A Guide To Making Your Own Furry Costume

If you have thought about joining the furry community, you might have looked into getting a fursuit. You can find fursuits to buy online, but they can get expensive and lack any personal touches. Making your own fursuit is the best way to get a costume that is exactly what you want. We will walk you through how you can make a furry costume on your own – even if you’re not crafty!

Making a furry costume doesn’t have to be difficult or require expert sewing skills. A successful fursuit requires craft store or online supplies and time set aside to construct the costume. The ideal custom fursuit can be made by exercising patience and conducting research.

Wearing fursuits to conventions and furry events can be a lot of fun, and making the costume can be too! You don’t have to be an expert crafter or shell out a ton of money to get a fursuit that is perfect for you. Follow this guide to learn what you need and how to make your very own fursuit!

What Is A Furry Costume?

Members of the “furry” fandom, also known as “Furries,” wear fursuits as cosplay outfits to conventions and other furry events. The fursuits themselves are like mascot uniforms that you might see at a sporting event. These costumes include a head, bodysuit, hands, feet, and tail.

Some Furries choose just to wear animal ears or a tail, but we will be walking you through how to make a full fursuit. If you want to wear a partial fursuit with just some of the components, you can make them yourself using this guide as well.

Why You Should Make Your Own Fursuit

One of the main reasons to make your own fursuit is to customize it to your liking. Many Furries dress in their fursuits to connect with their “Fursona” – a specific character with whom they identify and take on. While many people can create this connection with a store-bought fursuit from a retailer, it is much easier to connect with a costume that has been hand made for a specific persona.

While making your own fursuit certainly isn’t inexpensive, the materials are less expensive than buying an entire fursuit online. Fursuits can get as expensive as around $400, and the cheaper ones are about $200.

To make your own fursuit, the materials will cost about $100, and you will need to set aside at least a few hours to put the suit together.

What You Need To Make A Fursuit

There are a ton of different ways to make an affordable fursuit that still looks good. The head of the suit is arguably the hardest part to make on your own, so many people will buy the head, or at least the structure for the head, separately.

This guide will show you how to create the entire head from the base to the final touches.

Once you have the head, all you will need are materials for the rest of the suit and extremities. The necessary materials include some that you will need to buy once and some you will need for each fursuit you make. You can pick up all these materials at most craft stores or online.

One-Time Purchases

There are some tools and supplies that you will need and use for every fursuit you make. Some of these you might even already have at home!

Fursuit supplies that you will only need to buy once are:

Costume pattern: This will be used to create the body of your fursuit. You can use this repeatedly to make all your suits.
Hot glue gun: We recommend getting a low-temperature glue gun so that you don’t melt any of the foam in the suit. This will be used to glue the fur to the head and feet as well as attach any additional pieces of fabric used for detail effects.
Paintbrush: This will be used to paint your furry’s eyes. You will paint directly on mesh fabric so that you can still see out of the head.
Scissors: These are essential to both sculpt the foam of the head and feet as well as to cut out all your fabric.
Sewing machine: While it is possible to create a fursuit without a sewing machine, having one will make creating your suit much easier and quicker. We especially recommend investing in a sewing machine if you plan on making multiple fursuits.

What You Need For Each Fursuit

There are a lot of materials that you will use for every fursuit that you make. If you are making multiple suits, you might be able to save on costs by buying these materials in bulk or when they are on sale.

Materials that you will need to buy for each fursuit include:

Acrylic paint: This will be used for the eyes. Using your paintbrush, you can paint pupils and irises directly on some fabric. You will need black and maybe a few shades of whichever eye color you choose for your eyes.
Balaclava: No, this isn’t a Greek dessert. This fabric headgear will be used for the inside of the head to make it more comfortable to wear. Without it, your head will be directly against the foam base.
Canvas shoes: These will be the base of the feet. You will construct the footpaws around the shoes. You can get any color shoes that you want – just make sure they are canvas and comfortable.
Cardstock paper: This will be used to trace patterns for fabric on the hands and to cut out small details on other parts of the fursuit.
Fleece: This will be used for the inside of the mouth and ears. You will need black, pink for the tongue and the ears, and white for teeth.
Foam: You will need a few types of foam. Some cushion or upholstery foam will be perfect for creating the head’s base or the “bucket.” You will need thicker foam for the facial features. You will also need very thin sheets of foam for the white parts of the eyes.
Fur: You will need about six yards of fur for the bodysuit, head, tail, and paws of your fursuit. Make sure you think through how much of each color you will need if you plan to make a pattern with the fur.
Masking tape: This will be used to figure out the size and shape of fur to cut out for the head. You will cover the entire head with the tape and then draw on the fur patterns to determine where and how much to cut.
Thread: This will be used to sew the bodysuit together. You can get thread that matches your fur colors, but since the fur is so fluffy, you probably won’t be able to see the stitches, so the color won’t matter as much.
Vinyl fabric: This is a great fabric to use for the end of the nose and paw pads. Of course, you could always just use fleece for these parts if you are trying to save on material costs.
Vinyl mesh: This will be used for the eyes since you can see through the material. You will be able to paint the eye details directly on the fabric and then attach it to the head.
Zipper: You will also need a zipper so that you can get in and out of the fursuit easily. Make sure you get one that is long enough for you to be able to step in and out of the suit without stretching or ripping the fabric.

How To Make A Fursuit

Now that you have all your materials ready, you can begin making your first fursuit!

We will start by explaining how to make the head. This is widely known as the hardest part to make on your own, but you will be a pro in no time if you follow these steps! We will then walk you through how to make the body, hands, feet, and tail.

Make The Head Base

Measure the head’s circumference and cut out a piece of foam of that length (add an inch or so to account for the foam’s thickness).

Next, glue the foam together. You should be able to fit this piece over your head so that it covers your face. Close the top by cutting and folding the top pieces and gluing them together.

Note: You might have a hole at the top – you can glue another piece of foam here to cover it up.

At this point, you should have a foam “bucket” that fits on your head. You can cut some foam from the bottom so that it fits by coming down to just below your chin.

You can now cut two circles in the bucket for your eyes, one large triangle for the nose, and the mouth.

Add Facial Features

Now that you have the base for the head structure, you can start cutting out pieces for a muzzle, jaw, and cheeks with the much thicker foam.

For the muzzle, the shape will vary based on the animal you are creating. Once you have the pieces in the shape you want, you can glue them on the face of the bucket. You can also use the thick foam to add pieces above the eyes and to create some eyebrows.

Next, you can use the thick foam to cut out ears. Once you have them in the shape you want, you can glue those on as well.

The last step is to cut larger holes for the eyes now that you might have more foam covering up your original bucket holes. You want these to be in the shape you want your furry’s eyes to be in the end.

At this point, the head should be in the exact size and shape that you want it in the end. From here, you will be adding fur and details. Make any last-minute shaping adjustments to your costume’s head now.

Add Fur To The Head

Now you are ready to start decorating and adding fur to the head.

First, you can use the vinyl mesh fabric to make eyes. Cut out a piece of fabric that fits the eye hole, paint pupils and irises using acrylic paint, and add the whites of the eyes using foam. Then you can glue these into the eye holes.

The next step is to cover the head with fur. Use a marker and tape to make a pattern for cutting out the fur. You will need to figure out how to cut the fur pieces so that the fabric fits nicely on the head base and so that the fur goes in the correct direction. After all, you don’t want your fur’s nap to be going in different directions.

The last step for the head is to add some detail. Use fleece to make the inside of the mouth and ears and use vinyl fabric to make the end of the nose. To make your fursuit head more comfortable to wear, glue a balaclava to the inside.

Once you are happy with the fur and details of your costume’s head, you will be finished with the hardest part of building a fursuit!

Make The Body

To make a fursuit body, you will need a sewing pattern. You can find sewing patterns at any craft store or even on Amazon. Just be sure to find a costume pattern that includes a jumpsuit. You will just need the base or jumpsuit part of the pattern. If you are only using one type of fur for your fursuit body, you can begin cutting out and assembling the fur from here.

If you want to include markings or different fur types in your fursuit, you will need to carefully plan out which pieces will be cut out with which fur type. We have included a “tips” section toward the end of this article that includes a couple of other ways to plan out your fursuit’s body.

Once you are satisfied with your fursuit plan, you can begin cutting out the fur with your sewing pattern. Use your sewing machine (or sew by hand) to put the fursuit together. Don’t forget to add a zipper to the front or back of the suit!

Make The Tail

The simplest way to make a fursuit tail is to cut a long piece of fur, sew it all together, and then sew it directly to the fursuit. If you want the tail to have a little more bounce and life to it, you can add some wire to the inside of the fabric.

Another tail attachment option is to secure it to a belt that you wear underneath the bodysuit. You will need to cut a hole in the fursuit for the tail to feed through for this method. This method is best if your tail has a wire to give it shape, making it heavier.

Make Paw Pads

You will start making the paw pads by tracing and cutting out a paw pad pattern. There are a few methods for creating the paw pattern, but we will walk you through the simplest method. You will make your pattern by tracing your hand on cardstock paper with your fingers spread wide and leaving some border room since the paws will be much larger than your hands.

Cut out the pattern you just made and use it to cut the fur for your paws. Use the pattern twice for each hand. Make sure to flip the pattern for two of the four pieces to align the pieces of fabric.

Next, you can apply the paw pads to the palm and fingertips.

Lastly, you will sew the paws together with the fur side in, then flip them out. This keeps the seams on the inside of the costume. Make any adjustments to finalize your paws, and then you are done!

Make Footpaws

Use a pair of canvas shoes as the base of your footpaws. We recommend canvas shoes rather than any other material because hot glue will stick to it very well. Start by gluing foam all around the shoes. You can either glue a large piece of foam and then cut out the toes or glue a small piece of foam and attach toe pieces after.

Continue gluing foam all around and on top of the shoes until you have the foot shape that you want. At this point, you are ready to start attaching fur to the feet. This process is like what we did to create the head. Make sure to measure out the fabric you will need and then glue it on to the feet.

Tips For Improving Your Fursuits

Now that you know the basics of creating a fursuit, we have some tips that will help you become better at making them and cut down on costs. Some of our tips are for the preparation of making your fursuit, while others relate to crafting methods.

Before You Make A Fursuit

To make a fursuit that is as lifelike as possible, you will need to do a good amount of research. We have walked you through how to make a suit, but not the specifics of what shape the head or body should be or any colors or patterns.

Take your time to research both the animal you are creating and other fursuits to see how you can make yours exactly how you like.

We also suggest that you use coupons when shopping for your materials. If you have plans for making multiple fursuits, then you can scour your craft store’s weekly ads and coupons to stock up on supplies when you can get a good deal. We especially recommend this when you find a fur fabric sale, as this is the most expensive material of the suit. This will save you a lot of money in the long term.

During Fursuit Construction

We recommend making a test pattern for the body of the suit. You can do this by using the original sewing pattern to build the body using inexpensive fabric. Without having to worry about the cost of the materials, you can experiment with the sizes and shapes of the different suit components to develop a pattern that fits you perfectly.

Another way to make a bodysuit pattern that fits you perfectly is to make a “Duct Tape Dummy.” To do this, wear a long-sleeved shirt and pants, then cover the outfit with duct tape. Once you are completely covered, you can cut the tape and clothes off. This will leave you with pieces that you can use as a sewing pattern for a suit that will fit you perfectly.

There are also a lot of forums and resources online for learning how to make a fursuit. We have gathered the basics in this article, but you can easily find alternative methods for creating parts of the fursuit that might be more advanced but look better in the end. Some examples include making the eyes look more lifelike or using a different pattern for making paws.

Methods For Partially Building Your Own Fursuit

Like we have mentioned, making the fursuit head can be difficult, and your first attempt might not look exactly how you envisioned it. Many people like to purchase the fursuit head separately and make the rest of the costume themselves. There are a lot of artists online who will make custom fursuit heads. These will be expensive but might be worth it if you are worried about how your head will turn out.

By buying the head separately and making everything else, you strike a good balance between making the costume yourself and having it look good if you are not confident in your crafting skills. Some people also buy the hands, feet, and tail separately too. If you do this, you can either make the bodysuit yourself or even just wear normal clothes with the rest of the body parts to wear a partial fursuit.

There are so many ways to acquire and wear fursuits. This helps people find an option that looks good and fits their budget.

Fabric Types

As we mentioned above, the fur fabric is the most expensive material you will need for your fursuit. Typically, fur can cost anywhere from $25 to $55 per yard, and you will need about six yards if you are making an entire suit. You can find fur fabric at most craft stores or even on Amazon.

By ordering materials online, you can often find fabric for a good price. However, one of the benefits of buying fur in person is that you can feel it and see how it would look on your fursuit. This is also where coupons can come in to help reduce the cost of your materials. If you can find a good coupon for fur fabric, you can reduce your total materials cost by a lot.

Don’t forget to get fur fabric in different colors, too, if you want your fursuit to have different patterns or features with other colors.

Tips For Wearing Your Fursuit

Now that you have made your very own fursuit, we have some tips for going out and wearing it! These tips will help you stay safe and keep your fursuit in great condition.

First, be sure that you always have enough food and water with you when you are wearing your fursuit. It is best to have someone with you who can make sure you don’t get overheated and can give you water. You could always also get a wearable water pack to keep water on you.

Since it can get hot in the fursuit, you will want to be sure to clean it after every use. Double-check the fur fabric you are using for the suit and wash it according to the instructions. This will help prevent the suit from smelling like sweat and will also keep the outer fur clean and in good condition.

Wrapping Things Up

There are many resources out there for creating a fursuit, and all that information can get overwhelming. We hope that this guide has been able to help you learn the basics of making your first fursuit. Once you get the hang of making all of the suit’s components, you can get creative with different methods and decoration ideas.

One of the best parts of making your own fursuit is that you can customize it to make it completely your own and reflect the character you want to be.

Our final tip for making your furry costume is to have fun with it! Be creative and try to truly connect with your costume. Now that you have read through our guide, you are ready to make your first fursuit and explore the world of furdom!