Sally – made from a foam head and craft paints.

This is part 2 of a series of tutorials on how to make Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The first tutorial was on how to make her body and frame.

To make Sally’s head you’ll need:

1 Styrofoam Head
Craft paints (use outdoor acrylics if placing prop outside) aqua blue, grey, red, black, white
Paint brushes
Foam brush
Black jewelry cord (optional)
Adhesive (make sure you have a brand compatible with foam)
Dollar Store Fake eyelashes
Pencil
Drawing of Sally or image of Sally

Directions:
1) Mix blue and grey paint until you reach the desired skin tone for Sally. In the movie, some images appear to show her skin as blue, in other parts, she appears to be grey. It’s your choice.
2) With the foam brush, paint the entire foam head with your blue-grey mixture, let dry.
3) After studying how Sally is drawn, use a pencil to outline the larger eyes, eyeshadow, lips, and stitches.
4) Paint your outlines, let dry.
5) Apply waterproof, clear-drying glue to the eyelashes and place along the eye shadow line. Add optional extra large lashes by cutting small pieces of black cord and rolling the pieces on a pencil and then attaching them to the lash bed.
6) Once eyelashes are dry, take black paint and heighten the full-lash look by brushing on (as if using a mascara brush) the black paint upward, thickening the lashes.

A closer look at Sally’s hair.

The Hair

You’ll  need:
1 Rust/red colored large skein of yarn
1 Old pair of pantyhose or tights
Craft needle
Tape

Directions:
1) Decide the length of hair and find a heavy piece of cardboard, cookie sheet or other hard form that equals the length of hair.
2) Cut about a 5-inch piece of yarn, set aside. Tape the starting point of your yarn to the top edge of the sheet form. Wrap the yard all the way around(front and back) of your sheet 20 times. Take the 5-inch piece set aside and slide it under the yarn at the top edge of the sheet (see image for detail below). Tie yarn piece firmly with a knot and cut the yarn at the bottom of the sheet. This will make one hair grouping. Repeat steps 1 & 2  for at least 14 more times(more or less depends upon thickness of yarn).

Image of yarn groupings and pantyhose cap for Raggedy Ann.

Place 5-inch yarn piece underneath yarn strands, pull up to edge of form, tie in knot. Image courtesy of LynnMasters.com.

3) Take the pair of pantyhose or tights and cut off the legs at about 4 inches below the crotch. Tie the thighs together with a piece of yarn – knotted securely. Invert the cap so the tied piece is inside. Place your cap on top of the foam head, moving the seam line to the top middle of the head (this will be your hair part placement guide).
4) Take 1 piece of hair grouping and align where the tie on the grouping is with the seam line of the cap front edge. Thread a piece of yarn and attached the grouping to the cap with a few stitches.Take the next grouping and repeat, butting each grouping next to each other and sewing separately each grouping(will allow for more flexibility in cap). Continue until you are just past the crown of the head.

If you have any questions about directions, please feel free to email me or shoot me a comment. Thanks!