Tips on making your own fursuits

[WingedZephyr]

Feel free to post tips, suggestions, methods, or tutorials on making your own fursuits and furry accessories here. If you have any general questions about making a fursuit, you can post them here as well.

Old threads previously related to this topic can be found here.




As people post links to tutorials or helpful sites, the links will be compiled into a list below so you don't always have to sift through multiple pages of the thread to find them. The list will be updated as necessary.

Fursuit gloves tutorial
Livejournal fursuiting community
Coloring fur without an airbrush
Dying fur with acrylic paint
A variety of tutorials on furring, heads, paws, etc.

[Shannux]

Hi, i was told by a user called White Wolf to post my question here so.....here it goes

I am new to the furry scene and i am wanting to make my own costume by hand........but that is where the problem starts .......i am not sure where to start on the costume. I understand that it is a good idea to get a character sketch done up to use as a blue print but after that i am a bit lost.

Could you possibly help with my problem

thnx for taking the time to read this. 

[Draekaar]

I am new to the furry scene and i am wanting to make my own costume by hand........but that is where the problem starts .......i am not sure where to start on the costume. I understand that it is a good idea to get a character sketch done up to use as a blue print but after that i am a bit lost.

I can give you some tips.  first off, did you want a full suit or a partial suit?  that affects how you'll do the paws.  What you want to do then is make sure you have a good reference of the character.

The most important components of any suit are the head, tail, and handpaws.  what you want to do is make sure you have the handpaws and tail complete first, and then the head, because a head without hands or tail looks sillier than hands and tail without a head  You will need a styrofoam head, and a fabric tape measure.  try to find a styrofoam head as close to the size of yours as possible

if you have more specific questions please feel free to ask.

[Shannux]

thnx for getting to me quite quickly, i intend to make a full fursuit, i am currently working on my character design as we speak and hopefully it will turn out good (my drawings are reallllllllllly bad ). I have a friend who is a cosplayer, and she says she can help me with stitching and such.
Oh ya one more thing, i had a look at the video for making the paws, do you recommend doing it that way, and also what kind of fabric should i be looking to get a hold.

once again thnx for your help

[Draekaar]

thnx for getting to me quite quickly, i intend to make a full fursuit, i am currently working on my character design as we speak and hopefully it will turn out good (my drawings are reallllllllllly bad ). I have a friend who is a cosplayer, and she says she can help me with stitching and such.
Oh ya one more thing, i had a look at the video for making the paws, do you recommend doing it that way, and also what kind of fabric should i be looking to get a hold.

once again thnx for your help

I have no idea what video you're referring to.  As for kinds of fabric, that really depends on the character.  any sort of furred character you should get fake fur for.  you can get either mink or shag as the two primary kinds of fake fur... mink is short pile fur, usually very smooth and about 1/2 inch high.  Shag is anything thats a little coarser, and between 1 and 4 inches long.  5 inches and up is considered extra long pile.

it really depends on your character.  Have a look at the topic for where to get fur, explore the furs available on the various sites and if you see something you like, email the company and ask about getting a sample.  Most sites will give you samples for free if you ask nicely enough, though some do have a $1ish charge per patch.  It is HIGHLY recommended that you get samples of every fur you are interested in before purchasing them, that was you have something physical to compare to, and you can best decide what you are going to get.

[cardboardhybrid]

Is there any good tutorials on making feet paws?
Im trying to make some, but i cant find the simplest way to make the toony big paws

[Draekaar]

Is there any good tutorials on making feet paws?
Im trying to make some, but i cant find the simplest way to make the toony big paws

http://www.matrices.net/digitigrade.asp
http://www.matrices.net/footpaws.asp

and for the heck of it, complete tutorials on the main site http://www.matrices.net/fursuiting.asp

there are of course many other tuts out there, but this was just the easiest one i could think of.

[LyrilaFox]

okay, this is more of 'i need suggestions,
i'm thrying to make a tail, and would like suggestions on which way you would recommend on making it, i have not a really big budget, and am prone to spend without thinking

[Draekaar]

okay, this is more of 'i need suggestions,
i'm thrying to make a tail, and would like suggestions on which way you would recommend on making it, i have not a really big budget, and am prone to spend without thinking

Plan.  Design the tail 100% the way you want it to look, and how big you want it to be so you know exactly what amount of fur you need.  Usually, one yard is wayyyyyyyyy more than enough, and that's the smallest amount you can get online.  I like to get a bit of cheap cloth and draw out a profile of the tail on that, but make it half the expected circumference instead of the desired diameter... in other words draw out the template before you cut any fur, and then you should in theory be able to make the perfect tail ^^

[LyrilaFox]

Thanks that zounds like it will help quite a bit

[Namivyn]

Anyone know any ways to make a semi-realistic wolf head with poly foam? Nothing cartoonish and it's a quad head  Also, I'm making blacok, almond-shaped eyes like with the Japanese style for wolves/dogs(ex: Amaterasu from Okami)

[Vine Tabris]

I'm gonna go ahead and ask this here; I wanted to make some small horns to wear as hair clips (trying to avoid the headband scenario, but if it's unavoidable I'll use it), anyone have any materials they would suggest? I was thinking about making a pair out of clay so that I could use a mold and make casts, but I've never made a mold before, so I don't know what to use to make the mold nor the cast. Anyone have experience on the subject?

[Thagrahn]

I've been thinking about doing a partial fursuit based on a lynx, but I want the paws to look animal like without taking away my ability to hold something in my hand.


I also need a decent template for the paws.


I'm still trying to decide if it's worth the trouble to make my own paws and digigrade legs for my first run at doing the suit.
I already know that it is best for the head to be made by the person who will be wearing the fursuit, but that is mostly to make sure it fits and looks right on the person.

[Erick1448]

hey just wondering didn't anyone ever think of building a built in pen to the glove of their fur suit. because it seems like it would be useful. you could use the claw on the pointer finger as the pen and build a patch to hold the tube of ink the only tricky part is making it so you can replace to tube of ink and attach the ink directly to the pointer finger claw. if anyone has successfully done this or is inspired by my idea let me know.

[Draekaar]

hey just wondering didn't anyone ever think of building a built in pen to the glove of their fur suit. because it seems like it would be useful. you could use the claw on the pointer finger as the pen and build a patch to hold the tube of ink the only tricky part is making it so you can replace to tube of ink and attach the ink directly to the pointer finger claw. if anyone has successfully done this or is inspired by my idea let me know.

a pen tube could easily break, and then you'd have a pile of ink everywhere.  also how would you cap it to prevent it from drying up?


I really don't think it would be worth doing, considering writing with your fingertip with pen would be quite difficult to get the right pressure.