Supplies You’ll Need For A Fursuit
If you’ve given our article on the cost of a fursuit a read and realized that you’re not too fond of spending thousands of dollars on having a professional make your fursuit for you, you can always start a little home fursuit project of your own and make the suit yourself. If you are one of these creative people, below we will provide a list of most of the supplies you will need for a fursuit and where you can get the highest quality ones for the most reasonable price.
#1 Foam
Considering that the suit is mostly made of foam, when buying foam for your suit you want to be a lot more generous with how much you buy. The last thing you want is to spend loads of money on foam for your suit, waiting patiently for it to arrive only for it to not be enough foam to even make your suit. As well as this the density of the foam varies depending on what you’re making for example the base of your suit will likely have a lower thickness of foam than the details like the snout. So, we recommend buying a variety of thicknesses of upholstery foam which you can get relatively cheap on eBay.
Small Chunk of a Foam, Not to Scale
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#2 Hot Glue Gun
Unless you’re particularly into arts and crafts, you may not have a hot glue gun lying around your house, but do not fear, we have your back. Most glue guns will do the trick, there may be slight deviation in the quality of the adhesive but for the most part and old glue gun will do. Personally we recommend this one simply because it is accessible and affordable but there are so many others that will do the exact same job
Hot Glue Gun
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#3 Plastic Wrap & Duct Tape
Now in this case, you may already have these lying around your house which is great because you’re going to have to tightly wrap your foam base in this so that when you mark areas of the suit with duct tape, the duct tape has something it can take to. However, if you’re still struggling to find the appropriate plastic wrap, despite any plastic wrap being able to do the job you can look here for some help.
Duct Tape
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#4 Fur
Likely the most important part of the suit, getting the right fur is essential to making your fursuit look great. Firstly, when we say fur, we are referring to faux fur not actual fur as that would be kind of unethical. Secondly when buying fur, we highly recommend buying a sample size of the fur before committing to a full purchase as it is very possible you may end up just wasting your money if the fur isn’t the texture, length or exact colour you wanted. With all this considered, when buying your fur we recommend buying from furmaterials.com as they provide sellers from around the world meaning it is much easier to reliably order sample amounts of fur to test before buying a full amount.
Fur of an Unspecified Animal
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#5 Thread & Needle Kit
Now this one is kind of a cheaper and much slower substitute for those of you who don’t have a sewing machine in your house. If you do have a sewing machine, by all means use that instead, but if you aren’t willing to break the bank more than you already are for this suit and are willing to sacrifice a bit more time making this suit then a thread and needle kit should do the trick. You can get a pretty standard sewing kit off of Amazon for a pretty affordable price. This is what you’re going to use to sew the edges of the fur together when plastering it over the base of the suit.
Not Exactly What The Thread & Needle Kit Will Look Like
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#6 Razor
If you’re unfamiliar with making fursuits, then you may be wondering, why in the world would I need a razor and funnily enough it is to shave your fursuit. More often than not, the fur on the suit may be a bit messy or may not be the length you want it to be, in which case you can use a razor to trim it down until it suits you. Just like with an actual haircut, you can use different blades for different lengths of fur. It doesn’t have to be anything too fancy, so for this, we suggest buying any affordable razor you can find like the ones here.
2 Sad Black & White Razors
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#7 Permanent Marker
Let’s be real, you’ve probably got one of these lying around your house and they’re not exactly hard to come by. This is what is used to mark out areas to cut and to mark out how fur will be laid out onto the fursuit. However, if you’re worried that you’ll buy a marker that isn’t permanent and just simply won’t stick then check this out. It’s super cheap but once again you can probably get this from any local convenience store so don’t worry if you don’t already own one.
Some Colourful Markers, Not Necessarily Permanent Though
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#8 Vinyl Fabric
Unlike the permanent marker, you probably don’t have vinyl fabric lying around your house (or maybe you do, I don’t know who you are). For those unaware, vinyl fabric is a leathery material that is used for the paw pads of the suit, therefore you won’t need a huge amount of it but use your discretion, especially if you are making 4 paws. When shopping for it, I recommend checking out A Rainbow of Stitches as they provide a whole assortment of different vinyl fabrics with all the different colors and textures your heart could possibly desire. These textures include: matte, glitter, clear, cork and my personal favorite, glow in the dark.
Some Red Vinyl Fabric
Image by Etsy
#9 Extendable Razor Blade
This handy tool also doubles as a weapon to defend yourself against potentially several oncoming attackers. If that’s not your style, you can also use it to precisely cut out strips of faux fur that you’ve hopefully marked out to plaster on to your suit. Also known as box cutters or just , these shouldn’t be too expensive as they are literally just an inch long blade so give these a gander if you don’t already have one
Also a Box Cutter I Guess
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#10 Zipper
Now this is a case where any old zipper probably won’t do the trick. This is what’s going to allow you to get in and out of your suit easily, so you want this to be as functional as possible and for that you’re going to need a large toothed zipper. Because fursuits are generally quite thick, the small, dainty zippers that you see on thin hoodies and such simply won’t do the trick, but don’t worry, because you’re in luck. Wouldn’t you know it, Zipper Station provides a whole catalog of different types and colors of zippers for a super affordable price so that you can zip whatever you want open or shut.
Zipper, But You May Need a Bigger One
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#11 Comb
Just like your hair, the hair (or fur rather) of a fursuit needs to be combed as well and what better purpose does a comb serve than combing things. When you initially apply the fur on to your suit or if you’ve worn the suit out for a while, the hair can often get quite scraggly which you may like, but more often than not you want you suit to look slick from head to toe. Yes, we know there’s a million different types of combs for combing different types of hair but the difference is marginal, so, any old comb will do but give these a look if you don’t already own one.
A Big Comb
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#13 Soft Measuring Tape
Emphasis on the word soft here. A hard extendable measuring tape is great and all but isn’t super useful when trying to measure round surfaces, like your head. If you want your suit to be nicely fitted then you’re going to need some fairly accurate measurements for it and the easiest way to do that is through measurements taken with a soft measuring tape that you can wrap around surfaces. We also recommend getting one with a bit of extra length as there’s no such thing as excess measurement. Here’s a 60 inch one which should do the trick unless you intend on measuring something greater than 60 inches.
Measuring Tape Around an Apple
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#14 Long Pins & Safety Pins
This one is a bit more optional as it’s more to make your life a bit easier and possibly preserve the suit for a bit longer but if you don’t want it, it’s not the end of the world. These pins can essentially be put on the seams to hold the seams together to assist when sewing it so that you don’t have to pain-stakingly hold it together and scream in frustration everytime you mess up. You can buy these in bulk for a pretty reasonable price here
Some Safety Pins & Clips
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#15 Seam Ripper
Once again, this is not a necessity as this is used specifically for when you are shaping the body of the suit and there are different methods of going about shaping the suit. However, if you’ve gone about it by stitching together thin pieces of fabric that represent where different patterns are going to go and resemble how the suit will fit you, then chances are you will need a seam ripper to remove those stitches. In that case check this out.
This should cover just about everything, but of course this is subject to change whether it be addition or subtraction depending on how experienced you are or what parts of the suit you want to make.
