WereDrelf
New Member
Recently I attended a con in my dragon-elf outfit and received several inquiries about how I built my dragon horns. So here is the process for your inspiration:
First I got a regular, stable-feeling hair/head band. Thankfully these usually have a plastic frame inside, so I could easily melt all needed holes simply with a heated paperclip (heat it up with a lighter for example).
One hole went into each end tip, so I could securely sew a piece of elastic to them. The horns are not heavy, but you don’t want them to go flying, if you whip your head around.
Then I marked the horn positions in front of a mirror and melted two pairs of holes into the headband at the horn centers. Through these I pulled 18 gauge coated steel wire (The coating is not necessary; it is just what I had). These I twisted for stability. Be careful when you twist close to the head band holes – There is a lot of force at work, and you don’t want to break the plastic around the holes.
After placing this contraption onto a wigged head, I could shape the wire without unnecessary contortions in front of a mirror. Once I was happy with the basic shape, and after cutting to the final length, I wrapped some strips of heavy duty aluminum foil around them. Mostly to give the base more stability, but the foil also aids in filling and stabilizing the horns.
The final foil wrap was squished and shaped some more before the next step.
Around this layer I wrapped strips of basic craft felt to soften the shape. This layer was wrapped tightly with electrical tape to hold everything in place. (Sorry, forgot to take photos of this step.)
I recommend doing all this wrapping starting from the base of the horns, because pulling the final fabric over these shapes is a pretty tight ordeal. Wrapping from the base assures the wrap seams go with the pulling direction, not against it.
The outer shape is made of faux gator leather! It looks nice and scaly in an irregular pattern. (The horn pattern in the photo is an early version. The final ones were longer.) Cut your pattern and sew the things into a tube (Easily done on a regular sewing machine). Cut as much seam-allowance off as possible, especially in the narrow tip section. Now comes the hard work part: Turning them inside out is a pain! I needed needle nose pliers (careful, the fabric vinyl coat rips off easily!) and a long wooden spoon.
I did a fit test onto the wire shapes and adjusted the gator-tube lengths. Then they were pulled into place (another task for the Hulk). Don’t worry about messing up the shape – They can be bent back pretty easily.
To finish things up, I sewed the bottom edges of the gator tubes tightly onto the head band by hand, to keep the horns from wobbling. I also clued a strip of felt inside the head band to keep the wire loops from digging into my skull.
Here is a photo of the almost finished horns. I did shape the tips a little more afterward.
If you don't have bangs, you can hide the head band under your pinned-back hair. My bangs were still too short, so I just relied on the head band color being close enough to my hair color for this first appearance of my dragon-elf.
Happy horning!
First I got a regular, stable-feeling hair/head band. Thankfully these usually have a plastic frame inside, so I could easily melt all needed holes simply with a heated paperclip (heat it up with a lighter for example).
One hole went into each end tip, so I could securely sew a piece of elastic to them. The horns are not heavy, but you don’t want them to go flying, if you whip your head around.
Then I marked the horn positions in front of a mirror and melted two pairs of holes into the headband at the horn centers. Through these I pulled 18 gauge coated steel wire (The coating is not necessary; it is just what I had). These I twisted for stability. Be careful when you twist close to the head band holes – There is a lot of force at work, and you don’t want to break the plastic around the holes.
After placing this contraption onto a wigged head, I could shape the wire without unnecessary contortions in front of a mirror. Once I was happy with the basic shape, and after cutting to the final length, I wrapped some strips of heavy duty aluminum foil around them. Mostly to give the base more stability, but the foil also aids in filling and stabilizing the horns.
The final foil wrap was squished and shaped some more before the next step.
Around this layer I wrapped strips of basic craft felt to soften the shape. This layer was wrapped tightly with electrical tape to hold everything in place. (Sorry, forgot to take photos of this step.)
I recommend doing all this wrapping starting from the base of the horns, because pulling the final fabric over these shapes is a pretty tight ordeal. Wrapping from the base assures the wrap seams go with the pulling direction, not against it.
The outer shape is made of faux gator leather! It looks nice and scaly in an irregular pattern. (The horn pattern in the photo is an early version. The final ones were longer.) Cut your pattern and sew the things into a tube (Easily done on a regular sewing machine). Cut as much seam-allowance off as possible, especially in the narrow tip section. Now comes the hard work part: Turning them inside out is a pain! I needed needle nose pliers (careful, the fabric vinyl coat rips off easily!) and a long wooden spoon.
I did a fit test onto the wire shapes and adjusted the gator-tube lengths. Then they were pulled into place (another task for the Hulk). Don’t worry about messing up the shape – They can be bent back pretty easily.
To finish things up, I sewed the bottom edges of the gator tubes tightly onto the head band by hand, to keep the horns from wobbling. I also clued a strip of felt inside the head band to keep the wire loops from digging into my skull.
Here is a photo of the almost finished horns. I did shape the tips a little more afterward.
If you don't have bangs, you can hide the head band under your pinned-back hair. My bangs were still too short, so I just relied on the head band color being close enough to my hair color for this first appearance of my dragon-elf.
Happy horning!
