How to Make a Bosco Wig

This is Bosco, who was intergral to many an Irish childhood(Edit: link didn't work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosco_(TV_series) ). Of course I only ever saw re-runs, as Bosco was made in the 70s and 80s, but they were new to me at the time I was watching them!

I was making a rag doll with some scraps of fabric, and as I was trying to figure out the hair placement, I though, why not make a wig and sew it on... And then I thought - why not make a human sized wig! The rest is history, as documented in this Instructable.

1. Yarn - I used a 100g ball of chunky acrylic wool, in bright red (Shade was listed as 562)

2. A swimming cap - I used a black and white polyster cap

3. Crochet hook - I used a 2.5mm sized hook (small is good)

4. Scissors

5. Something to wrap your wool around - I used a paperback novel with dimensions 18cm x 11cm x 2.5cm

Ok, so the next step involves making bundles of wool. What I did was get the tail end of my ball of yarn, and tucked it in between two pages in the middle of my book. I then wound the yarn around the book twenty times. I then cut the yarn there. I cut an extra piece of the red yarn (about 5 inches long) and tied it around the strands of yarn at the top of the book. Of course I forgot to take photos of this part of the process so you will have to make do with my amateur drawings!

Ok, now you have one bundle of "hair", ie yarn, now you need to make 18 more. You will need 19 bundles of yarn to make this wig. The (extremely inelegant) illustrations give an idea of the positioning of the bundles of yarn on the swimming cap. It is a good idea to mark these positions on your cap.

This is where the crochet hook comes in!

So every bundle of "hair" is tied with a 5 inch piece of the same red yarn, right? Well hook one loose end of this yarn around your crochet hook, then kind of wiggle the crochet hook in between the woven threads of your swimming cap to make a small hole (where you have made your mark for bundle placement earlier!). Pull this end of the yarn through the cap, so it is now on the inside of the cap. Grab the other loose end of this yarn, and make another small hole in the weaving of the cap, 3-5mm away from the first hole. It doesn't have to be very accurate. Then pull this other end of yarn through that hole. So now the two ends of yarn are on the inside of the cap. Tie them in a knot, and that's it! One bundle is attached, so repeat for your other eighteen bundles.

[Edited to add: Basically you are just making two small holes, right beside eachother, at each mark you have made in your cap. Then remember the piece of red yarn holding your bundle together? Take one end and put it through one hole, the other end and put it through the other hole, so now both pieces are on the inside of the cap. Then just tie them together! You can make holes with anything, even cut them with a scissors, but I prefer to use the crochet hook to work my way in between the weaving of the cap, and then use the crochet hook to pull the wool through the hole with it.]

And that's it! Once all of your bundles are attached you can give your wig a haircut to make it look the way you want. I stuck mine on a Mike Wazowski plush to give it a haircut as I didn't have any other model available at the time!

Of course you can make whatever variant you like. If you use thinner wool, you may need to make more bundles and space them out appropriately on your cap. If Bosco isn't your thing, you can make a different colour. Of course you can make the "hair" on your wig as long or as short as you like.

I hope you liked this tutorial, and found it helpful or inspiring!

Thanks for reading!