You can use cheap party wigs or reasonable priced hair fall for this as they are all sewn onto a net base of some sort which makes them easy to adapt.
I have made two very full wigs as well as my Leia wig and plan on making more using this method with a few adaptations.
This page contains notes on how to make a wig without a fringe and then with.
Tools and Materials:Four wigs of the same style and colour
Scissors
Unpick
Hand sewing needles
Foam head form
Thread that matches the wig or wig net colour, can be plain sewing or fuzzy overlocker/serger thread
Method:
Start by unpicking all the wefts from the wigs carefully.
Decide on the kind of parting you want. For a centre part please see the Leia wig tutorial, here I have chosen no part and all the hair swept back from the face.
The stitches used in sewing the wefts are whip stitch for the most part with a few back stitches for a little elasticity. When you sew over the elastic sides of a wig stretch the elastic slightly further than it will sit when worn to allow the wig to be pulled over the head but to also allow not too much nor too little hair in the elastic sections.
Take one of the wig caps you have removed the wefts from and set it on a foam head form inside out. It is important to disguise the edge of the wig cap so a row or two or wefts all around the inside of the edge of the cap will help this greatly.
Then take the wig off and turn it right side out and sew another row or two of wefts around the top side of the edge of the wig. Get as close to the edge as possible.
In both these cases sew the wefts so the hair lays all around the wig.
As all the hair in this wig is supposed to lay towards the back I sewed horizontal rows of wefts from the back layering each until I reached the front of the wig.
For the last few rows near the front of the wig I sewed the wefts facing forward.)
When sewing four wigs into one the wefts wind up very close together, as can be seen in the third and fourth image below.
Once the wefts are in place it is a good idea to set them to face the right direction. You can do this by using a hair dryer at the front of the wig and directing the flow of air to the back. The fibres will soften and then once cool will stay facing that direction. It is also possible to pour hot water (boil a kettle and pour the still hot water over the wig) and smooth the hair in the right direction (with a wide toothed comb). Either leave it to cool and dry naturally or quickly pour cool water over it to set immediately.
I then chose to dread this wig. I took small sections and twisted them to keep all the sections separated. Once this was done I untwisted one section at a time and matted and twisted by hand. These dreads are however quite soft and tame and I would like to eventually make them more pronounced.
This is also worn as a 3/4 wig where my own hair is plaited under the wig save for 2" at the front hair line. this is then brushed and styled with the wig to disguise the wig line.
Tools and Materials:Four wigs of the same style and colour
Scissors
Unpick
Hand sewing needles
Foam head form
Thread that matches the wig or wig net colour, can be plain sewing or fuzzy overlocker/serger thread
Method:
Start by unpicking all the wefts from the wigs carefully.
As this wig has a fringe that blends into the rest of the hair the hair needs to lay all around the hair line and there needs to be a central point at the crown that the wefts begin.
Again prepare the hairline by sewing a row or two of wefts to the inside edge of the wig.
As the original wigs had built in fringes I collected all the short wefts and started buy building the fringe area.
You can see some fringe layers curling the wrong way this was because the fringes cut in the original wigs were lopsided and so I alternated layers to have a fringe that tapered at both sides rather than just one. Once the fringe was finished I used heat to set the curls in the right direction.
I then started sewing the long wefts in the back in horizontal rows from the back of the neck up to the crown. As you can see the wefts whind up creating a horseshoe shape at the back neatly meeting with the fringe at the front to create a circular space at the top.
I created a ponytail by rolling a weft and sewing the top together and then sewing that the the very top of the wig. I then sewed circular rows of wefts around the outside to fill in the top of the wig cap.
After all that I combed the wig and used a hair dryer to set all the layers in the right direction before trimming the fringe to shape. This wig also got a bath with some white acrylic paint in a lot of water to tone down the shine and colour of the wig. It now needs a silicon spray to detangle it again!
