soft hair curlers

when i was little, my mother used to put my hair in soft hair curlers before bed on special occassions. if i remember correctly they were those foam pink rollers with the plastic pink frames. she would do this before weddings and holidays; and she would put just my pig tails in rollers when i had a gymnastics meet the next day. i had really thick, straight hair when i was little. you'd sleep on the rollers and the next morning you'd have beautiful curls in your hair. i've heard of different versions of this including a sock roller and i've seen soft rollers in the drugstore lately, but they're little and plain and don't look like they'd do a very good job. i also wanted a way to have fun, fancy hair when i'm vacationing in the back woods with no electricity. so i designed a cut and sew fabric to make my very own soft rollers. you can go to http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/1092481 to buy the fabric to make your very own bright, patterned curlers. one yard of fabric makes 29 rollers, which is enough to do all my hair - and i have a lot - and my daughters hair as well. the cut and sew lines are right on the fabric along with markers for the buttons and buttonholes.

first, wash dry and iron your fabric; i made my curlers with the kona cotton fabric. cut out all your pieces, since the cut lines are right on the fabric you're able to take this with you anywhere you want; i like to do my cutting when mindlessly watching tv. next, fold your pieces in half with right sides together and stitch along all the dashed lines leaving open the space between the dots at the end of the longer skinny side. turn them rightside out (that stick that comes in your fiberfill is really handy here.)

stitch a line across the curler creating a small tab at the end. stitch your button on that tab for all your rollers - i used fun colored buttons to make each roller even brighter. add your fiberfill. fill the larger section with stuffing to your desired stiffness - i made mine rather firm. stitch across the curler closing off the stuffed section of the piece. fold in the open ends and stitch closed. stitch your buttonholes where indicated on the longer tab. trim your threads, cut open your button holes and you're done! i love my sewing machine for a lot of reasons, but it is the best when making buttonholes. maybe most sewing machines are this easy for buttonholes, i don't know, but all i have to do is put a button in the back of my buttonhole foot and press go and the sewing machine knows exactly what size to make the buttonhole and stitches it and stops when it's done. then you carefully take your seam ripper (and a pin if you want to be safe - put pin at the end of the buttonhole as a stopper) to open up your button holes. now, just roll your hair, sleep on it (which is surprisingly comfortable, like sleeping with your pillow attached to your head), wake up and unroll to beautiful curls. and these are the prettiest soft hair rollers i've ever seen :)