What you need to make your own false lashes:
- Fabric, something thin and easy to take apart, I’m using organza which is perfect
- Small scissors
- Hair Straightener
So first thing’s first you need to cut a rectangle of the organza, the easiest way to do these is to use the selvage (finished edge that comes off the machine when the fabric is made) as the base. To prevent the organza from fraying and coming apart the side edges are finished like this:
So cut most of the selvage off but leave around a 1-2mm edge on the bottom, this will form the band of the lashes which will eventually hold the glue! Make sure you leave enough there that it doesn’t completely unravel.
You will need the rectangle to be as wide as you want the lashes then as tall as you want the longest part of the lashes. Better to leave them a bit longer than you think because you can always trim down later.
This is where it gets a bit tedious! What you need to do is slowly pull out all of the horizontal bits of thread in the fabric. You can use a pin to pry them free a couple at a time, nice and easy but very boring.
What you’ll end up with is something along these lines and a bunch of little threads all over your work space:
Getting there but they don’t fit the shape of your eye yet so gently pull and coax the base into a semi circle. It should have a little bit of give to it so it will hold shape. You can see the before and after below.
I made mine very wide because I didn’t know how long I wanted them to be, here’s one of my other lashes beside it.
So trim them down to the correct width.
Use the little scissors to cut the lash threads into whatever shape/length you want. I wanted them to be small in the middle then wing out. I also wanted to make the lengths more natural so I make sure not to cut straight across but instead by pointing inwards and snipping in small strokes.
Snip snip…
Taadaaa. Awesome but they don’t curl like lashes should so if you were to wear them now they would look pretty silly!!
To curl them we need heat but not too much heat because it’s effectively made of plastic and we don’t want to melt them!
The first thing I tried was to smooth the lashes carefully (VERY CAREFUL SO YOU DON’T BURN YOURSELF) over the curved edge of my straightener.
While indeed that did work, it wasn’t the smooth curve that I was looking for.
What came to the rescue in the end was my laptop tray table’s metal legs! Perfectly curved and conducts heat well. You can use anything this shape which conducts heat without melting (so no plastic!).
I held the lash on.
Covered it with a piece of fabric to hold in place and avoid burning fingers…
And used the heat of the straightener!
Bam lashes!
Gigantic lashes 😀 Spindly, long and fun to wear!
These are the kind of lashes that make me want to make smouldering faces XD
SMOULDER!!
So there you have it! My first attempt at making lashes went pretty well, I’m happy with them and I want to make a heap more of them in different styles 😀 I kind of want to try it with patterned fabric too and make some multi coloured ones, so many possibilities!
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