Rapunzel Wig Tutorial

This pretty, little Rapunzel wig is not only great for Halloween, but also for everyday imaginative play.

Update

Commentors have had great ideas: change the color to red & and put in two braids and you have Jessie from Toy Story. Style with two pigtails and you’ve got a cute rag doll. Change the color of yarn to blue or pink or purple with sparkles and style a fun fairy wig. The possibilities are endless!

Supplies:

2 skeins Lion Brand Hometown USA Yarn in Daytona Yellow
1 skein Martha Stewart Craft Glitter Lash Yarn in Florentine Gold
1 pair thick, children’s tights
1 piece of felt: 1″x7″

Try on tights. Make sure the fit very snug around head. The wig is rather heavy when finished. Mark top of head for wig cap.

Cut tights along mark.

Sew cut edge of tights with right sides together.

Turn right side out. This will be the wig cap.

Cut all skeins of yarn into 120″ lengths. This length made a 44″ wig (measured from forehead down back). You could make a longer one, but be aware that this wig is already heavy, adding more length will make it even heavier and harder to stay put on a child’s head.

Find the center of yarn pieces. Layer Glitter Lash with Hometown USA yarn and sew to felt strip at center point (60″ of yarn on each side).

Keep sewing yarn to felt piece until you’ve covered 6″-7″ of the felt strip and used all the cut yarn. Trim any extra felt.

Match center of felt hair piece and center of wig cap and pin in place.

Machine or hand stitch down center “part” letting 60″ of yarn hair to fall on each side.

Try wig on child (or substitute male child if “Rapunzel” happens to be at school). Arrange hair on cap and braid.

Tie off braid and trim ends to even.

Place wig on a small ball or head form (I used my son’s soldier helmet) and tack yarn hair to wig cap where needed.

Pick out some silk flowers (these are leftover from my days of children’s party dress designing, but I’ve had luck finding them at the dollar store and the thrift store).

Using a hot glue gun, tack flowers in place.

Try on and enjoy!

DISCLOSURE: While Lion Brand Yarn provided me with the yarn to complete this project all opinions and ideas expressed here are my own.

This tutorial & the project created is for personal use only & not for commercial use.

{ 5 trackbacks }

Making Stuff: Rapunzel Wig {DIY Halloween Costume} | This Mama Makes Stuff: October 19, 2011 at 11:34 am
Christmas crafts… two months too late « crafty dr. mom: February 24, 2012 at 2:23 pm
It’s all about Halloween « Rabbit and Gnome: October 26, 2012 at 3:51 pm
The Handmade Experiment: December 1, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Apple Pie as Rapunzel | Disappearances Happen: July 9, 2013 at 3:48 pm

{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }

Mancy Twitter: mancychavez October 19, 2011 at 11:46 am: This is unbelievable! Kicking myself that i bought the store bought wig! This is SO AMAZING! I would hurry and start selling them – you can make a FORTUNE! 🙂

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Desiree @ Wee Share October 19, 2011 at 12:16 pm: What a neat idea! Thanks for sharing 🙂

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Alecia@tincantreader October 19, 2011 at 12:59 pm: I love this! I think I will work this into my daughter’s fairy costume! I’m certain there is a fairy in Pixie Hallow with this hair style.

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madison Reply:
June 11th, 2013 at 1:33 pm
yea, fawn has long brown hair, she would probably do.

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Marissa October 19, 2011 at 2:39 pm: I literally just posted a tutorial for rapunzel wig, but yours is so much better!! You are so talented!

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Diana October 19, 2011 at 2:54 pm: Thank you so much for sharing! My daughter has insisted on being Jessie from Toy Story this year, and I attempted to make a wig using a tutorial I found online- and it turned out terrible. This is so much better! Attempt 2 should be more successful 🙂

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mercedes October 28, 2011 at 12:52 pm: I just made this for my little girls costume! THANK YOU! She loves rapunzel and I’m excited for her to get to wear this. I’ll take pictures and send them to you!

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Stacey November 1, 2011 at 9:39 am: Thank you so much for the wonderful tutorial. I saw something really similar in the Disney Family Fun magazine and knew immediately that I wanted to make it for my daughter who is always tying a jumprope to her head and pretending to be Rapunzel. I found your tutorial much easier to follow than theirs though, and I thought that the sparkly yarn and flowers added a nice touch. Just a word of warning though: We made our wig pretty long, it was almost to the ground. At first I didn’t think it was a big deal, but then on Halloween night as we were walking right past several Jack-O-Lanterns I realized we should have made it shorter. Glad that we didn’t have any major disasters, but if you repost this tutorial next year you might want to mention it.

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Kathy Cowan January 20, 2012 at 12:02 pm: I teach dance and my students are doing Tangled dances. I love your wig! What would you charge to make them? I don’t know how talented my students’ moms are or if they would be willing to make them! Let me know! Kathy

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This is Carrie
Twitter: thisiscarrie
Reply:
January 20th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
So glad you like the wig! I wish I could help you costume your class, but I currently do not make anything to sell. You might be able to find someone locally, or even one of your talented moms who you could hire to make all of them. Good luck!

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Verenicce June 19, 2012 at 3:27 pm: I love this idea!! I didn’t have the yarn color needed (yet), but I wanted to start making one ASP, so I did a black wig for my daughter. Getting her dress up closet ready, now she has Jasmines hair! 🙂 (Did it shorter wig) thx for sharing!

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Shea Tek July 14, 2012 at 4:40 am: What a great idea! I am 16, but I am dressing up as Rapunzel for Halloween this year; I will have to try this!

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yadira September 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm: Love It!!! I think im more excited than my 3 year old about this. She isn’t a fan of dress up play and im hoping once she sees this she will be somewhat interested in tryin it on along with her repunzel costume.. I’ll send some pics if i suceed…

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Jessica September 19, 2012 at 10:58 am: I’m attempting this for MY three year old’s Rapunzel Halloween costume as well! …a little nervous, but I will be SOOOO excited if it turns out well!!!

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Celina September 20, 2012 at 4:11 pm: I googled how to make a yarn wig and found nothing too useful. Everything was either too complicated or not descriptive. Then I found this tutorial and it saved my entire costume. I’m so excited to make this and I’m sure I will continue to make all of my wigs this way. I can’t thank you enough.

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Michelle September 27, 2012 at 2:13 pm: Is the yarn color Daytona “Lemon”, not Daytona Yellow? I found some on ebay and it says the color is Daytona Lemon.

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theresa October 12, 2012 at 4:24 pm: Thanks for taking the time to post this great idea! Since I sew for other people, I especially liked (or substitute male child if “Rapunzel” happens to be at school). I have way too many pictures of my son sporting cinderella, or glinda so I could hem the dress to the correct length. Now I will have a nice wig to complete his humiliation!

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Jorida Allison October 15, 2012 at 5:00 pm: This is amazing! Thank you so much for the tutorial! You rock!

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Steph October 18, 2012 at 6:59 pm: Red so my daughter can be the little mermaid….

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Justine October 24, 2012 at 10:54 am: This is a fantastic tutorial, thanks so much for sharing!! I made one for my daughter for halloween this year. Just so you know I linked back to your tutorial on my blog. If you’re interested you can check out my post here: http://kerraftycreations.blogspot.ca/2012/10/a-little-tangled-rapunzel-wig-and.html#
Again, thank-you, I am sooo happy with how it turned out! Really appreciate the easy free tutorial 😀

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Alicia October 25, 2012 at 10:45 pm: I started this project yesterday…and I left out the felt part because (I forgot!) so I sewed the yarn in 10 strand bunches needless to day… I am almost done it went an extra mile and sewed yarn to the fabric because I used tights that were pink and the color came thru in spots… (Darn perfectionist that I am!) but now tomorrow I will braid it and glue flowers…. thank you so much for this idea and the inspiration for me to try something new!

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Debbie Hall November 14, 2012 at 5:49 pm: I wish I could show you the pictures but tried this to go with my daughters rapunzel costume this year and it came out great. She absolutely loved it and so did her little friends – and the moms in her school could not believe I did that- because I’m a Cop non-crafty mom 🙂
Thanks a million.

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Marcy Harris November 19, 2012 at 5:27 pm: Your wig is absolutely beautiful. I wish I would have seen this before I bought my yarn because I would have copied your yarn choices exactly. I had already bought a huge thing of plain old yellow yarn from Walmart and it was really cheap, like 5 bucks or something. I followed your tutorial and my wig looks great. It is for my daughter for Christmas. Thank you for sharing these instructions.

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Emily Flippin Maruna December 1, 2012 at 11:05 pm: Great tutorial. I used it for both my 4 year old’s Rapunzel costume and a modified version(shorter, red, and with a wire) for my 6 year old’s Pippi Longstocking. http://emilyflippinmaruna.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/3710/

I also posted a returning link

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Carri February 7, 2013 at 7:29 am: This is a GREAT idea and tutorial!! Thanks, SOO much!! Can’t wait to make it.

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Aura August 16, 2013 at 4:07 am: Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial! So much prettier than the one in the store….it’s going to be made for my daughter’s 4th birthday and then use it for Halloween. Thanks again!

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kim September 20, 2013 at 2:36 pm: oh my goodness, I love this tutorial! I have been planning on making a yarn wig for myself for my Rapunzel costume this year, but I couldn’t figure out a cap that would work. Tights are perfect. I applaud and thank you so much for this!

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Patricia October 6, 2013 at 9:58 am: I was looking for ideas to fulfill my granddaughter’s birthday wish and was so happy to come across your post. The directions are clear, the concept is wonderful and the outcome looks great! I’m looking forward to trying it out, thanks.

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Bricia October 9, 2013 at 5:59 pm: Thank you for sharing. I make the wig for my great niece and she loved it. She is going to be 4 and her birthday theme party is Rapunzel. So, this was perfect. Thank you again.

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Claudia October 15, 2013 at 11:14 am: This tutorial is perfect. …easy to follow instructions and great results…. Thank you so much, my daughter loved her wig 🙂

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Susi Thornton October 20, 2013 at 11:14 am: I want to make this pattern but have a question. By sewing the hair 50/50 all the way down the head to the neck isn’t there a part at the back of the head? Or will the yarn/hair be manageable enough to cover the part and the rest of the head.
Thanks,
Susi

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This is Carrie Twitter: thisiscarrie October 21, 2013 at 11:19 am: You sew it down the center for about 7″ and then it will hang down the sides an the back as long as you have used enough yarn.

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Amy October 23, 2013 at 12:14 pm: I need to make a yarn wig for a Corpse Bride costume but I wasn’t sure how to make such a thing. Your tutorial seemed easiest to follow for a novice like myself. I may have to play with lengths and amount of bundles to get the right look but at least this tutorial has given me a great jumping off point!

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Amanda Anderson October 24, 2013 at 9:02 am: You rock! I am making my daughter a Raggedy Anne wig thanks to you!

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Luce January 2, 2014 at 3:18 pm: If you want to make the wig look more realistic and hair like, brush through the yarn with a dog brush and it will loosen up and separate the fibers into smaller strands and will look well – less yarn like <3 Great Rapunzel tutorial.

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Brandi July 28, 2014 at 7:00 pm: This is awesome! I will be using this tutorial to make an Elsa wig and to make Pinkie Pie hair for this Halloween!

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Hilary Reply:
August 24th, 2014 at 4:46 pm
I made the wig in “double knitting” weight yarn (about half th thickness of urs!) and a paper yellow, + it looks lovely! More natural in fact! The hair looked ! Thank u so much, for ur tutorial. Hilary Taylor. Cardiff, Wales UK.

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