit onto.

So… I re-drilled ALL the holes to 2mm



As you can see underneath there were some holes with little scraggly bits hanging out. I just wanted to tidy them up a bit (being pedantic and all)



So I got a craft knife out and cut to my best ability as many of the nibbly bits off.



I wanted a smooth surface on the top because I didn't want the ‘hair’ snagging at all so a light sanding over did the job. I used a fine grit sandpaper.



To smooth the holes, I used a rotary tool round filing bit on the holes that still had a few rough bits. A 2mm round jewelers file will do the job too but I just didn't have one and improvised.



So this is the finished product, I am quite pleased with the results!



This is the finished wig I made with the skull cap, but I will put up a full tutorial on how to do that

Right!! on holes.

For using Yarns such as the ones I have 2mm holes are perfect. I will post up my step by step experiment in a few mins to show you what I did. I did say this was trial and error and I've learned a few things whilst doing it.

I obviously have too many holes in my skull cap for the density of wool I used. I think if they are approx 5mm apart for the thick wool then that will suffice. Given the nature of the wool the holes would only need to be across the front and sides of 3/4 of the cap. The rear of the cap didn't require any.This was approx 2.5cm from the back base of the skull and approx 8cm across the back of the skull cap.

rooting patterns The position of the holes is important for part lines.

Here is my step by step experiment on ‘rooting’ a cap! I have to say that with the Welsh wool I used it was easy to create this effect

I got the idea from a Pullip Japanese magazine, though it's not too informative and I can't read Japanese :-O It uses wefts of hair sewen onto a strip. I will look for these in future or try to sew my own! Please note I didn't put wool in all the holes, just 3/4 of the front of the cap and sides as I had too many holes and my wool was too thick!



I start off with cutting lengths of Welsh wool and a needle threader (though some fine wire looped and twisted would work well too)




You can see the underneath of the cap, I have been pulling yarn though and then knotting the end to keep it in place. I didn't do it but if I was doing again, I would snip off the end of the yarn so it doesn't get too full. When all is done, a little glue could be applied to the underneath to keep it all in place.



I pulled the threader in from under the cap



So the loop came through the top. I would then slide the yarn into the loop
and gently pull the yarn to the underside of the cap






I then tie a knot and pull the yarn from the top end so the knot is against the skull cap












Then ta daaaa! It's a wigged cap



This is just a simple first step version. I've never done any sort of root work before but I think for Makie dolls this came out great.

Love it!