Well the answer is a hair donut. Really the same thing can be achieved with a sock, piece of foam or anything squishy that approximate  shape but hair donuts are cheap and come in a variety of colours.So what’s a girl to do when the shops are closed and she needs one for some photos or she can’t find them in her area? Make one of course!What I’m showing you today isn’t completely a hair donut, rather a hair sausage which is more versatile that a donut and can be worn in so many different ways (tutorials on those ways are up coming of course).

The end result is a light squishy tube which is flexible and held in shape via wire.

You need:

• Polar fleece or similar stretchy fabric
• Thick wire for the inside
• Needle and thread
• Stuffing or fabric scraps if you’re desperate
• Pliers to cut and shape the wire.

Cut a piece of the wire a long as you want the sausage to be. Remember it needs to be able to wrap comfortably around a ponytail with a bit to spare and the ends will need to be curled over so they aren’t pointy. I made mine around 25cm and then curled the ends into circles as seen below.

Fold a piece of polar fleece in half and lay the wire on top.

Cut out a trapezoid shape like below and make it substantially longer than the wire, the long end of mine was almost double that of the wire.

Stitch from one corner up the side and around to the other side. Leave a gap so you can turn it inside out.

Turn it inside out ^_^

You should have something along these lines…

Put the wire inside.

Stitch on each side through the wire loops. This will hold it in place and make sure it doesn’t slip around inside.

Because the polar fleece is bigger than the wire it will look something like this when you sew each loop.

Fill the whole thing with stuffing.

It should be packed in there fairly tightly but not so much so that it can’t bend.

Stitch the end up and you’ve got a hair sausage!

To use it you just need to make a ponytail, wrap this around and the form the bun around it.

The reason I prefer the sausages to donuts is that you can use them in a variety of ways including in vintage style rolls etc. I’ve seen a lot of sock versions of this too, have you ever tried them?

I’ve got tutorials on how to use it in a variety of ways coming up soon 😀

So you need:

• Ric Rac
• Glue or needle and thread

Twist the two pieces together so they form one long strand.

The length you need will depend on how big you want your flower but you do need a decent amount.

Roll the end into a little spiral. Fix it with a stitch or a dot of glue on the back.

Roll, roll, roll and roll some more until you have something along these lines 😀 Poke the end underneath.

Stitch or glue it all on the bottom!

Flip the outer layers down so they sit flat. I think its easier to do this if you’ve glued the bottom because stitching can have a lot less give to move it around.

Done!

Cute!

Just promise me you won’t be putting them on any scary dresses XD

Instead add them to something slightly more subtle and slightly less neon such as a pearl headband!

Hope you enjoyed and it doesn’t bring back any horrible memories of your grandma’s sewing XD

I did the flower in two sections. The middle out of yellow and the outside out of red. For the inside I made loops of wire…Then twisted them leaving the end as a circle.

I made a bunch of them like this…

Done! Next the red section. I wrapped the red wire around my fingers…

Then used some pliers to twist the ends together.

It ended up like a tear drop shape.

I flared the end loops out to form petals.

After making a second one I placed them on top of each other with the twisted ends in the middle.

To make the flower a bit fuller I wrapped the wire around my fingers again and twisted in the middle.

I flared it out and then placed it on top of the first red parts. I tied them all together with more wire and then added the yellow part in the middle.

Everything was held together with wire and then I inserted the bobbypin and wrapped it in with more wire.

Done!

You could make so many variations on this style.

I could really picture a gigantic version of this perched on top of a big bun, pinup style!

Now to think of what to make with the rest of the wire!

You need:

• Lace
• Thin ribbon
• Thin wire

First thing’s first, decide how long you want the usamimi to be and cut the lace to that length.

Lay it flat on a table and place the ribbon over the top in the center like this. If you prefer you can pin it in place.

Stitch down either side of the ribbon so it forms a tube with the lace. You want to get as close to the edge of the ribbon as possible so it looks neat and tidy. Sew one of the ends shut too but leave the other open as we’ll need to shove the wire in it.

You should have something like this…

Now cut a length of wire which is a few inches longer than the lace.

Fold the end of it over and twist so it forms a loop like the photo below. This loop will stop it poking out of the ends between the stitches.

Poke it into the tube between the lace and ribbon.

Thread it through all the way until you reach the other end of the lace.

Twist the other end of the wire into a loop as well.

Poke the wire in so it’s completely inside the tube and stitch it shut with some thread.

Taadaa! you have a very pretty and versatile usamimi which you can use in the traditional way or in so many other ways because it’s basically a bendable piece of lace.

I’m very tempted to make a bunch of these in different colours because they’re a really good way to top off an outfit 😀

What you need:

• Fabric
• Needle and thread or sewing machine
• Wire

First thing you need to do is work out how long you want the usamimi to be and cut a rectangle of fabric to that size. Fold it in half on the long side (so it’s very thin and long) and cut the ends into slightly curved points. The photo below shows what the points should look like unfolded.

This is what you should end up with, two points on each end.

Fold it so the good side of the fabric is on the inside and start stitching at the crease. Go up to the point:

And back down the other side.

Continue stitching all the way down the side until you reach the end of the other point.

Tie off the thread and leave the other end of the point open.

Turn the whole thing inside out through the hole at the point.

If you need to, use something pointy like a pen to help push it all through.

You should have something along these lines:

Cut a length of wire a few inches longer than the fabric is point to point. Fold one end of the over and twist so it forms a loop. This will prevent it from poking through the stitching on the other side.  Push the piece of wire into the usamimi through the hole and all the way to the other point.

In the other tutorial I wrote the wire was stitched around the outside of the fabric, that works best if you have very thin wire, this technique works best if you have thicker wire.

Once the wire is all the way in, twist the other end in a loop too.

Fold the edges of the hole under and hand stitch it completely shut.

Test it out by twisting it together and you’re good to go 😀

Very simple to do and super quick if you do them on the sewing machine too. If your fabric is very puffy you might like to topstitch the sides to flatten it a bit but I actually prefer the puffiness.

Hope you guys enjoyed, there’s a video version of this coming soon too!