Princess Braid Tutorial

*disclaimer* My camera officially died on our Escalante trip.  Sand got into it. So it died. Sad day. SO the pictures I took for this mini tutorial are from my iPad. So they are blurry. Deal with it :)

Miss Messy Face is like any other 3-year-old. She LOVES to pretend to be someone other than herself. The latest trends have been Disney Princess's. Namely Rapunzel. SO my sister came up with the AMAZING way to make Rapunzel hair :) and I am now sharing it with YOU. MMF is going to be Strawberry shortcake for Halloween and I decided that because she LOVES her Rapunzel wig so much I would make her one in red, just like Strawberry. It can also double as Little Mermaid hair, whom she also idolizes.

First chose a "hair" color. I bought red (for this project) and brown (because brunettes just don't get enough credit these days) for a wig that I am planning to make later on. Of course, yellow covers most Disney Princess's and the famous Rapunzel.

First measure your kids head. Then add about 8 inches. (this is really all guess work, it took me three tries on the red wig, so if you find something scientific that works, let me know). Then you want to unravel a bunch of the yarn until you think you make it into a good medium braid.

Then tie off one of the ends like so. I like to double knot it, then wrap the yard around a couple of times and knot it again. My child is also know as "M the Destroyer" so when I make her something, I make it to last.

Cut the loops off of the other end.

Then braid it. At this point you want to grab your child and measure it around her head to make sure it will fit her, with room to SPARE you've still got to tie this thing. Make sure a piece of yarn is tied to both ends of the braid. 

I didn't make my braid long enough, but because YOU made  YOUR braid long enough, what you want to do is tie the ends of the braid together. You can either make a giant knot, or you can do several little knots by tying the loose ends of yard together. Whichever gets the job done. Make this knot SUPER durable. Set the headband aside for a minute, we are going to move on the big braid.

Grab a friend, two chairs, or a piano bench and get started!! Wrap all but about a yard of your remaining yard around something... the bigger the "something" the longer the braid is going to be. Don't do it to tight, or you won't be able to get it off, and the length of the yard won't be as consistent. 

When you're done it should look something like this. But don't take it off of your chair quite yet. 

Remember that yard-ish of yarn you sat off to the side? Well use some of it to tie off the hair you have just wrapped around your chair (this is going to be the "top" of your braid). After you do that you can take the hair off of the chair.  

Grab the piece you just tied off and pull it so it is at the top of what is going to be your braid. (this is hard to explain, I hope I am doing a decent job).  Then cut off the loops at the end of the braid. 

Wrap the big braid around the knot on your headband so it it covered.  Then tie off the big braid at the bottom of the headband... like in the picture.

please no smarmy comments about the state of my pedicure.

Braid, the big braid. :)

Tie off the end of the braid with some of your extra yard. Then trim the end of the braid so the hair is all the same length (or do something fancy with it...like make a V)

*Admire your handy work.*

Give it to the girl.