DIY War Bonnets or Indian Head dress Part I

HOW TO MAKE INDIAN HEAD DRESS / DIY INDIAN HEAD DRESS

In order to make Indian Head dress you need the following but not exactly, you can also use materials and tools which can also complete the head dress. Here is the list of the tools and materials we used:

Materials:

Fur

Small Beads (choice of color)

Medium sized beads

Long feathers

Leatherette

(White) 2 centimeter width strings

(Brown) poly canvass fabric/ bag fabric

(Brown) Yarn

Nylon

Spray paint

Barbeque Sticks

Garter

Wires

Thin foams (crypsole)

Tools:

Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Scissors

Springs (I used cord protector instead)

Wood (I used a compound of sticks, glued together and an empty container of dishwashing paste for beadwork)

Needle

Thread/Strings

Safety Mask

Masking Tape

Pliers

Cutter

So let's get started:

Step 1 - Preparation
Prepare your materials and tools to avoid later distractions, and it won’t get in the way during creative process.

Step 2 - Start working with the base,

• I used wires to form the head-band, plus it can give flexibility in sizes of head dress users.

• Then I sew garter on both ends of the wire, making sure it not too loose and not too tight for the head.

• After that using hot glue cover the wire with thin foams, you can use any foam materials just to make it comfortable.

Step 3 – The Beadwork

Bead Holder
•Before laying the patterns of the beads, I did first the improvised bead holder/template. I used barbeque sticks and empty dishwashing paste glued together to create it.

This is the 3d model of bead holder.

Set-up the Nylon
The long nylon/string tying first from one of the T-shape sticks going through the gaps of both springs then going around to another T-shape string, repeating the process going back and forth until you fill each gap of strings, this nylon will serve as a divider for each bead.

Needles and Beads
You will then prepare a needle with strings and inserted beads, the beads will be depending on how many nylon gaps there is.

1.The blue bead is counted by gaps of the nylon,
2.The needled string was then tied first at the first line of the nylon
3.Insert the beads at the needled string & going under the nylons, push the group of beads upward filling the gaps of the nylon,
4.The needled string must go back to the hole of the beads but this time, this should go above the nylon.
5.Repeat the process.

Continue working until you ran out of the needled string; just remember to tie the end of the string under the beads so the end of the string is concealed.

The Bead Pattern
As you can see the almost finished beadwork was copied from excel I made, I changed the color of each cell and adjust it to smaller cubes to make the cell equal in sides.

Here is how to change the cell sizes, after that, you can now change individually the color of each cell.

You can create your own beadwork pattern or you can look for references from various Native American patterns.

After filling all the spaces and finishing the pattern, cut both ends of the nylon from the T-shape sticks. Then tie them by pair like a shoe laces.

yipee! you're half-way there.
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