15.0 The Body Suit
==================
This is the most important part of any fursuit, as it makes or breaks the illusion of what you're trying to present. It can be as simple as a one- piece jumper, to something formfitting, to just using your own clothes as part of the suit. It's not unusual to watch people use bodypaint in addition to other parts.

Nicodemus' page on body, paw and head construction - http://www.nicodemus.org/fursuit.cgi?blue

Matrice's tutorial on bodysuit making - http://www.matrices.net/bodysuit.asp

15.1 Before you start
=====================
Before you start, make sure you have all materials you need, like scissors, sewing items, etc. Nothing kills the motivation of you finding that you need something right in the middle of an intense session. Location helps as well. Here's a listing of what you may need;

- scissors
- seam ripper
- a good table
- needles and thread
- sewing machine with extra needles
- marking item, like chalk, grease pen, or marker
- basting gun
- safety pins

15.2 - Planning the body suit
============================
Fur
Felt-like cloth
Lycra/Spandex
Panne/crushed velvet

15.3 - Laying out and cutting the pattern
========================================
- cutting boards
- sharp scissors, what to use?
- medical grade scissors with blunt tip
- razorknives/boxcutters
- penknives/xacto blades

From: Flinthoof Sharis
Bought some fur today...even worked with it! But no, not for a costume, but a book cover instead! Hey, I thought a fun-fur cover would be appropriate. :) Learned from the clerk there that the best way to cut fur is to cut a small notch into the fur, then TEAR it from that point on. Less fuzzies on the cut that way and it won't unravel like a scissor cut will. I tried it, and well, it works! Best on larger pieces that are straight.

From: Lex Nakashima
Cutting fur: I usually just use a razor and cut from the back of the fur. No particular reason; I just never got very good at the notch-and-rip technique...

15.4 - Dyeing
============

Dye resources - See section 99.19.

BigBadWolf's pages on dyeing fur http://fursuits.wereanimal.net/coloring.htm and http://fursuits.wereanimal.net/furdye2.htm

Createx's page on dyeing suggestions - GREAT PAGE! - http://www.createxcolors.com/product_lines/liquid_fiber_dyes.htm

Someone mentioned somewhere using Manic Panic, and it did stick to the fur better than RIT did.

From: Teddy Ruxpin
Subject: FL: Dying for experience..Re:

> From: Aetobatus
> Just wondering if anyone has experience dying Monterey Mills 100% acrylic furs?

I have. The Tiresta puppet I just finished is made from white 100% acrylic fur, dyed various shades of grey and black. I have also tested red, and that works too. Here's the method:

Use RIT dye, either liquid or powder. You need a large pot to boil it in - stainless or aluminum, big enough to cover the fur you need to dye. I cut out the pattern pieces before dying so I did not have so much to dye. Process ALL pieces you need the same color at the same time! You need some kind of spacer in the bottom of the pot like an open wire grid so that the fur cannot touch the bottom of the pot, and you need to be able to stir the fur in the pot while it is boiling.

Put enough water in to cover the fur and allow for stirring. Don't leave the fur in to pot yet! Put salt in the water - I used 1/2 cup salt for 3 quarts of water. Add dye. 3 ounces of liquid black to 3 quarts of water turned about 2 sq ft of 3/4" fur a good black. You will have to experiment. Stir water/dye/salt and heat the pot on the stove until it is all dissolved. If you use Rit powder dye, dissolve it in hot water in a glass bowl first, then decant the SOLUTION into the pot. Try dissolving any solid grains left in more hot water. If you get undissolved grains in the pot you will get bright spots in the fur!

Wet the fur well - run cold tap water on it and wring it out several times so it is all wetted, then shake it out flat and add to the simmering dye. Stir well. Stir more. If you do not stir well, you will get lighter patches in the fur. Make sure fur does not remain folded for long, or the crease line ends up lighter. When you guess it may be dyed enough, lift the fur out and drain off (squeeze carefully) the excess hot dye into the pot. (The black dye job I mentioned above was boiled for 30 mins. Others have told me that 5 mins would have done. Experiment.) Put the fur under COLD running tap water. The excess liquid dye will be flushed off but the fur fibers will retain the color. After a couple of minutes the rinse water should run clear, and the dye will be permanently on the fur.

To dry the fur, first wring it, then shake it or whip it to centrifuge out water, then spread out flat in a warm area on newspaper and start brushing. As it dries brush more to get the pile straight again. Brush it left, then up, then right, then down to get the fibers all running in the same direction. It has to be fairly dry before it aligns well. NOTE that the look and feel of the fur is very different after its dyed. Much like after washing fur - it never looks quite like new. It will shed a lot. Cheap fur might shed to the point of looking ratty.

You can reuse the dye in the pot - add more dye, or use as-is for a lighter shade. RIT dye is apparently not poisonous, but the high salt content means don't get it in your eye. The fumes from boiling it are not at all bad, does not stink the house up.

The Rit instructions say wear gloves and clean up with bleach. Neat bleach on a rag rubbed on unfortunate dye splashes on counter tops has worked for me - wear rubber gloves!

-----------------------------------------------------------

O.K. - I found my own notes while packing, so here's the info, off of a NFT letterhead sheet ...

  HOW TO USE TEXTILE RESOURCE DYES

1) Airbrush
 a) Mix 50% color, 50% binder
 Add water to consistency of creme
 Mixed colors should drip slowly from mixing stick.

2) Handpainting
 a) Mix 50% color, 50% binder
 Add water as needed to flow easily onto fabric
 Add CP-X clear (thinned with water) to produce mix that is easier
    to brush on
 Suggested mix: 1) 2/3 thinned clear, 1/3 binder
                2) Add color to desired shade
                3) add water to thin as needed
                   add CP-X clear to thicken

3) Heat Setting after Drying
   1) Household Iron at Medium (275-375 degrees F) (135 - 190.5
      degrees C)  
      Use cloth or paper between iron and material to prevent scorching.
   2) Oven heat or gas tumble dryer

<<< end of quote >>>

The binder as mentioned above can be found somewhere around the airbrush listings, if they'd quit moving things around so much... - http://www.dickblick.com/categories/airbrush/

From: Joe Dunfee
Subject: Re: Dye Follies

"Cheetah" Bowen Goletz writes;
>I've found a fabric sold under the name Ultra Velour that may be
>what I've been looking for.
>I'll start cold dying swatches of the cream to come up with solid
>gold and solid amber, but need a method to come up with spots!
>I'd also like to be able to do black on brown rosettes. One
>thought was to slightly dilute liquid rit dye and airbrush the
>spots. Before I make an incredible mess,any input from the list?

There is alot written on the art of "painting" with dyes. It is done alot on silk. With silk, a "resist" (commonly melted wax) is first painted on to restrict where the dye will go. The cloth is then either dyed and the parts with wax don't accept the dye. Or sometimes the was is simply used as a barrier to keep the dye from spreading from an area that was painted.
Another technique I have read about involves adding a thicking agent to the dye so that it can be painted on the fabric and it won't spread out.
I recomend contacting a company called Pro-Chem, they have a very thorough catalog and sell all the necessary stuff. 1(800)2BUY-DYE

From: Farallon Seal
Ron Orr writes;
>>black spots, but all I've found is solid cream. I'll start cold dying
>>swatches of the cream to come up with solid gold and solid amber, but

>Hot dying would also work since it's mostly cotton. Either method should
>work well since it is a "natual" fiber.

As an aside, I did some all acrylic fur dying tests this weekend specifically for doing spots. I didn't try one of the previously mentioned dyes made for staining plactic but we used about 12 different substances including acrylic paint, glass stain, permanent markers, rit dye, and on and on. The rit did NOTHING, and at the oposite extreme was the acrylic paint. But even after one washing only about 50% of the paint remained on the fibers making the spots look very faded, and it was obvious that what was left wouldn't stay too long. The 'permanent' markers ran and stained the surrounding hairs. Another problem with ALL of the above methodes was that it was impossible to stain all the hair down to the root and including the backing. This made the spots look to me like they were painted on rather than naturally that color.

Then I got out my electric razor and shaved down a couple of spots in the light fur and cut similarly shaped spots out of black fur and hot glued them on. In the end this method looked INFINATELY better than any of the dyes and overall probably didn't take any longer to do.

For doing stripes or any other coloration changes that are > 2" wide, I've found that cutting the fabric and sewing the stripes togeather or hot gluing the fur and stripes to a backing produced great looking results. I've now concluded that this is the only way to really produce acceptable color changes of any size on acrylic fur. Although for small spots shaving the fur and gluing the new spot onto it worked well and fairly quickly.

Next time I'll have to try dying and staining mohair fur... It would be nice to be able to produce gradual color gradations from arm to paw or back to belly on occasion.

From: Flinthoof Sharis
Other dye solutions to try include black and brown leather shoe DYES, not polish. We use 'em in model railroading for a lot of weathering stains when mixed with denatured alcohol as the thinning agent. Permanent on the clothing I've accidentally spilled on, much to my dismay. I really liked that shirt. :/

15.5 - Airbrushing
==================

Dye/ink/paint sources - section 99.19

Airbrush sources - section 99.29

We've found that you can thin it down quite a bit more to shoot it through an airbrush (just make multiple passes) and it will set quite nicely on the NFT or other fake fur with a hand-held hair blower/dryer. Just remember to brush the fur so it's "open" when you want the color and "bunched" where you don't. This stuff doesn't make the fur 'sticky' like a lot of other colorings would (spray 'n' tips, acrylic paint, etc. )

From: Lex
Flinthoof writes:
>What of using a high quality paint such as Badger's Accuflex, an
>acrylic polymer base, that will bond permanently to the fake fur?
>Should be able to airbrush it on lightly and use it to slightly TINT,
>not color the fur.

A very good suggestion: most acrylic paints will work just fine on acrylic furs, and Flinthoof's additional suggestion that this technique be used to tint, rather than actually paint, the fur is dead-on. Depending on what it is you want the fur to be, a light use of paints will often do the trick. A couple of caveats: too much paint and the fur will begin to get stiff and feel kind of straw-like, since you are actually beginning to coat the individual fur fibers with an increasingly thick layer of paint (ie, as you use more paint). Also, have a slicker wire brush handy (as well as a bucket of water), and constantly brush the fur as it dries so the fibers don't stick together. Again, a -light- tinting of the fur with this kind of paint and the brushing should not affect the fur too much; if you've put on so thick a layer of paint that it takes more than a few seconds to dry, you're likely to end up with a thick, "sculpted-glaze" look to the fur (like using hair spray). Brushing will also help to work some of the paint in towards the base hairs, so that you don't get just the top layer painted (leading to gaps in the color when you move).

Slicker brushes, for those of you without the benefit of dogs, are those flat, squarish, wire-bristled brushes used for dog grooming. Depending of the size, they run $4-7 at pet stores. As brushes go, they're nearly indispensable: we constantly use them to groom furry costumes. Don't be too concerned about the fibers that it brushes out: fun furs of average-to-better quality can take an awful lot of this before they start to show thinning. These are also useful to get a head start in "seaming" fur you've sewn together (pulling the fur that's been sewn into the seam).

From: Joe Dunfee
I have purchased some "basic" dyes, which is supposed to be able to dye polyester. But I was forewarned that it will not be able to dye as dark with the polyester as I am used to with more easily dyeable fabric. I tried it, but was only able to achieve a medium color, not very dark at all.

I purchased the dye from... forgot the name, but I do remember their 800 number.. 1-800-2BUYDYE They have the most extensive catalog I have seen of any of the dye companies.

From: Spiked Punch
Subject: Re: FL: Airbrushing fur

In a message dated 9/17/99 7:40:19 PM Central Daylight Time, JamieWolf writes:

> With 2-3 days to finish my fursuit, I have a fairly urgent question to ask:
> Could anyone give me hints on how to airbrush fur (going from yellow
> fur to white colour)?
> Also, does the fur lose any of its feel at all once airbrushed?

Well, airburshing fur is like airbrushing anything else... you are going to notice some change in the texture. If you do it real finely, you will not notice all the much. Best to use a real light spray, say something less than a mist. You will have to practice some to get it just right. Have heard the best kind of paints to use are leather dyes which are sold in small amounts that just thin enough for a airbrush. And chances are you will have to do some touch ups now and then. After all, it is paint.

Streaks & Tips: available at your local drug store or hair/beauty supply store: An excellent stop-gap way to color fur temporarily (though test it on a piece of scrap fur first: different materials react differently [never throw away scraps--you'll always find a use for them!]

Speaking of coloring fur, check out the material of any fur you intend to dye: Nylons and natural fibres (like cotton and rayon) dye easily, but the monoacrylics are almost impossible to dye. If you use a super-concentrated solution of dye (ie, so dark it looks black) and really soak the monoacrylic furs, you MAY get a pale pink or some other pastes shade of color (and most of that is the furs' backing!). Unfortunately, the monoacrylics look the best (rayons are really thin and tend to be fuzzy and nylons don't look as good as most acrylics). It is possible to dye the monoacrylics, but the process uses temperatures more precise than color film developing and that are so toxic that norms can't buy the stuff.

From: "Helvetica 'Foofers' Bold"
Subject: Re: FL: Added effect help

If this is a one-time thing and subtlety isn't all that important, Harbor Freight Tools is having a sale through May 3rd on various stuff including an "air brush kit" for $4.49. This is a cheesy "half action" airbrush, meaning the trigger is simply on/off, though some (non real-time) control of the paint flow is possible with manual adjustment of the front nozzle. Still...this is adequate for plenty of low-tech stuff, or situations where one doesn't want to gunk up a good airbrush with nasty stuff. Hopefully I'll be picking up a few spares next week...sort of a lifetime supply...at that price, if one gets bent or gunked up or whatever, just toss it or cannibalize it for parts to maintain the others.

Fun place to browse, too. Retail locations are listed at:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/retailstores/index.html

Do a search for the airbrush, #6131, for $9.99.

If you need a *good* airbrush on the other hand, a bit of shopping around can turn up a decent double-action airbrush for $75 or so. Poke around good hobby stores (or sometimes Harbor Freight has these too), or I'm sure something would be easy to find on the WWW.

Neither includes an air supply (unless...if you buy a nice brush as part of a kit, they sometimes include a can of air). A small tankless air compressor will set you back another $75-$150. But there's a cheap-and-crude option here too, if super-precise control isn't necessary: a truck tire innertube, overinflated a bit, can provide a brief supply of air, perhaps a minute or so (though not constant pressure). Then just pump it back up with a bicycle pump and go at it again.

From: Aetobatus
Subject: Re: FL: Added effect help

On Fri, 23 Apr 1999, Robert Goodwin wrote:

> Any hobby store should have an airbrush. I know Frry, from our
> conversations, has a compressor, which is great for continuous airflow,
> when he's doing big airbrushing jobs. The aircans for the airbrushes just
> don't have enough air in there for serious airbrushing sessions, like
> less than a minute. Cost of an airbrush can be about $20-40.

Also, if you are a SCUBA diver, there is a pretty easy way to use the air out of the SCUBA tank for an air brush. The basic idea is that you use your dive regulator's (low pressure) power inflator fitting to supply 100psi air to an inexpensive low-pressure regulator which you can adjust down to the tens of psi needed for the airbrush. It costs around $40 or so for all the necessary fittings and regulators, but you can use the airbrush for hours off a full Al80. It also has the advantage of being completly water and oil free.

This is what I did for much of the airbrushing of the snake's head. (Though, for the last bits, the lab I work got a new compressor, so I just used that instead.)

From: Kerwin Rabbitroo
Subject: FL: Re: FT Added effect help (Airbrushing)

I use a Badger Model 150 for most craft and prop work, although I have also had good luck with some of the higher end Aztek/Testor's models. The Badger is a real workhorse and is well supported in terms of readily available parts.

I can't recommend canned air like they sell in the hobby stores. A better alternative is to get yourself a regulator that would allow you to adjust the pressure easily between 15 to 60 PSI. (I usually work around 30, but depending on the medium, such as thick latex based mask paints, I can go as high as 90.) I've seen good regulators around for about $30-$50. Once you have a regulator, go to your friendly neighborhood welding supply house and rent a tank of air (look under welding or oxygen in the yellow pages). They are supringly cheap and when empty you just swap them for a full one. (An illustrator friend of mine tells me that he usually gets 30 to 40 hours of use out of one of the large tanks.) You may be able to rent a dual-guage regulator with your air tank which is especially handy since it will tell your not only the forward pressure going into your airbrush, but also the backward airpressure still in the tank (warning you when the tank is getting low.)

If you can afford a compressor, I recommend getting one that fills a tank and taps the brush off the tank. You get much less condensation in the line which can make your brush spit. I used to live in an apartment, so I used one of the silent-type which uses a small refridgerator compressor and 1.5 litre tank.

It's still running fine and has given me pleanty of continous flow. These were about $400 on sale. If you're planning to work with paticularly thick mediums (such as aforementioned latex-based mask paints) Arnold Goldman of Monstermaker's used to swear by a 2.5hp Type 10 with what looked like a 20 gallon tank. These go for about $600, and definitely provide more air flow than I can imagine using. It should be noted that these high horsepower jobs are industrial machines and can be *very* noisey, though once that 20 gallon tank is pumped up, I'd imagine it'd keep quiet for a bit. He also favors the external mix Paasche-H airbrushes (about $70) which are easier to clean up. (I like internal mix myself, as well as double action type brushes, hence my choice of the Badger 150 for craft & model work.)

From: AxeCat
Subject: Re: A few make-up questions.....

>I most definetly agree, thats how the wonderful looks are achieved in
>Babylon 5. Now if only I could afford a airbrush.

Hello Lynx,

The expensive part of having an airbrush is the compressor. Try what I did, so your airbrush dream can become true for less money:

Buy a good airbrush, anyone you like. Some stores let you test drive them. But when buying the compressor, go for a junk place and get a refrigerator's compressor. Mine was US$ 5.00... it works flawlessly, and very quiet. Maybe it doesn't looks fancy, as it has an alien-made-looks but hey, it was cheap and I have done tons of work without failure.

15.6 - Bodysuit liners
=====================
From: Nora Mai (?)
Cotton lycra, or...

The liner was of swimsuit lining, a stretchy beige nylon tricot used to line white swimsuits (which become transparent when wet). Any color will do provided it is lighter than your exterior color (but not too much lighter). Cotton lycra would be better than what we used but was making itself scarce in our area at the time, also we were trying to think "thin" for the inner bodysuit. All of the padding was stitched to the inner suit. After we reached the proportions we desired, then we sewed the exterior furs in place. The exterior pieces were also based on the bodysuit pattern but enlarged (obviously). While the inner suit was sewn on machine, almost all the rest was done by hand.

Others have been known to have just tshirt and shorts underneath the suit, or just a unitard, bodysuit, whatever is needed.

15.7 - Bodysuit padding/fatsuits/musclesuits
=================================

Making a fatsuit for a performance - http://www.andsewitwas.com/merrywives02.htm

An "empathy suit", could be good for some suits - http://www.empathysuit.com/
[Maintainer's note: This site is *NOT* in the FAQ to poke fun at others, neither is it in here for humorous use. It is here to make suggestions on suit creation.]

Diadexxus' excellent method page on doing muscle suits - http://www.chameleon.net/diadexxus/vortex/body/body.htm

Brokken's tutorial on doing muscle suits - http://www.timberwolf.org/html/costumeconst1.html

A unique way to do a fatsuit - http://www.casamai.com/gopher2.htm

A possible alternative could be the overpadded 'sumo wrestler' suits seen at some amusement parks.

From: MikeCoyote
the first thing you'll need is a duct tape dummy. really making padding for a body suit isnt much more difficult than making a head.you start with and idea of what you want the body to look like. then add a large piece of foam to the area yo uwanna pad. cut the foam down till its a rough approximation of the shape you want (the fur will cover all of the roughness of the foam). do this for every area you want padded. then you just need to tailor down a body suit pattern to fit on top of it. when doing this I usualy use thin 1/2 inch thick pieces of foam to build up the shape I want, usualy it dosent take that much foam to pad the suit up the way I want.

as far as attachingthe foam to the suit heres a couple of ideas. the first way is to sew the padding to a undersuit of some kind. then sew the fur down on top of that. also its helpful to sew some fabric over the foam since the foam isnt very strong and will come loose fairly quickly. another idea is to sew the foam to the fursuit itself. once again adding a backing to help hold the foam in place since it wont hold very well by itself. hope all that helps a bit.

From: TopFox on the subject of "big fat costumes"
Brian Hagen asked:
>A godzillion thanks for the nifty pictures you provided for the FTP
>site. Seeing them brought up a question that has been plaguing me for
>awhile. Namely, for big fat costumes like Jingle Bear and the Pirate
>Bird, what do you use to pad out the bodies?

There are at least three ways I know of to pad out a larger body. The most common one they used at Disneyland was hoops. Inside the costumes was an innersuit, usually quilted cotton or such. Attached to this inner suit was an 'inner skeleton' so to speak. The more shape needed, the more hoops would be used. The Pirate Bird costume was done this way. This method can give characters sort of an accordian look or movement. Shawn Keller built a Chip costume and utilized hula-hoops (cut and re-shaped) to give it the Disney shape.

Second most common would be using foam. However, as you mentioned, it can crush. I've seen con costumers use various amounts and kinds... one even just filled his suit with it. Sort of made him a walking plush. I've also thought of this technic. (It was when I was thinking of doing a 'toy fox', one that LOOKED as if it were a stuffed toy. May still do it someday... if someone doesn't beat me too it now!)

Third, and this is how the Jingle Bear was done, is inflate the costume. Jingle Bear was an inflated costume. A balloon covered with fur. Disney had tried these in the mid-70s without much success. They ARE cooler than standard fur suits... but have their own problems. I remember when they showed us the costumes many of the models (the people usually hired for costume promotions) were pleased to find the suit cooler. However, by middle of the promotion, most agreed with me that their bulkiness and awkward control were more trouble than the heat in more standard costumes.

- Pockets?
- Trapunto?
- Body Sculpting

15.8 - Bodysuit closure/closing
========================

15.8.1 - Elastic
=============
Some costumes have elastic in the neck, allowing for the wearer to get in there without having to deal with other methods of closure. It's not quite the best way, as it has the problem of bunching up in that area. However, it's great for use at the wrists and ankles as well as keeping the sleeves and legs closed.

15.8.2 - Velcro
==============

15.8.3 - Zippers
===============

How to hide a zipper (courtesy of Oncilla) - http://www.nicodemus.org/fursuit.cgi?zippers

- back, hidden by velcro and fur
- front, hidden by chest fur and velcro
- side, hidden by vest or fur?
- on shoulders?
- between legs?

15.8.4 - Snaps
===============

15.8.5 - Hooks/Eyes
=================

15.8.6 - Lacing
==============

15.9 - Collars/Necks
====================

15.10 - Undersuits
====================
From: Noble A-Wolf
i was wondering where to purchase a good cotton or lycra body-suit, so i can build foam up for muscles, i've looked in a couple stores and some places on the internet but have had no luck. can some furry help me out?

Lots of good responses, summarized here;
o Bodywear such as catsuits, unitards, leotards/tights (see section 99.3) - local and mailorder
o tshirts and shorts (tshirts can be changed when soaked)
o pajamas

From: Sardog
Subject: Re: FL: Reverse Engineering Muscle Bodies
The best (and only) place that I have ever ordered from was NY Dancewear... If I remember, Master Costumer Lance Ikegawa had suggested them as a source for unitards.

I ordered them both footed and with turtle neck collars.

I can honestly say that this is the *MOST COMFORTABLE* clothing I have ever worn under a costume. You don't have to worry about t-shirts bunching up, or shorts, ridding up, down, etc. And, since they are footed, you don't have to worry about wearing socks either.

The wife also agrees when she is wearing her costume.

The only downside is that as a 6'6" guy, with a bit of a macho attitude, and not exactly a stealth frame,(Spandexy materials just don't do nice things to large frames...) its hard at times to change into costume when other people are around.

There's simply enough questions when I put the mascot on, little own trying to explain why I wear "tights" underneath.

I don't find the fur binds as much, and, certainly the seems are a lot less abrasive running over your body.

The night that I proposed to the wife at centre ice, I didn't even think about the other guys going back to my changing room after I proposed, so, it took a bit of creative undressing, to keep it concealed. (top of dog suit off, Sweat shirt on, bottom of dog suit off, jeans on!)

I think it has been the recommendation of the list to stay with Cotton, as it will wick moisture away from your body, and is easy to clean, and, relatively cool.

It would also pay to order a spare unitard, as, they can be worn as a liner under your other suits. If you get a chance to perform as a mascot, in other suits, its also nice and probably a lot more hygenic because you have a completely liner between your body and the suit. Who knows how they maintain the suit, and, who had what that was in it before.

15.98 - Offbeat ways of making bodysuits
=======================================

Making clothing and costumes out of duct tape - http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/fashion.html

Duct tape bodysuits - Don't adjust anything. You read this right. Duct tape bodysuits. Stego was the first to create one of these rather ingenious, though *HOT*, methods of creation, and wearing.

From: Stego
Subject: Re: Duct tape suiting

At 06:44 PM 8/10/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello... I'd like to try doing a bit of duct tape suiting, like you
>have. Mind telling me how you went about doing this?
>
>...or did I get the wrong person?

Hello there! :)
You got the right fursuiter :) I've got Three Duct-tape based creations under my belt thus far: a Wolf head, B*tch, and a Skunk head.

All of these creations started the same way: Taping up the appropriate part of the body of the person who will be wearing the suit (or a close facsimile of the person, say a Duct Tape Dummy or ideally a Plaster Cast). In fact, the process is nearly identical in the way a duct tape dummy is made, except for one significant difference, which is explained in the example below.

Quick lesson that I learned from the creation of B*tch, which was my first full-body duct-tape based fursuit:

* Wearing a Full-Body Duct-Suit is almost identical to walking around in a Sauna!

Duct tape is Almost the same consistency as Latex: Imagine what you'd be like after wearing a full-body latex suit around for a few hours... Quite really, I was Sloshing around during further confusion with a lake of water in my feet.

Duct-tape Can be hand sewn, which is the ideal way to put Zippers on.

Duct tape is also a Helluvalot cheaper than latex!

The Best application for using the duct-tape is in the creation of the Head, Feet, Claws, Tail, and other "Accessories" that cannot be easily washed, where you can use the duct-tape as a base to glue foam onto, while for the rest of the body you can use a classic Muscle suit to shape and sculpt the details under the fur (You can use the Duct-tape to sweatproof the foam bits which will stick into the muscle suit. Then when it's time to wash the suit, you would remove all the foam capsules and throw the muscle suit into the wash). The insides of the head/feet can then be easily wiped down/sprayed from the inside using an antibacterial spray like End-Bac.

The example below will be a basic demonstration of how I build my Duct-Tape based parts.

Materials
=========
Lets start off with making a Furry Foot, for example a Canine foot. (I chose the foot first because, for experimenting with, it requires you to sweat the least if you don't already have a plaster cast of your foot done. If I start off with the head, You're gonna Sweat like you've never sweated before while making this :)

- 1 Roll of Duct Tape (66 yards or better, about $3 at Wal-Mart)
- Plastic Bags: Either one large plastic Trash Bag, or three of the grocery-store variety (I prefer the grocery-store variety because its FREE!)
- 1 Strong pair of Scissors (The Scissors I used are one of the largest/strongest pair of scissors available on the market: 12" Carpenters shears, which can be picked up at many Craft stores for around $20)
- 1 Sweat Sock (This will be worn during the taping process to account for wearing socks inside the foot, and wont be destroyed (Unless a wrong cut is made with the scissors))
- 1 Foot (Either Your foot, a Friends foot, a Duct-Tape Dummy foot, or a Plaster Cast will do)
- 1 Zipper (Plastic Coil-type will do fine, beware the molded type. Should be about the same length as from the base of your heel to the top of where the sock stops)
- 1 Glovers Needle (This is a type of needle that has a sharp tip that turns fat about 1/4 the way up, and then slims out again. Sewing Duct Tape is like Sewing Leather.)
- 1 Thimble (Like Leather, Duct-Tape is fairly tough and is hard to push a needle through)
- 1 Marker. (You'll use this to help you mark where you're going to cut the tape at)
- Small block of Foam (The yellow Furniture variety will work, Ideally the blue Electronics variety will work best, this is what you'll use to Shape the foot))
- Fur (Whatever color/pattern of fur you wish to use. This will be glued onto the Duct Tape.)
- Neoprene Cement. (This can be picked up at most Scuba shops for about $5 a half-pint. It may not seem like a lot but the stuff spreads! I've tried the 3M Foamfast products, they just plain don't hold as well, and they're twice as toxic.) Most Neoprene cans have their own brush in the lid.
- Old Newspaper. (Once you cut out of the duct-tape sock, you'll be using this to stuff the sock so that you can work on the outer details. If you're fortunate enough to have a footcast, then this is not needed.

Procedure
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Prepare the plastic bag by cutting away handles, ties, etc, until you are left with one large plastic sheet.

1) Put the sock onto the bare foot.
2) Wrap one layer of the plastic bag around the entire sock. Trim away any excess, and use bits of tape to hold the bag in place. Allow a few inches to overlap. Basically, you're creating a plastic sock over the sock you are wearing.
3) Use the duct tape to *LIGHTLY* tape the complete outside of the plastic sock. Don't pull the tape too snugly around the foot, otherwise it will be too tight/uncomfortable to wear. Overlap by about 1/2 width of the tape. Be sure to extend your joints while you are taping over them, otherwise the resulting sock will not allow you to bend the joint! What you will end up with is a Duct-tape sock.
4) Use the Marker to mark where you would like to cut out of the Duct-Tape Sock. Typically, this will also be the place where you will sew on the zipper. I cut mine on the inside of the leg.
5) Use the scissor to cut along the lines that you drew. Be sure that you a) Don't cut the sock, and B) Don't move too fast!
6) Once your foot is out, reinforce the cut edges of the duct-sock with a layer or two of Duct tape. This will prevent the duct-sock from coming apart at the places where the duct-tape "seams" are perpendicular to your cut.
7) Align and Sew on the Zipper. You can use Duct-Tape to hold the zipper in place, then open the zipper and sew through the duct tape. (If you're lucky enough to have a STRONG sewing machine, USE IT!!!!) NOTE: Duct Tape Gums Up Needles!! Clean the needle Regularly!)
8) Stuff the resulting Duct-Boot with Newspaper (or put it back onto the cast/dummy). This will give it shape while you glue on the Foam bits which will give shape to the Canine Foot.)
9) Carve your foam bits to form the shape of a typical canine toe as it will sit on the foot. Next, you'll be gluing these toes onto the Foot. NOTE: Neoprene Cement is fast drying: Within one minute it will bond the foam to the Duct-Tape. Also, it is recommended that this be done Outside or in a well-ventilated area! Its not as nasty/toxic as FoamFast 77, but it Does have a piercing scent that'll fill the house otherwise
10) Glue the Canine Foam Toe to the appropriate place on the Duct-Boot: Spread the Neoprene Cement onto the area where the toe will be attached. Allow the glue to become tacky (in about 30 seconds after you spread and blow). Then position the foam toe and hold in place for one minute. Repeat this with the other foam toes.
11) Once the toes are in place, proceed to use the Duct Tape to tape over the foam. This will be the base where the Fur will be glued onto. What you should end up with will be akin to an Anime Cyborg Canine Foot.
12) Use the Neoprene Cement to glue the fur on in patches. Use the same technique that you used above to apply the Foam Toes. Cut the fur to the shape of the seams you are making as necessary (I find that cutting 1x1' sections of Fur and then working with that is very manageable) Unlike FoamFast, the Neoprene Cement will allow you to apply the fur and then push it to butt up against another pre-glued patch of fur.

NOTE: If you're gluing White Fur, Don't put too thick of a coating of glue down! Neoprene Cement usually dries BLACK, and too much will show through the white fur!

Tada! Done! A Duct-Tape Canine foot in 12 steps! :)

The process is identical for any other body part that you may make (The head, for example).

I hope that the above example helps to give enough insight as to how I created my suits, should you wish we can probably meet up during the next FC or CF and I can demonstrate the process live.

Please feel free to send me any other questions you may have! :)

Things to Remember/Warnings
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Just a bit o duct-tape related news which emphasizes the need for plenty of gatorade to be on hand for a ductsuiter: Apparently a high- school back east nearly lost their science teacher during a fundraiser: The Teacher volunteered to be the test subject in finding out if Duct tape can be used to tape a human to a wall. As the teacher was being taped up, "All I remember was that it was getting hotter and hotter"... The teacher fainted just as they were removing the stair on which he was standing. The duct tape did hold, 91 pieces of tape were used.