Hello I've been a long time lurker, and need some suggestions and feedback.
I'm working on a female puppet to go with my Slomski puppet I completed a while back.

I've been checking the other posts here, videos posted by members, etc. for working with hair etc. Most female puppets (Miss Piggy, Lucy Avenue Q, etc) use wigs, fewer use yarn, or some ostrich feather. For the puppet I'm working on feather seems to be too short to do long hair female.

First what kind of hair does Janice the muppet have? Is it Yarn or more of a cord?
Has anyone tried Mohair for wefts, and how did that go?
Any other warnings for working with a wig, like cutting it down, buying small, warnings on using cheep wigs, etc?
Would doll wigs work, or is is better to take a small or person wig and cut it down.

The puppet is be about 115% of the project puppet pattern. If you want to see the look I'm going for I've pinned Bitsy Buttons, and have other images I'm using for inspiration.

rope or twine perhaps?

I think that Janice's hair is made from satin cordette or something similar.
ive used wigs for my puppets before and when I have had to cut them down, it wasn't massively difficult, as long as you get one that has a decent netting that the hair is attatched to, then its just a case of carefully cutting the netting and avoiding cutting the hair, its really not hard to do at all, but make sure that you keep the front bit, where the fringe is, as when you have cut it down, its a good idea to sew that bit back one the new front for a more cleaner finish, its the only thing that would be hard to do else, as making a new front to the hair is rather tricky!!

I agree, janice hair looks like nylon satin cord. I would say 5mm thickness.  I use 3mm or 1/8" for other projects which I think would be to thin, only because it would take so much  to give the hair a full look.

Mohair, no.  I tried it, but because the mohair is layed down in layers when you pull it comes apart.

Have you thought of very thin strips of fabric? Something like fleece, cut against the stretch.

Julie

Thank you for the replies.

I thought Janice's hair was more cord than yarn. I'll consider satin cord, but I think I'll be finding a wig this time. The subject and person/character this puppet represents, has long flowing hair.

Cutting strips of fabric small enough for this sounds too difficult, but I like the concept for more raggedy hair.

I suggest a drop of Fray Check on the ends of cut cord or yarn to stop them from frizzy ends.   To help that row of "hair" in a line stay put, I like to sew with thread through the middle of each "hair" perpendicularly in line and tack down to head occasionally on the top of the head. I don't like to glue hair down because later I want to rip it out and change hair dos.  I think girl's hair is the most difficult, hope yours turns out good.

Thank you Snail. Have you ever used a wood burning tool?
I tend to use a word burning tool it seals the end when cutting. It works great on ribbon, and well on smaller diameter synthetic fibers, just make sure you're working with good ventilation. I've sewn yarn on a few puppets I've done, and I agree hand stitching is much better.

No don't have a wood burning tool but have used a match for the end of plastic cord to melt the knot. Those synthetics are slippery.