Yarn Hair Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to put yarn hair into your amigurumi.  If you prefer instead to use embroidery floss, which allows you a little more freedom in the styling area, click here. 

First off, a note.  I find that regular worsted weight yarn is a little too bulky for hair.  Here are some of my preferred yarns.

Silk Bamboo Yarn for the dark haired characters.
Simply Soft Yarn for the lighter haired characters.

I like these yarns because they are a little thinner than the worsted weight, and I like the way that they hang.

Another note:  With hair I've found that less is more.  If you bulk up on the hair too much it will sit funny, even with the thinner yarn.  Put in less hair plugs than you think you need.  You can always add more later if you have patches, but the fewer the better.

 Tutorial

Step 1: I like to cut all of the hair lengths before I start.  That way I don't have to stop after every stitch and cut another piece.  Strands should be from 6 inches -12 inches long, depending on how long you want the hair.   Remember, the strands will be doubled over, so be sure you cut a long enough piece.  You can always cut it shorter!

When you have all your yarn ready, insert your hook into the ami's head.  Start at the bottom of the hairline; about halfway up on the head (as shown below) is low enough.

 Step 2: Take one of the lengths of yarn and fold it in half.  Grab it with your crochet hook and pull through.

 Step 3: Wrap the yarn around the crochet hook and pull through the loop on the hook.

 Step 4: You should have a little knot made.  Repeat this process around the head.  Start off pretty sparsely at the bottom, only adding volume once you get to the top of the head.  If you put too many loops at the bottom your ami's hair will stick straight out.

 Step 5: Once every loop is in, cut the hair!  For the ami's with longer hair, this might just mean a snip at the bottom to make the strands even.  For the ami's with shorter hair, this can mean some pretty complicated styling.    You are going to want to cut the hair at the bottom first, and then work your way up.  The hair at the top will be shorter than at the bottom.  Basically you want the top of the hair to be just long enough to cover the knots of the bottom.  Start slowly and reevaluate often.  You are probably going to cut a lot more than you thought, but if you are unsure always stay on the longer side.  You can always cut it shorter!

Han Solo Free Pattern

Han Solo Pattern

 

Recommended yarn colors:

Dark Blue for the pants
White for the shirt
Black for the vest
Dark Brown for the belt and holster
Silver for the belt buckle
Beige for the skin
Red for the stripes

Follow the base amigurumi pattern.  If you like, you can start Han off by chaining the first 30 sts in black, to make his belt , and then switch to the dark blue.  If you prefer not to change colors that often, though, it's not very important.

Follow the directions using the above colors as your guide.  Once you are done with the body, it's time to move on to the accessories!

Click here for hair instructions.

Han's Vest:

Arguably his most recognizable accessory.  Below are the instructions for the vest, HOWEVER, your pattern may require fewer or more stitches depending on your gauge and how tightly/loosely you stuffed your ami.  Please use your best judgement as to whether or not to add/take away stitches.

Start by chaining 26 in black yarn.  Use the above picture for a guide.  When you size this around Han's waist, there should be about a 1 inch gap in the front.

Single crochet 3 rows.  Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row.

Now you want to start decreasing.  You are going to decrease 2 stitches every row.  I placed my decreases randomly, because I didn't want lines of decreases. Do this for the next four rows, or until the vest reaches to just below Han's arms.

Now is the arm hole row.  SC in the next 2 sts.  Now chain 7 stitches, and attach with a slip stitch to the 4th or 5th st from the beginning of your chain.  This makes a hole just big enough for the arm.  Now is a good time to size it, to make sure that the hole is not too big or too small.  If it is, adjust accordingly.  Single crochet for another 5 sts, then chain 7 again and attach to the 4th or 5th st from the beginning of the second chain.  Single crochet until the end of the row.   DO NOT cut the yarn.

To give the vest a nice clean edge I like to single crochet around the edges  (see picture below--"last stitch" refers to the last stitch you made before the decorative edge). Cut the yarn, leaving a long tail.  Use the long tail to secure the vest in place, paying special attention to the front.  If not secured, the vest will flop open and generally look a little disheveled.

 Han's Belt:

In brown yarn, chain about 32 stitches.  This length should be long enough to circle around Han's waist and droop slightly over his right hip.  Attach the last chain to the first in a slip stitch.

SC the next 6 sts, ch 1 and turn

SC 4 sts, ch 1 and turn

SC 3 sts, ch 1 and turn

SC 2 sts.  Leave a long tail and pull through the loop.  Use the tail to wrap around the bottom of the leg.  Secure the tail and cut the yarn.

Buckle:

ch 4, turn

sc in the next 3 sts, ch 1 and turn

sc in next 2 sts, cut yarn and pull through the loop.  Use the tail to attach to the belt.

Red Stripe

Take a small length of the red yarn and use an embroidery needle to embroider the stripe up both sides of the leg.  Mine is a little off-kilter, but you get the idea.

Support this pattern by buying Star Wars items through this link!

I can has purse?

Anyone want a fun project to do this weekend? (I know it's the beginning of the week, but stay with me). How about making your own lolcat purse? Haven't you ever wanted the hilarity of the lolcats on the portability of a purse? All you have to do is follow this tutorial from The Swell Life.


What lolcat would you use? I think I might use happy cat.
Or any image macro, really.

Was this just a feeble excuse to post some cat macros? Perhaps. Stay tuned for more relevant posts coming soon.

This is NOT Bantha Poodo

That's right everyone, Thanksgiving is over and it's time to think about Christmas presents. I am trying to make everyone handmade gifts this year. Unfortunately, I can't post any of them here because the recipients read this blog, so after Christmas I'll be able to show everyone what I've been working on. For now though, I wanted to show everyone this really cute Bantha that you can make for the Star Wars lover in your family! I think he would be a great gift for anyone, actually, because he is pretty cute.

There are instructions on how to make this little guy over at the Star Wars blog in case any of you want to try and make one yourself. I think his little button eyes are really cute. Now that I think about it, Star Wars creatures (excepting Ewoks, of course) aren't really that cute. I mean, would you want a plush dianoga? Or a plush mynock? Okay, those might be kind of awesome. You can make anything cute if you make the eyes big enough. Anyway, let me know if anyone tries this! Stay tuned for more holiday ideas!

Short Hair Tutorial

Okay, everyone wanted a short hair tutorial, so here it is!

Step 1:
You're going to need 2 strands of embroidery floss and 2 pieces of cardboard, one measuring 4x3 inches, and the other one measuring 4x1 inches.

Step 2:
Wrap one whole strand around each piece of cardboard. I'm going to call the small, skinny long piece (on the right) the bottom piece, and the bigger one (on the left) the top piece.
Step 3:
Carefully take the floss off of the cardboard and tape the floss to make sure it won't move too much when you sew it.
Step 4:
Now use a machine to sew between the tape. (You don't need to worry about the color of the thread in the sewing machine too much. I use a brown thread for any hair color that isn't blond, because it doesn't need to exactly match the color of the embroidery floss) For the bottom piece, just sew a line as close to the top as you can. Don't sew over the tape, or you will never be able to pull it up. Be careful here, because my sewing machine, at least, wants to pull the hair apart, even though it is taped. Just feed the hair through without letting the machine pull it out of shape.
Step 5:
VERY CAREFULLY pull the tape off of the hair. Make sure to hold down the hair when you pull the tape off, because it will rip out all of your stitches if you just pull. It will kind of pull the embroidery floss apart, but don't worry, just use the other side when you stitch it on the amigurumi's head.

Step 6:
Place the bottom piece of embroidery floss on the amigurumi's head, like in the pictures. Try and make it as even as possible on the sides, and don't let it get too low in the back. Sew it in place with either invisible thread or a matching hair color thread. I always use invisible thread, but a matching color thread works just as well.











Step 7:
Now place the top piece on the head. Make sure that it covers the seam from the other hair you just put on. You can always tug at it a little to cover everything if you made it a little small. Sew this piece into place as well.
Step 8:
Cut all of the loops out of the hair. Make sure you cut both the top and the bottom pieces of the hair. Cut the hair as short as you want, but make sure the top piece is always long enough to cover the seam of the bottom piece. Don't cut in a straight line, try and mess it up a little to make it look more natural. You can also try and make it more even than I did, lol.
Viola! You're done. I hope this was easy to understand. If anyone has any questions, feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at artoo1121 at gmail.com.