Fursuit eye vid

Making a fursuit on a budget!

So here it is! How I made my fursuit for just a little over $100 (AUD)

Unfortunetly not everyone has the materials I already had at home, so prices may vary depending on what you have or don’t have available to you.

 

~Golden Tips~

• Discount Isles are your friend
• Plan every small detail, its your suit and money!
• Borrow any tools or sewing machines instead of buying, it makes the price difference decrease dramatically
• Don’t start cutting the fur straight away, use other cheap materials to measure on your head
• Prices vary depending on how you want to structure your characters head
• When cutting the fur use a Stanley knife and cut the rough side instead of the fur side
• Make character parts like ears and jaws smaller than normal, the fur makes it look bigger (I learnt that pretty quickly)

Okay now my golden tips have been said, I will tell you what I had at home and what I had to buy. Remember borrowing tools is a easy way to save.

 

~Home~

• Gutter Guard (The one on the left is the exact one I used)
• Hot glue Gun
• Foam Roll (Not the one I used but very close to it)
• This Wig*
• Belt (For the tail)
• Over-locker**
• Stockings (Inside of the eyes so I can see them but they can’t see me) ((Sorry no image here I can’t find any decent ones D:))

 

*I sort of payed for this but then again I didn’t. For one of my cosplays the year before I went as Axel from Kingdom Hearts II. We ordered a $60 (AUD) wig from Ebay and it was taking its time getting here so we told the people it had probably been lost in the mail. For free they sent us another one. We ended up getting a really nice looking wig a few days later, then about a week later we got another extremely bad quality one which we presumed was the replacement wig. We used the good wig for my Axel wig and because my character has red hair we brushed the other one out (so it was smooth and flowy) and chopped strips out to use for my characters hair. You can probably pick up really cheap badly made wigs from a $2 shop and just brush it out, however if your character has spiked hair you want to watch out what spray/gel you use because some of them melt wigs

**One of the best tools I have ever used to sew fur. It helps with creating seamless looks on fur that is sewn together and also stitches the end of the fur so all the fur doesn’t fall off. I was kind of lucky and found this one at a garage sale for really cheap, but they can range in price’s of +$300 for new ones. These types of things are the ones you want to ask around for if anyone has to lend to you. Sewing machines can work too but an over locker is very helpful and a lot less time consuming.

 

~Bought~

• Sculpey (That specific brand is very good, nice and easy to use. We bought another set of clay from a $2 shop and it was terrible. In this  picture you can see one of my claws broke off, and it was the cheap brand of clay not Sculpey) ((I can’t get a picture of the packets I used but if you ask around a craft store for that brand they will be able to show you)
• Black, White and Red fur (I probably spent the most on this, it was about $80 – $90 worth of fur, and I still have some left over. Before you buy fur measure out how much you need so you have a little left but not alot, it will help you save more money. The Black and White fur are very good quality and being in Australia where I live there wasn’t alot of choices of what I could choose from. The red fur is a little less quality but its not bad and is shorter by fur length then the black and white)
• Stanley Knife
• Felt material (pink, black, red, white)

Thats about it, as I said I was fortunate enough to have heaps of materials available to me at home, but alot of the stuff you can find pretty cheap at discount stores and such. The link to how I made my fursuit will be put here when its done

Mascot vs Fursuit?

Whats the difference between a Fursuit and a Mascot costume? They are pretty much the same in a way, both made out of material fur, foam and ect, but they are still very, very different. This is a standered Mascot costume. Usually noticable by the big head and cartoony features. Mascot costume fur is very cheap, not good quality faux fur.

Mascot Dog

Now we take a look at a Fursuit. Notice the increased detail on the face and paws

Fursuit Dog

Fursuit by Noodlesfur

Fursuits have better fur, face and eye detail. Mascots aren’t really there to be critiqued about the detail of the costume, they are there to represent a company or product. A Fursuit is there to be admired for the creaters work, and for the person inside that furry suit to enjoy. The point of this article… I dunno.

Welcome!

Well Hiya there, I’m a Melbourne furry called Das Swift! I am currently building my own fursuit, and hope to wear it to Midfur and Manifest when its done! I look forward to investigating further into the furry fandom :]

I’ll be posting furry/fursuit stuff on my blog.

Peace

-Das